Seattle and Sustainability

My fiance aspires to work as a concept designer for a video game company, so he gave me the following choice of where we will move after I graduate: Los Angeles or Seattle.

I have been to Los Angeles.

I chose Seattle.

Though I haven't yet had the chance to see Seattle, I have been hearing good things about it, including its reputation as being a green city. After reading in Roseland today (which, by the way, has to be the most interesting and most digestible book I have this semester), I was curious to find out what Seattle's city government does that makes it stand out among other cities and if those methods could be replicated in other cities.

To start my search I entered "the most sustainable cities in the U.S." into Google. The first site that came up names Seattle as the most sustainable city with Portland and San Francisco as runners-up. The second site puts Portland and San Francisco in the top two, but Seattle gets moved to 8th place. Based on the big difference, I checked a third which also places Portland and San Francisco in the top one and two, but gives Seattle 3rd place. (Another interesting research topic would be to compare grading criteria for sustainability assessments.) Even if Seattle's ranking jumps around a bit, I think it is pretty safe to conclude that it is, in fact, considered to be one of the greenest big cities in the United States.

So then I was on to www.seattle.gov to see what the government is doing to achieve this kind of status. The first thing that jumped out at me was that 90% of Seattle electricity comes from publicly-owned, renewable sources (mostly hydro sources). I know that 85% of the country's energy still comes from fossil fuels, so I am rather impressed by this number. Here are some other things the government is doing to make Seattle more sustainable:

• The Department of Planning and Development has a Green Building Team to promote a reduction in water and energy usage.
• Natural drainage systems manage stormwater.
• Projects are creating a more pedestrian-, bike- and public transportation-friendly city.
• Days are selected to close certain street to cars and make them open to bikes and pedestrians.
• Charging stations make electric vehicles a feasible option.
• City ordinance bans recyclable materials from garbage containers and recycling pick-up is a free service.
• Tree education programs and tree give-aways are among the strategies used to meet the city's goal of 30% tree cover.
• Cash incentives are given to commercial, institutional, and industrial entities who replace their water systems with efficient ones.
• Plenty of educational materials and information are available to the public.

I am very impressed with Seattle's initiatives. Its Office of Sustainability and Environment outlines many plans they have put into place with solid goals. I am also impressed with how easy it is to navigate their site and find information even for little things like where you can buy compostable bags. I believe many of the large cities could model programs after Seattle's to increase their sustainability. I am, however, struck by something even the government of Seattle admits: their programs have easily taken root and have been successful thanks to the mindset of the already eco-conscious citizens. So I wonder how the citizens of Seattle came to think that way in the first place. (It may have something to do with being the city with the highest percentage of college-educated residents in the country.) It could be that some of these programs would need to be implemented with a heavy dose of social marketing in other cities. Let's hope other city governments see the value in striving to be sustainable, because big changes are possible.