City of Seattle

At a Glance

Industry

Government/Public Administration

Project Types

Climate Justice/Energy Equity, Engagement and Behavior Change

Year

2022

Location

Seattle, WA

Summary

Gaby Seltzer designed a public-facing Climate Portal with emissions, race, and social equity data at the City of Seattle.

Goals

The City of Seattle’s greenhouse gas inventory tracks emissions biennially but does not provide frequent nor granular enough data to inform equitable policy decisions. As part of Seattle’s Green New Deal, community organizations and City teams identified a need for quarterly-updated, neighborhood-specific data that could monitor climate progress and highlight investment gaps. Gaby Seltzer helped design a public-facing, map-based portal to connect emissions indicators with social equity indicators.

Solutions

Gaby approached the project using 3 phases:

  • Recommended a platform and outline for the portal by conducting research, analyzing datasets, and developing specs. Gaby identified ESRI’s Experience Builder as the most appropriate platform and structured the portal with context, limitations, and 4 dashboards.

  • Developed portal content including charts, maps, and language. Gaby synthesized data from 5 sources into visualizations and drafted accompanying narratives. They created mockups, presented to stakeholders, and incorporated feedback to ensure alignment.

  • Laid the foundation for the portal’s next phase of development by building a scope and budget, creating a template for metric audits, and initiating stakeholder conversations. They recommended adding investment tracking, climate stories, and hyper-local community data to the portal.

Potential Impact

The Climate Portal will be used to advocate for scaling climate investments while prioritizing frontline communities. It demonstrates a model for transparency and community guidance that could be utilized across future projects. The portal will provide the City of Seattle with greater visibility as a climate justice leader and will align the city with partners who have compatible interests.

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