Seattle Municipal Sustainability Initiative

By 2030, experts estimate that more than 60% of the human population on Earth (nearly five billion people) will live in cities. This highlights the fact that we cannot achieve global sustainability without making our cities significantly more sustainable that they currently are. The Seattle Municipal Sustainability Initiative (SMSI) is a systematic, multi-dimensional, Citywide effort to increase the sustainability of City operations and services, to infuse an ethic of sustainability into the City's workforce and corporate culture, and to accelerate the adoption of more sustainable practices by Seattle area businesses, institutions, households, and residents.

The overarching purpose of the SMSI is to improve the quality of life for all people living and working in Seattle, within the means of nature.

To date, the initiative has resulted in the development of a Citywide Environmental Management System (EMS) modeled after the international standard ISO 14001. In addition, the initiative has brought about fundamental changes in the City's design and construction of major capital projects, our use of pesticides, and our emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases. These changes, in turn, have reduced health and environmental risks for City employees and the community at-large, and significantly influenced the behavior of other governments, institutions, businesses, and residents in and around Seattle. For a list of recent accomplishments, see http://www.seattle.gov/environment/agenda_accomplishments.htm.