Blogs & Ecology

This week in headlines from Worldchanging Seattle:

AIA Award-Winners: Visions for Veggie Oil and Parking Lots
Two conceptual projects received commendations for their vision at last week's AIA Honor Awards, offering a glimpse at what leading designers could contribute to cities of the future.

Despite several days of chilly downpour, Seattle residents still seem to be glowing from the week's exciting events. You can read all about Tuesday's celebration in Sarah's post. And while you're at it, check out the other innovative ideas taking shape in and around Seattle!

Though the economy of the Pacific Northwest is faring much better than other regional economies around the U.S., the effects of the current recession will still force our state and city governments to re-examine their budgets very carefully. On Monday, we received the troubling news that the Seattle Office of Sustainability and the Environment was in danger of losing funding or being entirely dissolved. As one of the first such focused offices in the country, Seattle's OSE has been an example for many other U.S. city governments. Many spoke out on the issue, and it seems that we are not likely to lose the OSE in the near future. You can read that story and others in this week's headlines:

After Monday's unnerving hailstorm, the rest of this week in Seattle was blissfully beautiful. Walking around the city when it's this nice makes us even more excited for future developments that encourage walking, biking and taking transit (between well-developed compact neighborhoods, of course). Check out what we've been writing about this week:

Bike Lessons From Portland: Take Cycling Seriously
There's a lesson in the bicycle discussion that points to the fundamental difference between systemic change and personal change…

At Worldchanging Seattle, we try to address topics of sustainability at the city level. This week, we covered emerging clean technology in nearby Oregon, as well as innovative public art, the benefits of compact homes, and a local expert's insight into what makes a livable downtown. Even if you don't live in Seattle, we encourage you to see what we've been up to:

Downtown Livability: A Conversation with Peter Steinbrueck
In order to achieve true livability and a real check on sprawl, we need to build neighborhoods downtown that appeal to long-term residents.

Cold weather seems to have officially settled on Seattle, and there has been a lot of hot cocoa brewing on the Worldchanging office stove to combat the chill. But along with it, a few impressive deadlines are approaching: Elections both at home and in the national capitol, along with impending decisions on major Seattle developments like the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Sound Transit's Link Light Rail.

Thanks to everyone who attended our 5th Anniversary bash on Wednesday night at the Sole Repair Shop! We were thrilled to celebrate with so many old and new friends.

We'd also like to share our enthusiasm for the standing-room-only crowd at Cafe Presse both last night and last Friday evening, where we gathered to watch the first of the debates leading up to the November election (photo above). We were truly impressed by the turnout, but even more impressed by the way everyone stood in (mostly) silent attention listening to our presidential and VP candidates discuss and disagree. It's exciting to see the public so engaged, informed and involved.

A few months ago, we started to wonder about what you, our readers, were up to.

When we sent out our Worldchanging Readers’ Survey in July, more than 1,000 of our readers responded to tell us about themselves, how they use Worldchanging, and how they feel about the site. Since it’s our five-year anniversary, and we are announcing a lot of exciting news, we thought we would share some of the responses that greatly helped us make some incredibly important decisions. Here are some highlights:

We found out that the average reader is between the ages of 25 and 34. Our audience is split almost evenly between men and women.

At the Worldchanging headquarters here in Seattle, Wa. we're busy preparing for our 5th anniversary celebration next Wednesday, October 1! If you're in town, please join us to raise a toast to five years of optimism, cutting-edge debate and innovative solutions, as well as to our brand new team and our upcoming projects. You can find all the details by clicking here.

So, in the new "I'm a PC" campaign features Deepak Chopra saying he's a PC. Several worldchangers pointed out the book on his desk...

Check it out, you can find us about 52 seconds in:

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In celebration of the official debut of Worldchanging Seattle, we bring you our Seattle to the World series: a collection of the 100 best local innovations, institutions, policies and people that we think could benefit readers in cities around the world. We've collected your recommendations – and sought out our own – to locate what we felt was a sample of Seattle's most inspiring solutions for a better future.

Maybe it's because it's summer, but walkability has been on our minds a lot here in Seattle. In a city rife with so many vibrant neighborhoods and beautiful points of connection with the natural world, we want to make the most of our resources, because a city that welcomes and delights pedestrians helps support a healthy community and a healthy environment. You can read about leading plans and ideas for a more walkable Seattle in this week's feature story, Discussions For A Walkable Seattle.

News from the team at large: Worldchanging correspondent Patrick Rollens has signed on as an editor for the relaunch of GreanBean, a Chicago-based resource for green building news.

We just got our fall catalog from our German publisher, and look what they put on the cover:

We were so excited that we could hardly tear our eyes off it, until we saw pages 1-4: