Welcome

Seattle leads the nation in innovative solutions to environmental challenges. This site is a place you can learn more about our office and its work, as well as explore what's happening throughout City government and how you can get involved. Our office partners with departments across City government and in the community to champion smart, innovative programs and policies to tackle our environmental challenges.

NEW: Seattle's Citywide Environmental Progress Report- released April 22, 2014. See how we're doing in meeting our environmental goals and priorities!

EXPLORE THE CITY'S WORK IN THESE AREAS:

Climate Change

Charting the path to
Carbon Neutral by 2050.

Food

Access to healthy, affordable food
is vital to an equitable and
sustainable community.

Buildings & Energy

Promoting high performance buildings, conserving energy, and increasing access to clean energy sources.

Waste

Seattle is a national leader
and has set aggressive goals
for the future.

Trees & Open Space

Trees and open spaces are integral to healthy urban environments.

Transportation
& Land Use

Policies to create vibrant, safe,
transit-oriented communities and reduce climate emissions.

Water

Ensuring clean, plentiful water for people and habitats.

The Office of Sustainability and Environment delivers cutting-edge policies and effective programs to address Seattle's environmental challenges while creating vibrant communities and building shared prosperity. Visit the Key Initiatives page to see a list of all the program focus areas for our office.

More examples for each area below can be found in our 2013 Accomplishments Report.

BREAK NEW GROUND

We develop and test forward-looking approaches. For example, following three years of focused effort by OSE, Seattle is poised to be one of the first cities in the United States to develop a district energy system that uses waste heat from sewer lines and data centers to heat buildings.

CREATE MEASURABLE IMPACT

We deliver measurable results that advance the City's environmental goals. For example, OSE worked with its partners to launch the second year of Fresh Bucks, a program that doubles the purchasing power of low-income residents at Seattle farmers markets. In its second year, Fresh Bucks helped more than 2,500 low-income residents buy healthy produce at Seattle farmers markets.

CHART A PATH FORWARD

We create bold and strategic action plans for achieving Seattle's environmental goals. OSE worked closely with Seattle Public Utilities to develop and adopt Seattle's first community-wide implementation goal for green stormwater infrastructure: managing 700 million gallons of stormwater runoff annually with green infrastructure by the year 2025.

Comparison of the 2012 Seattle Energy Code with ASHRAE 90.1-2010

A strong energy code is one of Seattle's key tools for achieving significant reductions in energy use in the building sector and reaching the city's ambitious goal of carbon neutrality. This report, released June 30, 2014, shows that Seattle's buildings are, in aggregate, at least 11.3% more energy efficient than buildings constructed to the ASHRAE standard used by the US Green Building Council's LEED rating system.

Community Climate Projects Funding Opportunity

The Office of Sustainability & Environment wants to support grassroots organizations that engage the community in climate action. Large project (up to $10,000) proposals were due April 22 but small project (up to $500) applications are accepted year-round. Visit the Climate Projects page for more information and applications.

Energy Benchmarking 2011-12 Report

A new report and infographic released January 8th by the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment on building energy use reveals that Seattle building owners are poised to save tens of millions of dollars on energy annually by improving their building's energy efficiency.  Read the blog post about the report's release.

Resource Conservation Management Plan

The Resource Conservation Management Plan will guide the City's goal to achieve 20% energy savings in its facilities by 2020.

OSE 2013 Accomplishments Report

The 2013 year-end accomplishements report includes our work addressing Seattle's environmental challenges as well as what's on our workplan for 2014.