Seattle, affectionately known as the “Emerald City” for its lush, green forests that offer year-round beauty to the city and surrounding areas, is green in more ways than one. The city is dedicated to prioritizing sustainability with clear goals that push builders, residents, and leaders to consistently innovate as they aim to build a better future with a greener present. With goals to reduce energy use in residences by 20 percent by 2030, increase solar capacity, and acquire electricity from renewable resources, like wind and solar power, Seattle is at the forefront when it comes to sustainability within urban spaces. Amazingly, over 90 percent of Seattle’s electricity is from hydropower.

The official Seattle website is a treasure trove of sustainable resources and provides visitors with tools to track your household’s energy usage, rundowns on local environmental programs that inform business owners on how they can operate in a greener way, and where and how you can utilize renewable energy sources. Additionally, for Seattle’s growing list of builders who are aiming to build a better future within the vibrant city, there are several green building permit incentives designed to encourage the creation of more clean-energy buildings that meet various green building certifications and receive certain perks. The benefits range from a more streamlined permit review process to the opportunity to build in more areas to the allowance of additional square footage and height.

In the Puget Sound region, residents and visitors alike flock to the stunning landscape offering mountains, forests, and water in every season to experience the remarkable natural beauty offered in the area. It is in part due to this reverence for the state’s bounty of outdoor recreation opportunities that encourages people to take care of the land they enjoy. During a time when many people are attempting to cut down monthly costs to combat current economic factors, many energy-saving techniques also happen to coincide with smaller monthly bills—a win for our pockets, and a win for our earth. More homeowners are installing solar panels, exploring green roofs, and switching to LED light bulbs to make a change starting in their homes with actions that range from day-to-day simple to more long-lasting installations.

The green methods extend to transportation, with options like the Link light rail offering routes throughout the city to reduce the significant emissions from commuters. The SEA Airport has installed hundreds of charging stations for electric vehicles and was the first airport on the continent to be granted certification for cutting down its carbon emissions. City-wide bans on plastic utensils in restaurants and plastic shopping bags also create significantly less waste within the region and encourage people and businesses to reuse and reduce. Recycling is great, but as we all know how much plastic ends up in landfills despite our best efforts to put it in the correct trash bin, reducing our use of it in the first place is our best bet at decreasing its presence.

As so many of us become increasingly aware of how important sustainability is today so that we have a better tomorrow, the technology and innovation surrounding greener living only improves. For more information on how Seattle’s developers are doing their part, reach out to me today to discuss the progress we’ve seen in city building.