| Alex Steffen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 Oakland, California |
| Occupation | Writer, blogger, editor, public speaker, sustainability advocate[1] |
Alex Steffen (* 1968) is an American writer,[2] editor, public speaker and futurist most noted for his bright green ideas.[3]
Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging from its start in 2003 until its closure in 2010.[4] He also edited two editions of the book Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st century and has written for magazines and newspapers including Business Week[5] and Wired.[6][7]
Contents |
Alex Steffen attended Oberlin College before earning his B.A. from Allegheny College in 1990, and, interwoven with his career as a futurist, writer and editor, pursued graduate studies at University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies.
Previously, he was president of the Seattle urban livability group Allied Arts, started Steelhead magazine, and founded the now-defunct Fuse Foundation.[8][9][10] Steffen guest-edited the final, unreleased issue of the Whole Earth Review. He also consulted to many environmental groups and political campaigns.[11]
He spends much of his time in Northern California, but lives in Seattle.[12][13]
Worldchanging.com is a non-profit online magazine and blog about sustainability and social innovation.
Worldchanging publishes a mix of essays and interviews; shorter original reviews, letters from the field (conference reports, lab visits, notes from correspondents' travels) and think-pieces; and blog posts "highlighting the best coverage of new ideas and innovations from around the Web." From time to time, the site posts radio-style podcasts as well.
Worldchanging's content is divided in to seven sections: stuff, shelter, cities, community, business, politics, and planet. This taxonomy is designed to parse solutions based on their proximity to the reader, so that on one extreme Stuff is mostly about innovations in product design, food, clothing, and other objects used directly by individual people, while on the other extreme Planet encompasses global environmental and social issues, scientific advances and new thinking about the future of humanity.
The site has won or been nominated for the following awards and prizes:
Worldchanging is, according to several sites, one of the most popular blogs in the world,[14] and was rated the second largest sustainability site on the web by Nielsen Online in 2008[15] as well as being named one of the world's top 15 environmental websites by Time Magazine.
On November 29, 2010, Worldchanging announced on its blog that it would be closing its doors due to a lack of firm funding.[16]
In November 2006, Steffen published a survey of global innovation, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st century (ISBN 978-0810930957) with a foreword by Al Gore, design by Stefan Sagmeister and an introduction by Bruce Sterling. It has received wide praise (see below), was a winner of the Green Prize for sustainable literature, and is now seeing translation into French (under the title Change Le Monde[17]), German, Spanish, Korean[18] and several other languages.[19] Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the publisher of the hardcover edition, listed it among their 50 best selling titles in July 2008.[20] It was mentioned by BusinessWeek as one of the "Best Innovation and Design Books for 2006".[21]
Gore, in his foreword to the book, calls it "vitally important," adding,
"Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st century is a compendium of solutions, some little known but well proven, some innovative and new, some bold but as yet untried. This book not only shows what is already possible, but also helps all of us imagine what might be – in our own homes, in our communities, and for the planet as a whole. Taken together, these solutions present a picture of a future that is not dark or catastrophic, but one that is full of hope and within our grasp. To build that future, we need a generation of everyday heroes, people who – whatever their walks of life – have the courage to think in fresh ways and to act to meet this planetary crisis head-on. This book belongs in the library of every person who aspires to be part of that generation."
Bill McKibben in the New York Review of Books characterized the book as "The Whole Earth Catalog retooled for the iPod generation."
"It is precisely this question – how we might radically transform our daily lives – that is addressed by the cheerful proprietors of the WorldChanging website in their new book of the same name. This is one of the most professional and interesting websites that you could possibly bookmark on your browser; almost every day they describe a new technology or technique for environmentalists.... [Their book] is a compendium of everything a younger generation of environmental activists has to offer: creativity, digital dexterity, networking ability, an Internet-era optimism about the future, and a deep concern about not only green issues but related questions of human rights, poverty, and social justice. The book's pragmatism is refreshing: 'We can do this' is the constant message, and there are enough examples to leave little doubt that sheer cleverness is not what we're lacking as we approach our uncertain future. 'We need, in the next twenty-five years or so, to do something never before done. We need to consciously redesign the entire material basis of our civilization,' Alex Steffen writes in his editor's introduction. 'If we face an unprecedented planetary crisis, we also find ourselves in a moment of innovation unlike any that has come before.... We live in an era when the number of people working to make the world better is exploding.' He's right."
