Sustainable Tacoma Pierce, is located in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington in the United States of America.  We hold forums to bring together local activists already involved in the various areas of sustainability.  We also sponsor action projects to contribute our labor to the great organizations already involved in the sustainablity movement.  We are small but passionate about our mission:





Our group, Sustainable Tacoma Pierce, was founded after I viewed "An Inconvenient Truth" and began collecting names of people in front of the Grand Theatre as they left the movie.  Our first meeting was September 2006; fifteen people attended.  One member set up a website for us, (www.freewebs.com/savegaia).  Another member set up a listserve for us: pugetsoundclimateissues@yahoogroups.com - and so this became our name, Puget Sound Climate Issues (PSCI).

In January 2007, we were a group of four activists (three from Tacoma Friends Meeting) who decided to hold a monthly series of forums, each with an action project relating to the forum topic.  The goal was to educate ourselves and our community on what is already happening locally plus to provide a networking opportunity for groups and individuals involved in the area of sustainability.  We would call our forums, S.T.E.P.S. (Sustainable Tacoma Environmental Project Series).

Our first forum was held in January, "Permaculture", with Marisha Auerbach; the action project was installing a Permaculture garden in my back yard.

February S.T.E.P.S. was, "Our Sacred Place, Tacoma" with Green Tacoma Partnership, Citizen's for a Health Bay and Puget Creek Restoration Society; the action project was joining work parties of CHB & PCRS.

March S.T.E.P.S. was, "Less is More, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle", with PSCI members presenting on ways they have found to use less while living more fully; the action project was a tour of the City's Enviro-house, a tour of Carolyn's house and an art-party making art from trash/recyclables.

April S.T.E.P.S. was, "It Matters! Live Sustainably, Eat Locally", with Zestful Gardens, Terry's Berries, The Pig Lady and WS Extension , Small Farms Program; the action project was a work party at Terry's Berries.

May S.T.E.P.S. was, "Bio-Neighborhoodism; bringing neighbors together to create vibrant, healthy communities!"; the action project was carpooling to Portland's Village Building Convergence (www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/projects/vbc7).

In June, six of us met for an evaluation of PSCI's efforts so far.  We had collected over 150 names of local individuals interested in our work.  Each planning meeting had 2 to 8 people attending, often new people attending often bringing us ideas and contacts for a future forum.  We had 7 active members; our listserve had 39 members.  We had between 10 and 25 individuals attended each of our events, always new people and 10 regulars attendees. 

We set goals for the next year: 1) to develop our website to be an effective networking tool for local sustainability activists; 2) to continue our S.T.E.P.S. programming, but to have the forum one month and the action project the following month - to save personal energy; 3) to have a broader diversity represented in our events and membership.  We began researching local website designers and have been working with Andrew Bacon on a new website.  These effects led us to re-examine how and why we got the name Puget Sound Climate Issues.  Feeling that PSCI did not accurately describes us, we changed our name to Sustainable Tacoma Pierce, as this more closely reflects our mission and work.  Andrew is presently working on our new website, www.SustainableTacomaPierce.org

September S.T.E.P.S. was, "Living with Urban Wildlife", with Eric Kitching from Wilderness Awareness School; the action project was tracking with Eric in Puget Creek Park.

November S.T.E.P.S. was "The Science of Global Warming & What Can We Do in Tacoma?", with Penny Rowe Ph.D., atmospheric scientist with University of Idaho and Bill Smith from City of Tacoma and Green Ribbon Task Force.

January S.T.E.P.S. was the "Focus the Nation" event.  We brought together city and county legislators to answer questions about what our governement is doing to reduce our local Carbon Footprint.

April S.T.E.P.S. is "April Showers = Growing Power".  Dan Borba, a vendor of rain barrels and Kristen McIvor, from Tacoma Community Gardens project will present on what is happening locally to grow food in our neigborhoods and how easy it is to install rain barrels in your garden.

Future topics planned for forums are:  Water Management; Living in Community; Alternative Fuels for cars; Transportation Alternatives; Environmental Justice; Bio-remediation with Mushrooms; Urban Gardening; Solar Energy ...