More About the Cascadia Scorecard

Named for the Cascade Mountains -- and for the cascading waterfalls that pepper the region -- Cascadia is bound together by salmon and rivers, by snowcapped mountains and towering forests. The region's population exceeds 16 million; its economy is larger than Russia's; and its land area is larger than France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.

The people of Cascadia share not only geography but also an aspiration: to live well in their place. Slowly and gradually, Cascadia is realigning its economy and way of life so that both people, and the natural system that support and enrich their lives, can thrive.

Cascadia's boundaries are natural: they are defined by the watersheds whose rivers flow through temperate coastal rainforests on the North Pacific coast. But data collection is typically delimited by political borders. Unless otherwise noted, references to Cascadia in this Web site's figures and charts cover the entirety of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, but not the adjoining portions of Alaska, Montana, California, or other neighboring states.
Read less

Most numeric indicators of well-being reported in the media -- the Dow Jones industrial average, the consumer confidence index, the gross domestic product -- are misleading at best, and harmful at worst. They merely answer the question: "How much are we spending?" but ignore the more important question: "How are we really doing?"

Sightline designed the Cascadia Scorecard as an antidote to such superficial measures of progress. The Scorecard provides a simple but far-reaching gauge of whether people and nature are thriving. Each of its seven indicators -- health, population, economy, sprawl, wildlife, energy, and pollution -- reflects a broad array of concerns for the future. Together, the collection of indicators touches on most of the crucial factors that shape our quality of life.
Read less

The first book, Cascadia Scorecard: Measuring What Matters, presents a complete exposition of the seven trends: why they matter, what they mean, and what Cascadians can do about them. The second book, Cascadia Scorecard 2005, focuses on the one Scorecard trend -- energy -- on which the region lags farthest behind world leaders.

The third, Cascadia Scorecard 2006, concentrates on the interrelationship between two Scorecard trends, sprawl and health. The 2007 edition, like this Web site, examines progress on the Scorecard overall: Where has Cascadia made progress? Where have we fallen short? What are the implications of recent developments for our children's and grandchildren's prospects?
Read less

First, for each trend monitored by the Scorecard, Sightline identifies a model of success: a part of the industrialized world, or a time in the region's recent history, in which performance for that trend is exemplary. These success stories embody aspirations, but reasonable ones: by definition, model performance is within reach, since it has already been achieved somewhere in the world, or at some point in our history. The Scorecard models do not necessarily represent the best possible performance on any indicator. Instead, they serve as wayposts, goals that -- if reached -- will put us well on track toward creating a healthy, lasting prosperity.

Second, Sightline calculates how many years it might take for Cascadia to catch up to the performance of the models. To do this, we calculate how much year-to-year change, whether good or bad, has been typical in recent decades. Sightline then determines how many years, at this rate of change, it would take to reach model performance, assuming the region makes progress every year and never backslides. Thus, each indicator's score, measured in "years to model performance," represents an optimistic estimate of how long it would take to reach real-world goals at the rate of change we are already used to. (We can likely achieve progress more quickly: the Scorecard isn't a prediction, just a uniform way to measure ourselves against our aspirations.)

And the average of these scores is an overall measure of progress that is, while far from perfect, vastly superior to prevailing indicators such as the Dow.

By design, the Cascadia Scorecard provides a gauge of what matters, and of whether we're getting closer to achieving our shared goals. At the same time, the Scorecard provides a practical vision of what a prosperous and more sustainable place would look like -- a place that combines elements of many real-world models of success.
Read less

Many people gave their time and talent to the Cascadia Scorecard Web site, but the following deserve special recognition:

• Marilyn Ostergren, who devised the concept for the Scorecard charts, and did invaluable work in developing the information architecture, look, and feel of this site.
• Laurie Kellogg, who polished the design of the site and created many of the graphics.
• Sherry Palmiter of Web Collective, who brought the designs to life on the Internet.
• Nicholas Klassen, Jenn Christenson, and Janet Khuu from Biro Creative, who designed and programmed the Flash animations on the indicator pages.
• Nicholas H. Allison, who edited and polished the text.

The Scorecard itself was devised by Sightline staff: Clark Williams-Derry, Eric de Place, and Alan Durning. Special thanks also go to volunteer Pam Wilder for proofreading and thoughtful comments.
Read less

Sightline Institute, Cascadia's sustainability think tank, provides research and tools to promote healthy, lasting prosperity for people and nature in the Pacific Northwest.

Map of Cascadia