Healthy Environment Initiative
The Healthy Environment Initiative is Seattle Parks and Recreation's commitment to mitigating climate change impacts, stewarding and protecting our urban forests and natural spaces, promoting environmental responsibility and environmental justice, and building resilient infrastructure.
Read our Healthy Environment posts on the Parkways Blog
SPR's Strategic Plan describes a Healthy Environment as:
- A thriving ecosystem where everyone has equitable use of, and responsibility for, public spaces
- A healthy urban forest that cleans the air and soil and serves as a natural sanctuary for people and wildlife
- Green infrastructure that builds resiliency by adapting to shifting weather patterns and sea level rise
- Community programming that instills knowledge about our ecosystem and connects residents to their natural environment
- Community stewards who care for the parks and recreation system and help SPR protect it for future generations utilizing best environmental practices
- A healthy ocean and marine environment that contributes to the health of the Seattle and Pacific Northwest ecosystem
Read about our 10 strategies to achieve a Healthy Environment in the 2020-2032 Strategic Plan.
Measuring Our Progress
Each year SPR publishes a report that summarizes some of the impact we had on creating a healthy environment, both qualitative and quantitative. 2020 was an exceptional year, given the COVID-19 pandemic, cuts in budgets and programming, and a shift in SPR's work to support our community. Yet we continued to support a healthy environment and identified new opportunities that arose from this historic year. Some impacts are shown below, or you can view the full 2020 Healthy Environment Impacts Report to read more.
2018 Healthy Environment Impact Report