Social Design Notes links to the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Very, very smart blend of high tech and grassroots community activism. Social entrepreneurs: please invest in these folks. The “social return on investment” from reduced air pollution is tremendous.

The EPA-approved “bucket” is a simple, community friendly tool that fenceline neighbors use to take air samples. Taking air samples is a powerful experience for community members who are used to being ignored, overlooked, and disrespected by corporations and government. Dorothy Jenkins, President of Concerned Citizens of New Sarpy, used to call the refinery to complain about the odors. A low ranking operator would tell her not to worry, that the black plume of smoke that billowed for hours near her home was not harmful. Now Mrs. Jenkins has a bucket. When refinery managers and government regulators tell her that there is nothing to worry about, she answers, “Why, then, was there a benzene reading of 14 in my air sample, a reading that violates the state standards?” The bucket gives community members power to hold institutions accountable to provide a safe and healthy environment.

Jeweler Tiffany works to thwart plan for mine in wilderness area is a great example of how the messenger is at least as important as the message.

Tiffany called for reform of the 1872 law, which threw open the West for development of the industry that supplies the jeweler with much of the gold, silver and platinum for its products.

“We at Tiffany & Co. understand that mining must remain an important industry,” the letter said.

This is the first time a major jewelry company has taken such a public stance calling for reform of the mining industry, said Earthworks, an environmental group based in Washington, D.C.

Kudos to the folks at Earthworks (f.k.a. Mineral Policy Center, love the new name) for having the courage to build non-traditional allies and let them do the talking.

Also see Clark Fork Coaltion’s website for a lot more detail on this issue.

Orion Online just posted a nice video interview with Bill McKibben, who is one of my favorite environmental authors and speakers.

In Frankly, they do, Grist Magazine’s interpid Amanda Griscom unearths a new memo from top-end GOP pollster Frank Luntz, in which he advises Republicans that Americans actually really do care about clean water, and that perhaps Republicans should do something about it.

Not only are both the memo and Amanda’s reporting on it great reads, but they’re great examples of something the environmental movement doesn’t do enough of: think about how our opponents see our issues.

Alex Steffen at WorldChanging posts a nice little piece called Seattle’s Waterfront and Urban Ecologies that highlights Allied Arts’ “Waterfront For All” campaign, which aims to promote a green waterfront redesign for Seattle.

Alex makes a nice connection between urban ecological preservation/restoration and more traditional ecological concerns:

This raises the question, What is the role of urban ecologies? Most of the people on Earth now live in cities, and cities increasingly sprawl across vast swathes of land, so the ecological health of urban land is not a moot point. Still… creating urban habitat clearly ranks nowhere near preserving pockets of undisturbed biodiversity. But to see urban ecologies and wild habitat in the same light is, I think, to miss the point. Cities, seen in the right light, are nothing but a confluence of powerful flows of resources and wastes in and out of nature (as Bill Cronin’s Nature’s Metropolis so wonderfully illustrates). In the future, if we are to have one, those flows will be miniscule, with our cities floating on systems which require next to no inputs and yield next to no waste, leaving nature to go about the business of healthful stability. But, I think, in order to become the kind of people capable of designing and adopting such systems, we need to think of ourselves as living within nature (as we are), rather than removed from it. [Cities must] become places where we can frequently and joyously be reminded of our connections to the natural world, and where we can renew our understanding of what it means to be apprenticed to nature.

Our friends at Northwest Environment Watch just released their first Cascadia Scorecard“, a new gauge of regional progress that monitors seven key trends–health, economy, population, energy, sprawl, forests, and pollution–that are profoundly shaping the region’s future.

They earned a front page, above-the-fold story in the Seattle PI. It’s well-deserved. The Cascadia Scorecard is a major achievement that will help focus public conversations about environment on the truly signficant indicators of our social and environmental health. In addition, NEW put together a first-rate online press room with materials and messages segemented for each state in the region, maps, animations of sprawl and forests, lists of expert sources, and more.

Here are their ledes for each state/province in our region:

• “BC”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/BC_release.pdf leads in smart growth and lifespan but stalls in economy
• “Idaho”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/ID_release.pdf ranks high in economic security, trails in energy efficiency and smart growth
• “Oregon”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/OR_release.pdf improves in smart growth, trails in energy efficiency and economic security
• “Washington”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/WA_release.pdf ranks high on human health; trails in energy efficency and smart growth

Folks, this is how you do a website for a major regional environmental media event.

Our friends at Northwest Environment Watch just released their first Cascadia Scorecard“, a new gauge o f regional progress that monitors seven key trends–health, economy, population , energy, sprawl, forests, and pollution–that are profoundly shaping the regio n’s future.

They earned a front page, above-the-fold story in the Seattle PI . It’s well-deserved. The Cascadia Scorecard is a major achievement that will help focus public conversations about environment on the truly signficant indi cators of our social and environmental health. In addition, NEW put together a first-rate online press room with materials and messages segemented for each s tate in the region, maps, animations of sprawl and forests, lists of expert sou rces, and more.

Here are their ledes for each state/province in our region:

• “BC”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/BC_release.pdf leads in smart gr owth and lifespan but stalls in economy
• “Idaho”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/ID_release.pdf ranks high in economic security, trails in energy efficiency and smart growth
• “Oregon”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/OR_release.pdf improves in s mart growth, trails in energy efficiency and economic security
• “Washington”:http://www.northwestwatch.org/scorecard/WA_release.pdf ranks hig h on human health; trails in energy efficency and smart growth

Folks, this is how you do a website for a major regional environmental media ev ent.