Founded in 1991, Sustainable Seattle is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in the Central Puget Sound. We create cutting-edge products and processes to reach sustainability locally and globally. Our purpose is to build a sustainable future. We create healthy communities, economies, and ecosystems by serving as an incubator for ideas a convener for people, and a catalyst for action.

Vision
We see an interconnected group of healthy, compact, livable urban centers across the Central Puget Sound region, where people work and play together to restore and improve the vitality of communities, the economy, and the ecosystem.

Mission
Sustainable Seattle advances an integrated vision of urban sustainability by measuring progress, building diverse coalitions, and undertaking key initiatives.

Definition of Sustainability
Sustainable Seattle subscribes to the United Nations Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainability: "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". In practice, we seek to balance concerns for social equity, ecological health, and economic vitality to create a livable community today while ensuring a healthy and fulfilling legacy for our children's children. Our flavor of sustainability comes directly from the people of the Central Puget Sound and is neatly summed up by the sustainability indicators, goals, data, and actions that are a product of participatory action research fundamental to Sustainable Seattle. You can see our fourth iteration of sustainability indicators for our region by clicking here.

Core Competencies
Sustainable Seattle's core competencies are participatory action research and regional sustainability indicator development. Through this research process, we bring together community members from all walks of life to define what sustainability means for our region and for our neighborhoods. Click here to view our Core Values.

Impact
In the 1990s Sustainable Seattle was at the forefront of defining sustainability with its groundbreaking work on urban and regional indicators and systems thinking. With a clear vision of what kind of information was needed to move the city and region forward towards a more sustainable future, Sustainable Seattle worked to inspire real and actionable change.

Our creativity, energy, and innovative ideas are still referenced today as a formative spark in the sustainability movement. Many cities around the world continue to look to Sustainable Seattle as a resource and inspiration. Sustainable Seattle is acknowledged as a world-leader in sustainability indicators based on citizens’ values and goals for their communities.

In 1996, the Sustainable Seattle Indicators were recognized by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements with an “Excellence in Indicators Best Performance” Award. Sustainable Seattle has also received many other awards over our almost 20 year history. Sustainable Seattle is held to be the first "Sustainable Community" organization. Today, there are over 50 "Sustainable Community" organizations in Washington and hundreds nation wide. Redefining Progress surveyed over 170 sustainability projects around the country and found that more than 90 of them used Sustainable Seattle as a model for their own initiatives. Click here to see references. Click here for  a list of our founders

Walking the Talk
At Sustainable Seattle, we work towards a sustainable future while being mindful of the present. Since 2009, we've begun to develop indicators to demonstrate transparency and accountability in our office and through our operations. To view our draft outline, please click here. We welcome your comments and feedback at info@sustainableseattle.org.

In celebration of our 15th year anniversary, we issued our first Sustainability Report. Download Sustainable Seattle's 2006 Sustainability Report (Part 1 - Part 2).