In the years since its founding in 1993, the work of Sightline (formerly Northwest Environment Watch) has helped leaders and advocates log many victories: a pilot carbon tax shift in British Columbia in 2008; defeating ruinous land-use ballot measures across the Northwest in 2006 and 2007; defeating an earlier one in greater Portland in 2002; phase-outs of toxic flame retardants throughout the Northwest, including Washington's 2007 ban; a center-city strategy in Seattle that will make the city’s downtown a vibrant, walkable zone modeled on Vancouver, BC (whose Eco-Density initiative we also helped inspire); coining the phrase Green-Collar Jobs that has since spread across North America; and a pilot project to test pay-as-you-drive car insurance in Washington, initiated in 2007.

But the true significance of our work may lie less in these specific advances than in the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of daily acts of progress that we help empower, and the ideas that we help plant.

One of Sightline’s favorite parables is Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees, the story of an aging French shepherd who takes it upon himself to plant 100 acorns each day in the deforested, abandoned highlands surrounding his home.

Day after day, he patiently selects his acorns and tamps them into the soil. Through two World Wars and the Great Depression, for more than three decades, he perseveres. Slowly, a forest grows, then wildlife returns, year-round streams revive, and families with children begin moving back into the once-vacant villages.

Our purpose as an organization is to provide Cascadia’s community problem solvers with practical vision and innovative thinking, inspiring and empowering them to bring about a healthy, lasting prosperity. In recent surveys, some 70 percent of our audience reported that because of Sightline they are “more inspired to work for change,” and 86 percent reported that they’ve used or shared Sightline’s information with others. Over the years, the story goes like this:

Books: From 1993 to 2007, Sightline has published 17 books and distributed more than 150,000 paper copies of them; we’ve also given away tens of thousands of additional copies as free downloads. Our 1997 book Stuff alone has sold more than 40,000 copies.

Other publications: We’ve also published several dozen shorter reports and newsletters; scores of op-eds, articles, and fact sheets; more than 100 maps, Flash animations, charts and graphs, and counters. (Almost all of this material is downloadable from this website.)

Daily news & commentary: Since early 2004, we’ve penned more than 1,200 posts on our blog, the Daily Score, and we put out a new edition of Sightline Daily, our daily news summary (formerly Tidepool.org), every weekday morning.

Speeches & consultations: We’ve done hundreds of speeches and briefings; consulted dozens of times with Northwest leaders; and regularly participate on panels, advisory boards, and other collaborative efforts.

All of this output of credible, pragmatic analysis generates a steady stream of media attention to our research. Our tally of high-quality, on-message coverage over the years shows 2,000-odd placements in reputable media outlets, reaching a staggering media audience of nearly 100 million. Think about that! It means that tens of millions of times in recent years, a Cascadian at home, in a car, or at work has taken an idea endorsed by Sightline into his or her mind and rolled it around. (Acorns!)

From among those masses of people, tens of thousands have made their way to us for more information. On any given day, 5,000 Cascadian citizens rely on Sightline to get informed, to be inspired, to be empowered.

And these thousands of people--you--take Sightline’s ideas, help us improve them, and put them to work in communities and businesses from Alaska to California. How? Here are a very few recent examples of seedlings sprouted from among the hundreds that people have shared with us:

• In early 2007, 1000 Friends of Oregon sent our report on Measure 37, the bad-neighbor law, to every Oregon legislator as a companion piece to a video of Oregonians’ stories about the impacts of the measure.
• Inspired by Sightline, three talented developers created a hugely popular "walkscore" online tool where users can rate the walkability of their neighborhood.
• A Sightline post about the surprising climate impacts of keyboard-cleaning spray canisters spurred the City of Seattle to discontinue use of the canisters.
• Wal-Mart is using chapters of Stuff and Seven Wonders as a primer for their buyers on product life cycles.
  
• A citizen in Bellingham used our data to help launch a nonprofit car-share program.
• A tax manager at the City of Anchorage was moved to propose changing the way the city taxes vehicles.
• Planned Parenthood of Western Washington was inspired to take a group of legislators to Vancouver to study BC’s successes with sex ed.
• The Greater Vancouver Regional District and the City of Vancouver were inspired to pass resolutions encouraging the Insurance Corporation of BC to offer pay-as-you-drive insurance.
• Our 1998 book Tax Shift convinced two Oregon blue ribbon commissions and two high-level Washington panels to endorse environmental taxes.
• Sightline provided information for a speech on energy by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire.
• A Flathead, Montana, citizen used Sightine information to advocate for smart growth in rural Montana.
• A Metro Council member in Portland used Sightline maps to influence growth boundary decisions.

This is how our work together proceeds. For a dozen years and counting, Sightline--with the help of partner organizations and community members throughout the Northwest--has patiently selected its acorns, day after day, and offered them to Cascadians near and far, who have tamped them into the soil.

And a forest of solutions is growing.