Apr

6

More power for women means less climate pollution | Grist

Filed Under Environment, Politics, Sustainability, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Respect your mother

A recent Grist post notes that communities with women leaders have better environmental policy:

…even when controlling for a variety of measures of “modernization,” world-system position, and democracy, nations where women have higher political status — as indicated by the length of time women have had the right to vote and women’s representation in parliament and ministerial government — tend to have lower CO2 emissions per capita. This finding suggests that efforts to improve women’s political status around the world, clearly worthy on their own merits, may work synergistically with efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and avert dramatic global climate change. …more via More power for women means less climate pollution | Grist.

We couldn’t agree more. Great City is fortunate to be blessed with awesome women among its leadership!

Mar

30

Seattle, circa 2062

Filed Under Sustainability, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Seattle’s 2nd annual “Dream a Sound Future” competition is open for entries. Share your dream for the Emerald City, 50 years hence, and you could win $1,000.

Check it out:

What are your Dreams for Seattle in the Next 50 Years?

 

The Happiness Initiative, Sustainable Seattle, and the Next 50 present the 2nd Annual Dream A Sound Future Competition

 

The Happiness Initiative is a national project offering tools and resources to communities and individuals seeking to enhance their well-being.  The mission of the Happiness Initiative is to work for a just, healthy and resilient society where all people have the opportunity to pursue happiness. Based on the Seattle Area Happiness Initiative indicators for sustainability, you can present your ideas on how you see the region in the next 50 years and the steps to get there. Think of the year 2062. Imagine thriving economy, culturally diverse society, carbon emissions free highways, healthy oceans and lush forests. How do we arrive at such a future? What is our best-case scenario?

 

The Dream a Sound Future Competition is calling all visionaries to express these ideas through art, spoken word, dance, song, video, formal presentation, or other medium of choice.

 

One of our contestants for the Dream a Sound Future 2010 competition was Karin DeWeille. Karen’s dream is that we all quickly adapt our behavior and so more quickly create a sustainable future. Step one in Karen’s dream is for all of us to give up using non  recyclable cups by dedicating ourselves to using only reusable cups for three weeks — there by forming the habit and collectively seeing how easy it is to create collective positive change.

 

Grand Prize: $1000 Cash Prize along with other prizes

 

Ready! Set! Go!

 

First, go to www.happycounts.org and take the Happiness Survey.

 

Second, go to www.sustainableseattle.org/programs/dream-a-sound-future/163-library-of-dreams and view our Library of Dreams for inspiration and past contestants.

 

Third, go to www.sustainableseattle.org/dreamasoundfuture read the rules

 

Finally, start formulating and mapping out your dream

 

Open to all Puget Sound Residents

 

Submissions accepted until April 23rd

 

Award Ceremony on May 12th, 2012 at Seattle Center – Prizes, Performances, and Fame!

 

www.sustainableseattle.org/dreamasoundfuture

 

Join our mission to help guide Seattle into a Sustainable Future

 

Sep

28

Discovering the Benefits of Community Gardens

Filed Under Sustainability | 1 Comment

In May, each family at my son’s school picked a week to volunteer at the school’s garden during summer break.  We selected late July and I put it on my calendar with a bit of apprehension.  I’ve never been much of a gardener and I worried that I wouldn’t enjoy it or really have the time to invest.

The school garden's greenhouse.

Our week came and my husband, son and I walked the quarter-mile trek to the school.  As we rounded the corner of the building, we saw a sea of green just off the parking lot.  I found a map in the greenhouse that described which veggies were planted in which rows.  There were gloves for weeding and watering cans.  After a quick inspection of the garden, we got to work.

The school garden.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the cost of eating healthy.  My family of three lives off of a single income and we try to stick with a pretty minimal food budget.  Yet we want to eat real food – organic produce and dairy products, quality meats, minimally processed foods.  I’d like to eat the full spectrum of veggies and fruits in the grocery store’s aisles, but my budget means I usually select the bag of broccoli, some organic lettuce, and apples and call that good.

This week is different.  The garden is full of a variety of lettuces.  There are radishes, leeks, chives, kale, chard, and potatoes.  There are budding blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and raspberries.  There is so much to harvest right now that we have eaten meals from our garden harvests for the past few days – at no cost.  We made vegetable soup, eggs with chives, an apple/rhubarb pie, fresh raspberry whipped cream, and salad.  I’ve added raspberries to my morning yogurt.  I’ve been eating raspberries to my heart’s content and there is still a bowl in my fridge with at least $5 worth of berries, had I purchased them from the store.

My son showing off our bags of produce. He actually ate that chive, too!

In addition to our luxurious dining habits of the past week, I’ve also enjoyed the time we spend at the garden.  It is a different type of family activity for us.  As we pick raspberries together and pull weeds, we can connect in a way that isn’t as easy when we’re at home with distractions and interruptions.  Life seems to slow down while we’re at the garden.

Community gardens, like our school’s patch, offer significant benefits.  Neighbors can come together and grow their own food – spurring social interaction and saving money while encouraging healthy eating and providing for urban green space.  This website provides a wealth of information on community gardens.  As I had hoped, my picky-eater six-year-old son has taken to picking actual vegetables out of the garden and putting them in his mouth.  It’s shocking and exciting for me.  He has tried more veggies this week than during the past few years.  And he even likes some of them!

Belltown P-Patch in Seattle, WA (photo by Flickr user studio-d via Creative Commons license)

Seattle has had its P-Patch program since 1973.  Currently, P-Patches cover twenty-three acres throughout the city.  According to a 2007 survey, over half of gardeners in Seattle’s P-Patches are low-income and over three-quarters do not have access to gardening space at their residence.  The waiting lists for P-Patches, especially in dense neighborhoods, can be as long as three years.

In my quest to feed my family on our limited budget with a diet of healthy and hopefully local and organic foods, I am convinced that neighborhood gardens are an important part of the solution.

May

23

Now Urbanism Lecture: The University and the City (Thursday)

Filed Under Cities, Sustainability | Leave a Comment

Thursday, May 26: The University and the City

A capstone and a conversation about the global role of universities shaping present-day urban realities and future urban possibilities.

With:

  • Phyllis Wise, Interim President, University of Washington
  • Kåre Bremer, President, Stockholm University
  • Lynne Brown, Vice President, New York University
  • Dr. Wu Zhiqiang, Dean of the College of Architecture and Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai Session

For more, go to Now Urbanism.

Mar

24

What’s an Eco-City?

Filed Under Cities, Design, Sustainability | Leave a Comment

The American Society of Landscape Architects’ blog, The Dirt, asks What’s an Eco-City? You can find out or decide for yourself and explore the evolution of this concept through a new UW symposium “Next Eco-City.”

The University of Washington’s landscape architecture department has put together a symposium that will explore the idea of the Eco-City. In ”Next Eco-City,” a range of leading landscape theorists and practitioners like Kristina Hill, Affiliate ASLA, Pierre Belanger, ASLA, and Yu Kongjian, International ASLA, will cover how the Eco-City concept has evolved with increased urbanization and rapid globalization.

The conference organizers argue that “urban environments worldwide are in the midst of multiple shifts, driven by interconnected flows in capital, people, and resources at local, regional and global scales. It impacts not only cities but also the network of social and ecological systems well beyond their borders.”

Despite the fact that a true Eco-City has never really existed, the idea continues to have legs, and has persevered as a potential solution to global challenges. “In contrast to the complexity of today’s urbanization, the concept of the ‘Eco-City,’ arguably dating back to the ideal of the 19th Century Garden City, seems like an overly simplistic and utopian vision. Yet, the imagery and language of an idealized ‘Eco-City’ continue to shape the planning and design of contemporary cities while disregarding the vital complexity of contemporary urban conditions and issues.”  More…

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