| Measuring
what Matters Excerpted from Northwest Environment Watch The Northwest has traditions of innovation in the public and private sectors; a well-educated populace; and, above all, a commitment to conservation. Indeed, the environment is, in many ways, the Northwest's defining issue. This biological region retains a larger share of its ecosystems intact than perhaps any other part of the industrial world. It has helped set the conservation agenda for the continent--with the first bottle bills and urban growth management laws in the 1970s; trend-setting energy conservation and curbside recycling efforts in the 1980s; old-growth forest protection in the 1990s; and now, endangered species listings affecting its major cities. But there's a broader challenge to which the Northwest is just beginning to rise--not conservation but sustainability: gradually but fundamentally realigning the human enterprise so that both economies and their supporting ecosystems can thrive. The opportunity at hand for the Pacific Northwest is to apply its talented pragmatism--the stuff that has made the region an entrepreneurial hotspot--to the challenge of shrinking the regional economy's ecological footprint by an order of magnitude. But until the Northwest begins measuring what it values, rather than valuing what it measures, it will not be able to seize the opportunity or to avoid the danger. When the region does regularly monitor its environmental and social, along with its economic, performance, however, this place on Earth may yet achieve a way of life that can last--one that nurtures human community while honoring nature's limits. Learn about the seven indicators of the Cascadia Scorecard. Read more about the work of Northwest Environment Watch. |
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