Sustainable Seattle has a long history of community development through participatory action research and grassroots activism. Deeply seeded in our program is the belief that people inherently know what changes need to be made and how to bring about those changes for a sustainable community.  Sustainable Seattle provides facilitation, resources and education so that people can come together,  join forces and make informed decisions that have a lasting and far reaching impact for the good of all.

Sustainable Seattle's Seven Es of community development are:

1. Ensure diverse interests and cultures are included.
2. Engage community members in active participation.
3. Enhance leadership capacity in the community.
   
4. Expand action and strategies by and for the community.
   
5. Educate in sustainability issues and indicators.
6. Enact a process so decision makers are informed today and in the future.
   
7. Empower actions through asset & resource identification and implementation steps so the community can take ownership for goals, actions and indicators for sustainability.

Our work in community development include our first three sets of Sustainability Indicators for our region and our forth iteration of indicators that includes goals, data, actions and linkages between all on a web-based format, B-Sustainable.org. These indicators were created to measure progress, to inform policy makers, and to spur lasting action by community members. In the Central Puget Sound, those involved in the indicators projects have had lasting impact and include policy makers, business executives, international consultants, and leaders in the not-for profit world.

Current Projects

In our Neighborhood Sustainabilty Indicators Project we work with neighborhood leaders to develop sustainability indicators and data collection for projects, organizations and neighborhood leaders so they can measure progress, and achieve greater cohesion. We plan to work with the community members individually, in workshops of 3-5 and in seminars for all involved in the project to develop the indicators and data collection. This process aims to build community and cohesion so neighbors will get to know each other on a deeper level and to know how their projects fit in the landscape of efforts for a stronger and healthier or more sustainable neighborhood.  Our intention is for this project to support a second project next year with the neighborhood to build a sustainability scorecard that will measure progress for the entire neighborhood and that reflects the work of each organization, project and neighbor.

Leaders in the Central District, please click here to find more information about our current project or email corey@sustainableseattle.org or amy@sustainableseattle.org. 

Past Projects

Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods Initiative.
The Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods Initiative (SUNI) worked with local communities and city government from 2004 to 2006 to build understanding about neighborhood concerns and strengths, collect data on neighborhood health (both assets and deficits) and promote actions to improve Seattle neighborhoods. You can learn more about the SUNI project here.