What We Do
Working at the intersection of racial equity and the environment, Seattle is advancing our understanding of who is and is not benefiting from Seattle's environmental progress. We are focusing on lifting up community-based solutions and creating opportunities for communities of color, immigrants, refugees, people with low-incomes and limited-English proficiency individuals to be leaders in Seattle's environmental movement.
Building on the work that was started through Seattle's Equity and Environmenta Initiative in 2015, Seattle's Green New Deal strives to center its work using the following Environmental Justice Guiding Priciples established by the Equity and Environment Agenda.
- Community Driven Strategies: We believe in community self-determination, influence, and leadership. We know that communities are resilient and resourceful, and that tapping into their own collective cultural cornerstones of environmental sustainability is key to ownership of initiatives and other efforts, as well as reducing invisibility.
- The Influence and Decision-Making of Those Most Affected: We believe that communities who are deeply affected by environmental issues should be highly involved throughout decision-making processes in meaningful and culturally appropriate ways.
- Strong Accountability: We believe that affected communities deserve strong, accountable, transparent, accessible, and culturally appropriate solutions that include ongoing oversight of government and other entities to address the negative impacts they have experiences.
- Solutions That Recognize Complexity and Interdependence: We believe in doing no harm, here or anywhere. We recognize that all places and people are interconnected, and commit to an approach of collective liberation, which recognizes that the liberation of each person is the liberation of all people.
Established in 2019, the Green New Deal Oversight Board is currently working on:
- Establishing a definition of what constitutes a policy, program or project that advances a Green New Deal for Seattle;
- Providing proposals for the design of new policies, programs and projects and for modifications to existing policies, programs and projects to the Mayor, City Council, and City departments to advance a Green New Deal for Seattle;
- Supporting the planning and implementation of individual City Departmental actions, policies, programs, and practices, to make Seattle climate-pollution free by 2030;
- Providing recommendations on City budget priorities and priority City actions; and
- Coordinating efforts with City departments and existing committees, boards, and commissions.