Alan Durning
Alan Durning, executive director, founded Northwest Environment Watch in 1993, which became Sightline Institute in 2006. Alan’s current topics of focus include housing affordability and democracy reform.
He has also written about parking, Making Sustainability Legal, car-free living, bike-friendliness, electric bikes, and climate fairness. Alan has written or contributed to nine Sightline books, including Unlocking Home: Three Keys to Affordable Communities, Cascadia Scorecard 2007, Tax Shift, Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, and the award-winning This Place on Earth: Home and Practice of Permanence. Prior to founding Sightline, Alan was a senior researcher at Worldwatch Institute. There, he studied the human dimensions of sustainability and wrote the award-winning book How Much Is Enough?, as well as chapters in seven State of the World reports and articles in hundreds of other publications.
A sought-after speaker, he has lectured at the White House, major universities, and conferences on five continents. In addition to his passion for sustainability, Alan is a music fiend and a lover of outdoor pursuits, especially mountaineering and cycling.
He has also written about parking, Making Sustainability Legal, car-free living, bike-friendliness, electric bikes, and climate fairness. Alan has written or contributed to nine Sightline books, including Unlocking Home: Three Keys to Affordable Communities, Cascadia Scorecard 2007, Tax Shift, Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, and the award-winning This Place on Earth: Home and Practice of Permanence. Prior to founding Sightline, Alan was a senior researcher at Worldwatch Institute. There, he studied the human dimensions of sustainability and wrote the award-winning book How Much Is Enough?, as well as chapters in seven State of the World reports and articles in hundreds of other publications.
A sought-after speaker, he has lectured at the White House, major universities, and conferences on five continents. In addition to his passion for sustainability, Alan is a music fiend and a lover of outdoor pursuits, especially mountaineering and cycling.
Alan Durning
Alan Durning
Climate Is Stuck, Housing Isn’t
Why apartments may be the most powerful domestic climate move of the Trump years.
Read More
A Two-Word Fix for Alaska’s Ballot Confusion
Letting parties tag their nominees would make Alaska’s elections clearer, fairer, and harder to hijack by disingenuous candidates.
Read More
No More 48-Candidate Races
Reasonable filing fees would help voters, parties, and serious contenders alike in Alaska and Portland.
Read More
Will an Electoral Glitch Send a Republican to Patty Murray’s Seat in 2028?
Washington’s top-two primary elections can misfire—but there’s an easy fix.
Read More
Election Reform Measures Lost; Election Reform Didn’t
What to learn—and what to leave behind—from the 2024 ballot measure losses in Cascadia.
Read More
The Curious Case of Voters’ Pamphlets
A secret, nonpartisan chance to better inform voters.
Read More
Proportional representation in just three (brutally hard, agonizingly slow) steps!
Is there a better way to get there in the United States?
Read More
The Bizarre Red-Blue Politics of Election Consolidation
And the chance for stronger democracy it creates.
Read More
The Bizarre Red-Blue Politics of Election Consolidation
And the chance for stronger democracy it creates.
Read More
The Election Calendar Is Cheating Idaho and Montana Voters
But neighboring Wyoming offers a solution.
Read More
In Every Washington City, Odd-Year Elections Crush Voter Turnout
And state law keeps it that way.
Read More