The Emerald City: Seattle

I was very impressed with Seattle and its inspiring initiatives on environmental sustainability. I met with leaders and innovators and attended the Go Green Conference on April 24 and walked around the city to internalize the new approaches I've been exposed to.

Here are some practices that I believe are worth sharing..

The "Living Building Challenge" 

This is actually a philosophy, an advocacy platform and a certification program that was established in 2006 by the Living Future Institute and Seattle is a reflection of this movement.
The Living Building Challenge is composed of seven performance areas: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty.

www.ilbi.org

http://living-future.org

The Greenest Commercial Building in the World: Bullitt Center qualifies as a "living building", it owes this to its self-sufficient structure and the rigorous standards it meets for energy, water, green materials and for the quality of its indoor environment.

 

to see the features the building has, check: http://bullittcenter.org

The building has recently opened its doors on April 22 with a grand ceremony, the day before I landed to Seattle. You can visit the building by taking an online appointment. There is a long waiting list..

District 2030 Project

This is a building district area in downtown Seattle that is been selected to dramatically decrease its environmental impact. The efforts range from renovating old/existing building and from constructing new energy-efficient buildings.

The project has committed members: building owners, professional and community owners. 3 main focus areas are: energy use, water use and carbon emissions and they have rigorous targets for existing and new buildings in average to gradually reach 50% by 2030.

They reached 120 buildings in 3 years! They are working on expanding the project to other city and maybe to other countries...

for more info: http://www.2030district.org/seattle/

Lowest energy cost in whole US! has a mixture of sources like biogas, wind, geothermal and hydro; hydro being the main source for electricity (%92).  The renewable energy is supplied by The Green up Program run by seattle City Lights... http://www.seattle.gov/light/green/greenpower/greenuppr.asp

All these resonated very well with the city's nickname being "The Emerald City".. it is green, clean and  beautiful!