Seattle

Overview

Green For All is helping to launch Seattle’s “Community Power Works” initiative, a $140 million neighborhood-based building retrofit program designed to achieve major energy savings and CO₂ reductions while creating thousands of living-wage green jobs.

The Initiative will retrofit thousands of residential, commercial, hospital, and municipal buildings in the Central District and parts of Southeast Seattle. Over three years, it aims to achieve 15% to 45% energy savings per building and to reduce approximately 70,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, In the process, “Community Power Works” will create approximately 2,000 new living wage green jobs. The program is funded with a Better Buildings grant from USDOE and local contributions.

Green For All’s Work

In partnership with Seattle Mayor, Mike McGinn, Green For All designed and lead a stakeholder process to develop high-road standards for Seattle’s residential energy-efficiency projects. The resulting Community High Road Agreement was unanimously adopted by City Council on July 26, 2010. The Agreement will lead to the creation of thousands of high-quality, family-supporting jobs for qualified, historically underrepresented contractors and workers in the clean energy economy. It lays out requirements that direct employment, training and business opportunities to community residents, while imposing quality standards on training programs, working conditions, and contractor performance. Together, these standards will ensure that the City’s program creates high-quality, broadly accessible jobs for area residents, while maximizing the environmental benefits of the program. In addition, the Agreement creates mechanisms for stakeholders to play a central role in the ongoing implementation, evaluation and adjustment of the program, thus ensuring that the program benefits from the diverse expertise in the community, while also strengthening accountability and democracy.

Stakeholders

Many stakeholders were involved in negotiating the Community High Road Agreement, including local utilities, the City of Seattle, the Workforce Investment Board, the Urban League, Puget Sound SAGE, Got Green, Laborers International Union of North America, the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, community-based groups, community colleges, pre-apprenticeship training programs, the Seattle Jobs Initiative, home-performance contractors, auditors, sub-contractors, and building trades labor unions.

More Information

• City of Seattle Press Release on High Road Agreement
• Community High Road Agreement for Seattle's Residential Retrofit Projects (PDF)
• Official resolution adopting the High Road Agreement
• City of Seattle Legislative Information Service (Web)
  
• Download (PDF)
• Read our blog post: Seattle Takes the High Road with Retrofit Program

Communities of Practice

Green For All’s Communities of Practice facilitate innovation and sharing among on-the-ground practitioners throughout the country working on programs and policies to address climate change and create pathways out of poverty through green-collar jobs. Seattle members include Puget Sound SAGE, Got Green, the City of Seattle, the Seattle Jobs Initiative, and Pioneer Human Services.