Showing posts with label seattle area happiness intiative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seattle area happiness intiative. Show all posts

Mar 22, 2011

Happiness Event Recap and Celebration

Sustainable Seattle is getting a reputation for putting on fantastic events. I say this as a completely unbiased source; Sustainable Seattle events with the aid of collaborators, performers and our dedicated donors truly are unique and wonderful outings that inspire, educate and entertain.

The Good Sheppard Center as a venue is beautiful. Our event corresponded with sunset and the stain glass windows colored our faces with reds, blues and yellows as Alan AtKisson took to the stage to perform a few of his witty and insightful songs and deliver a informative speech about the history of Sustainable Seattle. He spoke about the first meetings, the intents and the decisions that the group of founders made back in 1991 with a few winks and rib pokes to his fellow founders as they listened, shouted out anecdotes and laughed and laughed.

The night was a collection of talks, songs, music, potent potables, documentaries and socialization. The night started with a powerful performance by local band "Now We Are Six," a group that reminds one of "Muse," "Spoon," and an early "U2." We all crammed into the space which was not sufficient for the amount of revelers that arrived and we sampled food, booze and mingled with the founders raising a ruckus that lifted our hearts.

We showed a film documentary from the early nineties where the founders were featured talking about the launching of Sustainable Seattle. The crowd laughed, jeered and cheered when their younger versions of themselves spoke to the camera about their vision of the future. Many people shouted out at the screen yelling advice like "Get a haircut!" or "Shave!" The film brought back memories and challenged us as many of the issues and problems that the younger versions of the founders brought forth still are problems that we have yet to be solved.

We exceeded our fund-raising goals even when you include the ten percent offering that we are turning over to the Red cross for Japanese Tsunami relief. We would never had made our goals if not for the generosity of every single donor that reached deep into their own pockets and gave to an organization that is creating and maintaining innovated programs, projects and communication that will lead us to be more happier, more sustainable and more content.

Thank you for anyone who gave and thank you for any who attended, spread the word either word of mouth or social media. We really appreciate it and we will use your time and trust to bring about our mission "to be a resource and catalyst for positive change," by continuing to tie all of our work to our Happiness Initiative work.

Our programs and projects are based in and supportive of our indicator work. Our Happiness Initiative propagates and permeates all of our work. We are focused on the results and we have re-crafted and retrofitted all of our existing programs to be aligned with the Happiness Initiative. We are measuring our success and our work by the nine domains of happiness and targeting those domains in which the greater Seattle area scored low upon. We have even created a new program that focuses on individual actions and lifestyle changes called The Flow Campaign.

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all our partners and collaborators including: Taylor Shellfish, Honest Tea, Dry Soda, Yes! Magazine, Essential Baking, Ideal Network, EOS Alliance, Now We Are Six and many more. THANK YOU!

Mar 18, 2011

The Flow Campaign 3/20-3/27 Issue 2



The new issue of the Flow Campaign is live. Please click on the image to be redirected. We are working on some technical solutions to streamline this process. In the meantime we still want you to have access to the individual actions and events coming up this week in order to strengthen your nine domains of happiness. Sign up for the weekly newsletter.

Also stay tuned for video footage of our fantastic Happiness Event. We were over capacity and had to haul in extra seating and we had to purchase additional food and supplies as the night went on. More details about the event coming soon.

Have a wonderful weekend and please check out the new projects we are launching at Sustainable Seattle.

The Flow Campaign.

Sustainable Rain.

Mar 7, 2011

Happiness Newsletter

This is the first newsletter focused on our Happiness Initiative. You can sign up for our newsletter here and keep up to date with all our actions and projects.

So what is all this happiness stuff anyway?

Sustainable Seattle and Take Back Your Time joined forces to create our 5th set of sustainability indicators. With a 20 year history behind us, this time we are basing our work on the Gross National Happiness Index & the 9 Domains of Happiness.

"You get what you measure" says Seattle City Councilmember Mike O'Brien. That's what it's all about: getting a comprehensive assessment of our well-being and inspiring & engaging people, organizations and policy makers to action.


Happiness Schnappiness - what's it to me?

Its a Happiness Party!

We are putting the fun in fundraiser to celebrate our 20th birthday party.


