This 5-Year Report: "Building a Better City" report documents how Seattle grew to have one of the strongest green building markets in the nation. 

Appendices
The appendices to the 5-Year Report are contained in a separate document.  

 

Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan
In the fall of 1997, the Urban Consortium Energy Task Force (UCETF) provided a $74,000 grant to the City of Seattle to develop a Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan (the “Plan”). Soon after, the city invited several public and private sector partners to join in guiding development of the Plan. Seattle and the partners invited approximately 200 staff-level architects, engineers, developers, contractors, planners, and consultants to participate in a series of four workshops over six months in 1998. The list of participants eventually grew to 180 as word of the Plan spread. The workshops looked at:

  • barriers to sustainable building in the Pacific Northwest;
  • solutions to the barriers;
  • specific strategies for each solution; and
  • implementation workplans for each strategy.

In addition to the staff-level work group, a senior-level “Sustainable Building Blue Ribbon Task Force” was formed, chaired by Seattle City Council Member Richard Conlin. Twenty-three elected officials, industry executives, and public officials participated on the task force.

The final result was Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan: Strategies to Mainstream Sustainable Design and Construction Practices in the Pacific Northwest, published in March of 1999. The Action Plan is intended to serve as a road map for the region--to identify the most critical and practical steps needed to make sustainable building the standard practice in the Pacific Northwest.