Earth Day founder Denis Hayes says, "WorldChanging might well be the most complete, compelling articulation of the possible look and feel and actual operation of a sustainable society ever written."
Steffen is at work on a second book. In 2009, he was named one the GOOD 100.[22]
Steffen's work addresses themes of bright green sustainability, public foresight and social innovation. In particular, he says, he's interested in looking at ways in which the planet's most pressing problems can be met with innovative solutions in order to produce not only benefit to those alive today, but a long-term increase in options and opportunities for the human race.[23][24] Steffen says that the key to meeting present desires without compromising future needs is a clearer understanding of the things that really make us happy – friends, family, a high quality of life, meaningful work, a reasonable amount of security and lots of fun – and how to deliver them most directly, without waste or stupidity. We'll only save the planet, he suggests, if sustainability is designed to be more fun and more deeply satisfying than over-consumption of "crap".[25] "Quality is Wealth",[6] embodies this sustainability World view.
Steffen practices what he describes as solutions-based journalism,[26] that is, the explicit goal of his work at Worldchanging is to highlight the possible solutions to what the editorial team sees as the planet's most pressing problems, rather than to spread news of those problems or critiques of their causes.[11] He was quoted in the Guardian[27] as saying "Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience."
Steffen summed up what he sees as the benefit of this approach in an essay called The Politics of Optimism[28] in which he wrote, "We can freely acknowledge the tremendous struggle ahead of us, and yet choose to remain decidedly optimistic, and to work from a fundamental belief in the possibilities of the future. ... Every time we explain how a better future might be built, we redraw the boundaries of the possible."
Much of Steffen's recent work has centered on the idea that cities, properly redesigned and developed, can become a "fulcrum point" to leverage new solutions into economic development and sustainable prosperity.[29]
In November, 2009, Steffen gave two nights of talks at Seattle's Town Hall. These talks were introduced by the Mayor-elect, Mike McGinn, and the City Council President, Richard Conlin, and focused on the opportunity for Seattle to lead the U.S. national climate debate by becoming carbon-neutral on a city-wide per capita basis by 2030.[30] These talks lead Conlin and the American Institute for Architects, Seattle, to take up the call for climate neutrality, and other groups joining in. In February 2010, the City Council made the goal official.[31][32] If it succeeds in meeting that goal, Seattle will be North America's first climate-neutral city.
In 2011, Steffen gave a TED talk at the TED Global conference on the carbon-neutral future of cities.[33]
Steffen has spoken at TED,[34] Poptech,[35] Design Indaba,[36] Amsterdam's PicNic[37], The Royal Geographical Society[38] and New Delhi's Doors of Perception[39] as well as giving keynote addresses at major industry events like the AIGA[40] and IDSA[41] national conferences, O'Reilly's Emerging Technologies (eTech),[42] FOO Camp and the Business Expo Bright Green held during the Copenhagen Climate Summit.[43] Steffen has keynoted three different South by Southwest conferences (SxSW)[44][45]. Steffen has also spoken at a number of corporations, including Nike and IDEO,[46] as well as at universities including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Stanford and the London School of Economics.[47][48] He is represented by the Lavin Agency.[49]
The New York Times, in a 2011 profile, said “Alex Steffen, a designing optimist, lays out the blueprint for a successful century.”[50] In a cover story, WIE Magazine called Steffen "a pioneering thinker on global sustainability."[51] Rotman magazine (the alumni magazine of Rotman School of Management) described him as "an award-winning writer... engaged in innovative, future-forward sustainability work",[52] while local newspaper Seattle Weekly called him one "of the world's leading green futurists".[53]
He was chosen by The New York Times Magazine as one of six leading innovators in its "Ecotecture" issue,[54] was named one of the "GOOD Magazine 100" and is the subject of a CNN documentary.
Steffen's ideas have been covered in stories in The New York Times and New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Time magazine, Der Spiegel, Business Week, Fortune, Wired, US News and World Report, USA Today, the L.A. Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, Le Monde, The Independent, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Fast Company, SEED, ID, Dwell, ReadyMade, the Associated Press, The New York Review of Books, The International Herald Tribune, The Globe and Mail, The New Statesman, The Nation, New Scientist, Sierra magazine, Outside, Audubon, and The Sun. Steffen has also appeared on the Today Show, LinkTV and several CBC television programs. Radio includes the CBC's the Current, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR's Living on Earth, Open Source and Morning Edition programs, as well as on Earth & Sky, Marketplace and many local NPR affiliate and talk radio programs.