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My husband and I think we’ve found a way to pay off our mortgage early, without taking on an extra job or working nights. We’ve decided to construct a rental unit—a “mother-in-law suite”—within our home. If it pans out as we hope, the rental income will let us pay off our loan 10 years early. And who knows: it could give us a chance to live closer to family as...

My Year of Nothing New experiment has not only altered my relationship with stuff, it’s opened my eyes to all kinds of people—and whole movements—dedicated to simplifying their lives and breaking out of joyless consumerist mindsets. Recently, I found out about Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus—a.k.a. The Minimalists. They blog about living with less and being happier for it. At the moment, they’re at the tail end of their “Holiday...

Editor’s Note 6/26/15: The world became brighter today when the US Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the United States. Sightline believes that marriage equality is a matter of human dignity. We are proud that the nation is making sustainability legal and moving towards a more just society.  Would giving same-sex couples the right to marry boost the economy? Perhaps so. In his 2002...

Alan: The best article I’ve read on the US economy recently is, of all places, in the New York Review of Books. It’s a review of books by two Nobel laureates, Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, by two younger academics whose book Winner-Take-All Politics is one of the best things I’ve read this year so far. Their review blends their own incisive structural understanding of how messed up US government...

We often measure success by economic means…GDP, GNP, unemployment, and more. But other indicators might come closer to measuring what really matters. We’ve long advocated for measuring GNH: Gross National Happiness. Next weekend, the Happiness Initiative will hold Happiness 2012: A Strategic Gathering at Seattle University. Attendees will learn about this new initiative, help plan “Pursuit of Happiness Day,” and hear from leaders of the movement. The details: Happiness 2012...

Editor’s Note December 2017: Are you looking to free yourself from the consumption culture that the holiday season brings? We’re bringing back this short video that highlights the high price of buying, buying, buying, both on our planet and our health. Want to make a resolution to purchase less “stuff” in the new year? Check out Anna Fahey’s popular series My Year of Nothing New for some inspiration. The clever...

In the Seattle suburb where I grew up, the main transportation choice most residents face is what kind of car to buy. I moved to Seattle after college and, inspired by the “car-lite” lifestyles of several friends, decided to give cycling a try. I fell in love with it. Urban cycling freed me from slow buses, parking meters, and mind-numbing elliptical machines. I arrived at work with more energy. I...

‘Tis the season to swear off bad habits and become a better person once and for all—yep, time for New Year’s resolutions. I usually don’t bother with this annual ritual. I gave up becoming a better person long ago! But this year, I do have a resolution—a pretty ambitious one—and I figure if I blog about it, my chances for success might go up. My family is resolving to quit...

What if all it took to build better neighborhoods was a little paint? Walking in Southeast Portland, I once stumbled on a horizontal rendition of a sunflower, painted curb to curb on the intersection of Southeast 33rd and Yamhill (pictured above). Sunnyside Piazza, it is called, which may seem a bit much for a splash of color on asphalt, but in person, it seemed fitting. This whimsical design, interrupting the...

“The ocean is the biggest feature of our planet,” explains “neuro-conservationist” and turtle specialist Wallace J. Nichols, “but when I asked neuroscientists about research on this topic, well, there wasn’t any. That struck me as a huge oversight. So I decided to invite a group of neuroscientists, ocean folks, journalists and artists to start a conversation about the science of our emotional connection with the sea.”