Sightline Institute staff speak on a wide range of topics, including climate policy that's fair and effective; our Cascadia Scorecard project, a regional gauge of progress that monitors seven trends critical to the region’s future; how your region “scores”; and systemic solutions that the Northwest can implement to turn these trends in the right direction. Here are a few subjects that we’ve recently given talks on:

Please contact Mieko Moody if you're interested in a speaker from Sightline.

• Photo: Karie Hamilton

  Cascadia Scorecard: Measuring what matters: Every three minutes, the Northwest adds another person to its population; every 35 minutes, the region’s cities sprawl across another acre of open space; every day, the life expectancy of a northwesterner born that day increases by three hours. Over decades, such trends transform the region more dramatically than the short-lived events of headline news. The Cascadia Scorecard, Sightline's regional gauge of progress, examines the Northwest’s record on these slow-changing but critical areas, and highlights places that serve as real-world models of what the Northwest can achieve.
• Sustainability: How do we get there from here? There’s an old saw about a farmer who, when asked directions by a traveler, replied “If I was going there, I wouldn’t start from here.” Any cold-eyed northwesterner might be tempted to respond similarly about how to get to sustainability from our culture of strip malls, jumbo vehicles, and me-too consumerism. The good news is, many strategies do match up to the challenge. We detail a few of the most powerful ideas for our region, including pay-as-you-drive car insurance, tax shifting, and key transportation and livability solutions.
• A tale of seven cities: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, BC, all tout themselves as livable cities, but how do they really compare? Seattle is catching up to Portland in building walkable, transit-friendly communities, but Vancouver continues to lead the region. Sightline also analyzes growth in four mid-sized cities of the Northwest--Boise, Eugene, Victoria, and Spokane—and discusses the choices each city made in the past 30 years. Click here to go to Sightline's sprawl research.
• Tax reform to help the economy and environment: Tax shifting is a European approach to tax reform that reduces taxes on “goods,” such as paychecks, and replaces the revenue with taxes on “bads, such as toxic waste. If used correctly, it can strengthen the economy and the environment and reshape a tax system that manages to send the wrong signals to almost everyone, yielding a Northwest that is both poorer and less livable.

Examples of past speaking engagements:
• Idaho Environmental Education Summit & Idaho Environmental Forum, March 2006: Alan Durning helped the Boise business and education communities discuss what it would take for Idaho to be sustainable. Read about the summit here.
  
• Driving Change and Getting Results, September, 2005: Both Christine Hanna and Clark Williams-Derry presented at this conference on sustainability indicators.
  
• Tacoma Rotary, April, 2005: Research associate Eric de Place reviewed where Washington is on the Scorecard and what we can do to improve our score.
  
• The Pacific Northwest’s Energy Assets and Economic Sustainability, March, 2005: Alan Durning joined US Representative Earl Blumenauer and representatives from Renewables Northwest, PacifiCorp, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, and Bonnevile Power Administration to explore where the Northwest's energy system is headed next and how our choices–or our inactions–will shape the outcomes. Sponsored by the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies. Watch the forum online here.
• Proftable Sustainability: The Future of Business, September, 2004: A panel examined the potentially beneficial relationships between establishment of sustainability indicators, corporate social responsibility reporting, and regional economic strategy development. Click here to view the conference program.
• The Great Viaduct Debate, August, 2004: Research director Clark Williams-Derry and Sightline board member Gordon Price discussed the so-called "sixth alternative" for Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct project: replacing the viaduct with a vibrant waterfront instead of another freeway. You can watch the debate online here.
• City Club of Portland, July, 2004: Alan Durning discussed the Cascadia Scorecard and regional solutions to help move the trends in the right direction. To purchase audio or video, click here.
• Portland Forum, Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies, March, 2004: Sightline research director Clark Williams-Derry discussed Oregon's "score." Link to audio version of speech.