Advancing solutions for strong communities, a green economy, and a healthy environment.
We provide citizens and decision-makers with the policy analysis and practical tools they need to advance an economy and way of life that are environmentally sound, economically vibrant, and socially just.
Our Work
All Sightline Institute research is available to you to cite, use, and share, per our free use policy.
Homes on Wheels Are Filling a Big Gap in Portland
Three personal stories show how these small, affordable, flexible homes provide big solutions for families.
How Cascadia Can Maintain Its Heat Pump Momentum
Three tools to help the region’s low-income families afford more efficient heating and cooling systems—even as public dollars dry up.
Who Owns a Utility Matters Less for Climate Than the Rules They Play By
Advocates can focus on fast-tracking policies that are already working well elsewhere.
Seattleites Keep Their Model Campaign Finance Reform Program
City voters renewed funding for their iconic democracy vouchers.
Oregon Decides It Was a Mistake to Let Cities Ban Homes
Two new bipartisan laws suggest that for Oregonians to afford to live where and how they want, state-level zoning works better.
The Northwest’s Electric Grid Deserves an Upgrade
Up to 40 percent of the region’s grid could be suitable for reconductoring—for less than half the time and cost of building new transmission lines.
Four Ways Context Matters for Wildfire News Coverage
Reporters can help people see the forest, even when the trees are on fire.
Five Ways Ranked Choice Voting Could Help Climate Action
A functioning democracy is essential to tackling any large-scale issue.
Blazing a Trail: The Vital Role of Wildfire Hazard Maps
Sophisticated and high-resolution maps such as Oregon’s are essential tools for thriving in a fiery future.
Seattleites Keep Their Model Campaign Finance Reform Program
City voters renewed funding for their iconic democracy vouchers.
Seattle’s Democracy Vouchers Are Popular Across the Political Spectrum
With candidates of all political stripes taking advantage of the city’s small-dollar campaign program, Seattleites themselves become the real winners.
For Juneau, There’s a Better Way than Cascade Voting
With election reform on the horizon in Alaska’s capital city, single transferable vote is a safe and tested route for multi-winner ranked elections.
Democracy Vouchers Are a Bargain
August’s levy renewal offers Seattleites proven benefits to democracy for a low price.
In Seattle Elections, Dark Money Follows Competition, Not Democracy Vouchers
Research finds independent spending is up in cities with and without public financing for local campaigns—and democracy vouchers are delivering on their people power promise.
Four Ways Context Matters for Wildfire News Coverage
Reporters can help people see the forest, even when the trees are on fire.
Blazing a Trail: The Vital Role of Wildfire Hazard Maps
Sophisticated and high-resolution maps such as Oregon’s are essential tools for thriving in a fiery future.
The Best Wildfire Solution We’re Not Using
Three ways to curb the sprawl that traps us on a wildfire treadmill.
Homes on Wheels Are Filling a Big Gap in Portland
Three personal stories show how these small, affordable, flexible homes provide big solutions for families.
Oregon Decides It Was a Mistake to Let Cities Ban Homes
Two new bipartisan laws suggest that for Oregonians to afford to live where and how they want, state-level zoning works better.
Oregon’s Zoning Reforms Are Working—But They Need Some Upgrades
Six years after a monumental rezone, Gov. Kotek’s HB 2138 will fill the gaps to more fully legalize starter homes.
How to Talk About Parking Reform—and Win
Our road-tested messaging guide to gain more great neighborhoods and the homes we need, and to kick excess asphalt to the curb.
How Washington State Won Parking Reform
Lessons and strategies for parking flexibility advocates elsewhere.
Washington Takes Statewide Zoning Reform to the Next Level
Lawmakers just passed groundbreaking bills on parking, TOD, and more.
How we work
Sightline Institute equips leaders with practical policy solutions, thoughtful arguments to advance them, and unusual coalitions to win them.
Agenda-setting
Case-making
Policy influence
As a think tank, our piece of the coalition puzzle is to supply rigorous independent research, plus smart messaging and strategy recommendations, to help drive policy wins across Cascadia. Here’s how we do it:
- Set the agenda: Sightline researchers explore numerous potential solutions in our issue areas, identifying those with the highest impact and political promise for our region. In other words, we get curious and dream big.
- Make the case: Having identified priority opportunities, we research them in-depth, publish rock-solid data, and develop sophisticated arguments and messaging to steer the conversation. Here, we’re like a debate team in overdrive.
- Influence policy: From the halls of state legislatures to city council chambers to editorial board meetings, we then transform those well-honed solutions into reality—helping draft bills, equipping champions with the evidence and messaging they need, and assembling the unusual, multi-partisan coalitions often needed for success. This is how we win positive change for Cascadians—and set a model for other places in North America and beyond.
Why our topics
What does democracy have to do with sustainability? Why is housing a climate issue? How do you balance a bigger electric grid with conservation?
Sightline centers its efforts on what we have identified to be turnkey opportunities: urgent, high-impact issues to propel sustainability in our region and model best-in-class solutions for other places.
- For example, using election methods whose outcomes better reflect the will of the people can deliver more of the popular climate policies many voters already support, often across partisan lines.
- As for housing, it’s about giving more people options to affordably live in the cities and towns they love, while reducing their energy use and climate impact by doing so.
- And when new transmission lines needed to usher an electrified future come with small-picture local, environmental impacts, we zoom out to the bigger climate panorama and the promise of clean, renewable energy, clear skies and clean air, and say (along with Bill McKibben) “yes in our backyards.”
This big-tent approach to reconciling people, place, and prosperity in our region—and making Cascadia its global model—means we have worked on dozens of topics over our 30-plus years of operation. We stay nimble to seize emerging opportunities while also committing to long-term solutions.