Join us March 16th - 5:30-9:30 at the The Chapel in the Good Shepherd Center.

Free Drinks, Free Finger Food and - get this- Music by our co-founder Alan AtKisson, New Leadership Andrew Cozin & Tim Flynn and a Super Surprise Performance by Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin. More about the event!

It will be fun.


Entry is free -and its a fundraiser so bring your credit card or check book.

Space is very limited, so RSVP now & don't for get your reusable cup!! SCHNAPPINESS!


Special Thank you to Mike Pennock, his crew for the Happiness Survey.


Sustainability Classes coming in March!


The Carbon Landscape and the basics of GHG accounting - Mar 9

Advanced Change Agentry for Sustainability - Mar 17

The Responsible Business - Mar 24

More to be confirmed for April & May:

Bike Commute 101

Visualization Tools for Sustainability

Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources

Raising Eco Kids

Designing Behavior Change Campaigns

Watch sustainableseattle.org/training for details

Feb 15, 2011

"I AM" Movie Feb 25th

I AM


Special Appearance at the Varsity Theatre (Seattle, WA):
Director Tom Shadyac will appear In Person Friday, February 25 for a Q&A after the 7:10pm show and to introduce the 9:30pm show.


I Am, a prismatic and probing exploration of our world, what's wrong with it, and what we can do to make it better, represents writer/director Tom Shadyac's first foray into non-fiction following a career as one of Hollywood's leading comedy practitioners (Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty). I Am recounts what happened to the filmmaker after a cycling accident left him incapacitated. Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged a changed man. Disillusioned with life on the A-list, he sold his multi-million dollar mansion and moved to a much much smaller home, deciding to start life anew.

Shadyac embarks upon a journey to discover how he as an individual, and we as a race, can improve the way we live. Appearing on-screen as character, commentator, guide, and even, at times, guinea pig, Shadyac meets with a variety of thinkers and doers—remarkable men and women from the worlds of science, philosophy and faith—including David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynne McTaggart, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks and Marc Ian Barasch. An irrepressible Everyman who asks many questions but offers no easy answers, he takes the audience to places it has never been before, and presents even familiar phenomena in completely new and different ways. Official Web Site: http://iamthedoc.com/thefilm/

Director:
Tom Shadyac

MPAA Rating:
PG

Run Time:
1hr 20mins

Release Year:
2011

Country Of Origin:
USA

Jan 24, 2011

"What's the Economy for anyway?"

Film: "What's the Economy for Anyway?"

A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY JOHN DE GRAAF, (40 min, 2010)

AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE SEATTLE AREA HAPPINESS INITIATIVE

With Filmmaker John De Graaf

And Laura Musikanski, Executive Director of Sustainable Seattle

LOCATION:

Keystone Congregational Church

5019 Keystone Place N., Seattle

(0.4 miles west of the I-5 NE 50th St. Exit - Metro Bus Routes 16, 26 & 44)

Directions can be found at www.meaningfulmovies.org

…for flyers & more information, please go to www.meaningfulmovies.org

Film: “WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY?” (40 min, John de Graaf, 2010)

WITH FILMMAKER JOHN DE GRAAF AND LAURA MUSIKANSKI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABLE SEATTLE

And a Discussion about the Seattle Area Happiness Initiative

Is the GDP is an adequate measure of society's well-being? Are there workable alternatives? And ...what's happiness got to do with it? In this film, produced and directed by John de Graaf of “AFFLUENZA” fame and “TAKE BACK YOUR TIME” fame and TAKE BACK YOUR TIME, ecological economist Dave Batker presents a humorous, edgy, factual, timely and highly-visual monologue about the American economy today, challenging the ways we measure economic success--especially the Gross Domestic Product--and offering an answer to the question: What's the Economy for, Anyway?

Join us following the film for a community discussion with Filmmaker John de Graaf and Laura Musikanski, Executive Director of Sustainable Seattle, about a meaningful framing of our economy, and a presentation on the recently released Happiness Survey from the Seattle Area Happiness Initiative!

Download the Flyer HERE. Please help us get the word out. Thanks!

(Event is FREE and open to the public! ...but Donations are kindly accepted).

(NOTE: The film. "WikiLeaks: The Documentary", originally announced, will hopefully be shown when screening rights are obtained at a later date.)