Sustainable In Washington

The citizens of Washington State are often known for their progressive beliefs and willingness to enact change.  As people who embrace change, Washington is the perfect location for building green sustainable communities that will not only enhance the quality of life for the citizens of those communities but also lessen the impact to the environment through the highest standards in green living.  Within Washington State today, there are many communities working on their sustainability.

Before considering those communities and observing the efforts they are undertaking to maximize green initiatives, it is important to understand what it means to create a sustainable community.  It is not enough to build a series of structures that meet LEED construction standards and are thus considered green.  A sustainable community must be a thriving center of activity that is well connected and well serves all of its occupants.  This is achieved by attitudes of action and inclusiveness as well as thoughtful decisions made at every juncture to ensure that the community is being run in as green a manner as possible.

Efforts to build sustainable communities in Washington are not new, however.  Sustainable Seattle, a non-profit organization, was founded in 1991 to positively impact quality of life for all citizens of the Seattle region for the long term.  Sustainable Seattle has a three pronged mission: awareness, assessment and action.  The vision of Sustainable Seattle is to create interconnected communities in the Puget Sound region where all citizens work together to improve the world around them by positively impacting the environment and the economy.  Goals that have been set by Sustainable Seattle include undertaking careful research to build proper indicators and using those indicators to educate citizens and leaders on what can be done in a variety of areas, including the use of space, the design of urban areas, as well as the overall impact on food and waste.

In Olympia, Washington, the Sustainable Community Roundtable also began working in 1991 to help that area achieve sustainability.  Working with a very small budget provided by both Olympia and neighboring communities, as well as hard won grant money, the Sustainable Community Roundtable seeks to promote discussions among citizens about how sustainability can be achieved and how best to take steps towards that goal.  This group is looking not only at homes and other structures, but also at the impact of sustainability on the health of its citizens as well as the overall impact on the economy in the region.

Developing green sustainable communities is not an overnight task.  As more communities in the state of Washington look for ways to become sustainable and to find ways to minimize all impacts on the environment for the betterment of future generations, much hard work must be accomplished.  Through the commitment of open minded and forward thinking citizens as well as supportive government entities, great changes can be made to foster thriving communities that will be able to sustain themselves in an environmentally friendly fashion in the future.

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