Sustainable Seattle’s Story

Sustainable Seattle was founded in 1991 by a dedicated group seeking to make sustainability work community-owned. Our UN award-winning Indicators for a Sustainable Community is emulated as a model of assessment by over 90 cities.

Founded in 1991

1993

Introducing Indicators

S2 publishes the first Indicators of A Sustainable Community, representing 250 local voices and defining 40 environmental, social, and economic indicators providing measurements of the city’s progress towards sustainability. This and subsequent reports produced by S2 were emulated worldwide and garnered multiple awards, including from the United Nations.

1992

Centering Knowledge in Community

S2 convenes a Civic Panel and hosts community participatory research sessions and workshops. The sessions predated both Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment (est 2000) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (est 2013). S2 laid a framework for local communities to take part in ensuring the integrity of our planet, starting with what’s happening in our immediate surroundings,…Read More

1990

It all started with…

Community Forum hosted in Seattle by Global Tomorrow Coalition spurs a dedicated group of local community members, who created an Indicators Task Team.