New Directions

I've had my head down and have been working my way towards a new direction. I'm working on a new campaign at Sustainable Seattle that will anchor our different programs and initiatives and it is rewarding, mentally intensive work. It is a campaign that is coloring our mission in my opinion. I think the new direction is evident in our everyday work and attitude and we just have not expressed it.

The campaign is going to be focused on lowering one's environmental impact through different practices, education and actions while encouraging people to take advantage of the things around them that make life in this region so exciting and wonderful, nature and people.

Sustainable Seattle is involved in a wide scale of projects, actions and events and the sheer volume and width of our involvement makes me proud to be associated with this organization. We've taught people new ways of thinking, behaving and appreciating. We've been part of events that brought a new sense of purpose to lives and we've done it all with an underlying goal to bring about sustainability to the Puget Sound region within our lifetimes. We want the idea of minimizing negative impact to be so much a part of our day to day thinking that it becomes routine.

Scroll down through our blog entries for examples of some of the actions we've been doing and feel free to get involved with us in the numerous ways we need assistance. Thanks for reading and see you soon.

University of Washington group to address topic of income inequality

At the University of Washington, 5 master's students of Public Health and Urban Planning realize that a major upstream indicator that has much impact on our health and our communities is that of Income Equity. Income Equity is one of the 16 community-identified sustainability goals on B-Sustainable. The goal is: To increase income equity by ensuring the fair and impartial distribution of income and access to economic resources regardless of economic or social status. However, recent trends in income distribution, living wage and housing affordability indicate that income equity in King County is GETTING WORSE- meaning that the gap between the wealthiest and the poor is getting wider. This has many implications for everyone.

The group will be doing some more in-depth research based off of the Communities Count report (next one coming in December) and then organizing action. Keep checking back to find out what the group is doing.

Additional Sources:
Economic Opportunity Institute
Extreme Inequality
Inequality
Economic Policy Institute
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Washington Tax Fairness Coalition
King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative
Population Health Forum
United for a Fair Economy
Responsible Wealth
Presentation by Linn Gould, about income inequity and sustainability
University of Texas Inequality Project, with many studies and data about income inequity
Article in NY Times that includes King County as one of the counties with the biggest income gap
Take Back Your Time

'Celebrate Local' this holiday season

Tell us what you are doing to Celebrate Local!
Report your action today on the pledge form- it will take less than 3 minutes, and you will be eligible for rewards, like a Chinook book, a Celebrate Local book, tickets to local cultural events and more. Help us reach a goal of 300 reported actions!

Get tips from our campaign partners- and see comments added to the blog in these categories:
Celebrate our Community: Healthy People and Communities
Celebrate our Local Economy: Think Local First
Celebrate our Local Environment: Green Your Holidays

Across the country, the holidays have come to be a time of extreme excess and contribute to unsustainable practices that are not healthy for our bodies, our bank accounts, our communities or the environment. Here in King County, for example, we throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. This year, re-think your holidays. Let's Celebrate Local...

Celebrate Local is a community initiative supported by Seattle BALLE, Cascade Harvest Coalition, Celebrate Green, Chinook Book/ecometro.com, Community Alliance for Global Justice, Communities Count, King County EcoConsumer, King County Waste Free Holidays, Puget Sound Community Change Card/The Interra Project, Seattle Free School, SoCoCulture, Puget Sound Fresh, SCALLOPS, Seattle Greendrinks, TeachStreet, and Treeswing. The 2008 Celebrate Local initiative begins NOW (November 2008) and continues through February 2, 2009 tying together the many holidays and special events that occur at this time of year.

City Club Partnership

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Sustainable Seattle has partnered with City Club and Communities Count to promote community action towards our B-Sustainable program goal of Participatory Decision-Making and Civic Engagement.

Our Action Agenda Coordinator worked with City club to compile existing information about our civic engagement- from involvement in community organizations and voting and volunteering rates to participation on arts and culture. Now, City Club is using that information to promote action.

Opening with United Way’s Day of Caring on September 12th and ending on Election Day on November 4th CityClub’s Community Matters Campaign will focus on building our social capital and moving citizens from talk to action, because community matters.

Visit www.seattlecityclub.org to join the campaign and help increase our community level of civic engagement. Sustainable Seattle is hosting a dialogue for the tenants of the Vance Building! Thursday, October 23 from 11:30am - 1:00pm.

Program elements will include:

• Education - In-depth, non-partisan information and opinion offered by experts, community leaders and policymakers. Presented as 7 live public forums and candidate debates on health care, environmental stewardship, public education and imminent elections and ballot initiatives. Each session will be presented to a live public audience. It will also be broadcast multiple times on cable television (Seattle Channel and TVW) and available for streaming and as podcasts.


• Community Dialogue – New this year, CityClub will host up to 50 facilitated community conversations asking citizens to weigh in on the ways they are currently engaged in the community and the barriers and opportunities they see to strengthening that engagement. Participants will also be asked what elected and civic leaders can do to support deeper citizen engagement.


• Action – All Community Matters Campaign participants will be charged to take action to deepen their civic engagement. A web-based “civic action toolbox” will be available as a resource and all dialogue and forum participants will be asked to sign individual pledge cards listing specific investments they intend to make. CityClub will record these civic commitments and mail back copies of the pledge cards to remind participants of their commitments. Additionally, dialogue and online participants will identify strategies we should take to strengthen our social capital. At the end of the Campaign, micro-grants will be awarded to community organizations addressing these identified needs.


• Community Report – The Community Matters Campaign will conclude with a report to the community—policymakers, press, and the public—summarizing what we learn from participating individuals and organizations over the program’s duration.