This Holiday Season, Give Experiences Instead of Stuff!

We all know that part of the joy of the holiday season is sharing and giving to those you love most. This year, make your gifts extra special by giving experiences instead of stuff! Many of our fondest memories are of great meals with friends, days at the museum with dad, spa treatments with mom, or tickets to the game with siblings. These great activities are not only fun and sentimental, but they're also great for the planet! Less stuff means less energy used and less waste going into our landfills. Get discounts on these kinds of gifts by visiting: http://www.wastefreeholidays.com/.

Download a 2008-2009 Climate Action Now School Calendar!

At the beginning of this year we held an art contest with Seattle Public Schools asking students to illustrate answers to the question: "What’s your climate solution?" Our winning design is on a t-shirt currently being sold at the Seattle Art Museum. Now you can also get all the honorable mention designs in a great new 2008-2009 school calendar. Click below to download the calendar and simply print it at home, work, or school!

More than 900 mayors join Climate Protection Agreement!

Mayor Greg Nickels just announced that more than 900 mayors have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a huge milestone in the national campaign of cities to reduce global warming. The mayors of Savannah, Ga.; Springfield, Ill.; and Redondo Beach, Calif., are among the latest to sign the agreement, in which cities pledge to reduce climate pollution by seven percent of 1990 levels by 2012. The Mayors Climate Protection Agreement now represents more than 81 million Americans and includes cities such as Little Rock, Ark., Phoenix, Ariz., Nashville, Tenn., and San Antonio, Texas. Congratulations to all of these mayors for their leadership!

Climate Action Now in Jefferson County!

Washingtonians know a good thing when they see it! Our friends in Jefferson County have started their own Climate Action Now group and launched a great new website complete with tools, resources, and best practices. We congratulate Jefferson County on this great new effort and look forward to sharing ideas with them!

Shrinking Bigfoot’s BIG Carbon Footprint (and Yours Too!)

Seattle Climate Action Now is announcing a great new way to engage kids in fighting global warming. “Shrinking Bigfoot” encourages students to play an active role in protecting our planet by shrinking their own carbon footprints with easy, everyday choices. Find out more and sign up for free, fun, live-theater assembly performances, classroom presentations and teacher trainings throughout Seattle City Light’s service territory at: http://www2.seattle.gov/exploreenergy/

Green Up! Special Limited Time Offer!

Sign on with Green Up Seattle for one year and receive a discount up to $25 when you purchase from Spud!, a home-delivery company specializing in organic groceries and locally made products. Customers joining Green Up by December 31, 2008 will enjoy a $5 discount off the price of the first three orders and a $10 discount off the fourth order placed with www.Spud.com.

If you’re already contributing to Green Up, you can also receive the Spud! discount by increasing your monthly contributions for a year.

Green Up Seattle is Green-e certified, which guarantees your Green Up dollars help expand the production of renewable energy, such as wind and biomass, in the Northwest.

To enroll online see www.greenupseattle.org. For more information call (206) 684-8822.

What's Your Climate Solution?

When Mayor Nickels first launched Seattle Climate Action Now last September, one of our first activities was to host an art contest with Seattle Public Schools. Students were asked use art to answer the question: “What’s Your Climate Solution?” We got a lot of great work depicting everything from bike riding to unplugging appliances when not in use. Ultimately, our panel of esteemed judges chose a drawing by recent Ballard High School graduate Charity Gage in a reception held in the Olympic Sculpture Park Pavilion.

The most exciting part of this project? Charity’s drawing will appear on a t-shirt now available for purchase at the Seattle Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park’s SAM SHOP! So stop by and pick up one of these inspiring, creative t-shirts!

Twist & Save

Seattle is making it easier to Twist & Save. City Light has teamed up with area retailers to offer compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs at deeply discounted prices.

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