Cascadia Scorecard News
February 2005

by Alan Durning

2004. It was the year of small but significant percentages: 1 percent or less. I'm speaking not only of the Washington governor's race, the Montana legislative elections, or the Ohio presidential vote tally. I'm speaking of budding trends toward a durable way of life in Cascadia. The region reached the vicinity of 1 percent on a number of heartening measures during the past twelve months:

• Organic farms: In British Columbia's Fraser Basin-the heart of agriculture in western Canada-there are now almost 100 certified organic farms. That's 1 percent of all basin farms.
• Certified forests: The area of Cascadia's forestland managed under the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council has risen steeply since the late 1990s. It hit 1.8 million acres in 2004 after the announcement of Potlatch's certifying its Idaho lands. That's roughly 1 percent of the region's forestland.
• Green buildings: The green building movement surged in 2004. The number of LEED-certified green buildings doubled to 30 in the region during 2004. An additional 214 buildings under construction have applied for registration with the US Green Building Council. Altogether, applicants and certified buildings come to about 20 million square feet of indoor space. Reliable figures on total buildings under construction are hard to come by, but my guesstimate suggests the LEED segment is at least in the ballpark of 1 percent of new construction. And LEED has yet to issue guidelines for the vast residential building market.
• Green energy: Wind power now provides about 1 percent of electricity in the Northwest states. Virtually all this power has come online since 2000.
  
  The region's (mostly new) voluntary green power purchasing programs are growing nicely: they recently saturated 1 percent of the market in the central Puget Sound region.

Getting to 1 percent may seem disappointingly little, but the diffusion of innovations-whether new products, business practices, or habits-typically follows a bell-shaped curve. In less arcane terms, that means the next step after 1 percent may not be 2 percent but 10 percent. So let's hope 2005 is the year of 10 percent.

More information on Organic farming
Fraser Basin Council report (go to p.5)

Certified forests
Sightline's take on forest certification
Potlatch Corporation's announcement of certification

Green building
Cascadia Region Green Building Council
US Green Building Council

Clean energy
Buying green energy in the Northwest states
Buying green energy in BC

Read more by Alan Durning

Bicycle Neglect--Daily Score blog series
The Year of Living Car-lessly: Daily Score blog series
The Year f 1 Percent
Life, Liberty, and Property Values