NABRS Project

Sustainable Seattle has long been known for our innovative work with indicators. We published three indicator reports throughout the 1990s (find the 1998 report here) and then from 2004 through 2006, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and many other contrbutors, we launched and completed our Sustainable Urban Neighborhood Initiative (SUNI) that worked with local communities and city government to build understanding about Seattle neighborhood concerns and strengths, collect data on Seattle neighborhoods (both assets and deficits), and - most importantly - promote actions to improve Seattle neighborhoods.

We are very excited to announce that our newest initiative in indicators once again involves neighborhood level indicators and actions. Whereas SUNI focused on primarily physical indicators of neighborhood and community health, our new Neighborhood Actions for Building Resilience and Sustainability (NABRS) Project will expand the indicator set to explore more qualitative health and social measures such as those found in the Communities Count indicators. The NABRS Project also aligns with our B-Sustainable website, a relational database of regional indicators and actions, that was developed through an extensive community outreach effort.

In the Spring of 2009, we received a small grant from the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to begin a pilot of the NABRS Project working with two Seattle Neighborhoods focusing on indicators and actions related to climate protection. The two neighborhoods selected for this pilot project are Rainier Beach and North Greenlake/Greenwood.

Phase 1 of the NABRS Pilot Project was launched on April 16th, 2009 when we brought together indicator experts and community members to select a core set of 20 measures from a group of 98 indicators in order to develop a baseline neighborhood scorecard. Examples of these indicators include tree coverage, access to bike facilities, access to local food, and community inclusivity. The scorecard and initial indicators will be completed by July.

In Phase 2 of the NABRS Pilot Project, started in Fall of 2009, the two pilot neighborhoods have the opportunity to act on challenges and/or opportunities identified in their scorecards. To support this, each neighborhood will receive $1,500 to carry out an action project that will improve the neighborhoods resilience and sustainability related to, per the parameters of this particular grant, climate protection.

Update 5/5/09.
To request a copy of the 'Neighborhood Indicator Selection Recap', please send an email to info(at)sustainableseattle.org with "NABRS Project" in the subject line.

Update 11/11/09.
To view more information on the NABRS project, view the neighborhood Sustainability Scorecards, and learn about the neighborhood action projects, visit here.