Jacob and I spent the morning today at the WBR Business Transportation Forum, put on by the Seattle Climate Partnership and several other transportation-related organizations. We heard from various business as to what they were doing to improve their transportation-related carbon footprints, as well as Mayor Mike McGinn, who wanted to talk about a new city initiative called Walk Bike Ride. We were there because we believe that coworking is a 21st century solution to addressing climate change in our city.

Really? Coworking and climate change? Allow me to start from the top: the Seattle City Council recently announced that it is working towards becoming a carbon neutral city. In order to do this, the city is going to have to address every aspect of how the city runs day to day. Transportation is the single largest contributor to Seattle’s carbon footprint and as such is the logical first place to get started on the grand path of carbon neutrality.

Making a dent in carbon emissions when it comes to transportation requires an incredible toolbox of solutions – from improving public transportation to making our urban neighborhoods pedestrian friendly to enforcing strong emissions standard, and more. The list is endless. There is a lot of work to do, and with a truly strapped city budget, the work gets tougher and tougher each year.

What is the role of coworking in this scenario? Coworking is one tool in the toolbox of solutions to transportation issues. Coworking spaces are neighborhood-based, intentional workspaces (in contrast to workspaces like coffee shops) that enable local workers to work closer to home. Whether that means they trade their longer commute for a walk to the coworking space once a week or ditch their commute completely to become 100% remote, coworking spaces allow modern workers to work closer to home without having to face the isolation, distractions, and productivity challenges of working from home.

Here at Office Nomads we know that 40% of our current members come directly from our neighborhood (Capitol Hill Seattle).  Extend that radius to 3 miles from our office, and you capture 61% of our members. Because of the close proximity of our space for most of our members, that means they tend to arrive at our space by either walking, biking, or taking the bus (we’re currently working on gathering more data on that point – stay tuned). Today’s technology allows these individuals to work for clients from all over the world, but stay in their own neighborhoods while they do it. This method of working keeps local dollars local and builds healthier communities.

Office Nomads believes that coworking enables independent workers to make their work experience better.  Beyond the work environment, we also believe that if the majority of individuals using coworking spaces are doing so because there is a coworking space convenient to where they live, more coworking spaces would allow more workers throughout the city to stay in their neighborhoods to work. That is one of the reasons we started Coworking Seattle, and why we continue to encourage the growth of more coworking spaces in our city. More individuals choosing to telecommute or work within their own neighborhoods means less time wasted commuting (the average American spends 61 minutes behind the wheel each day according to Transporation Choices Coalition), and more productive time working, living, and contributing to local commerce.

So, consider coworking a tool.  Not a one-stop solution, but a great tool to use in the journey to make an impact on our city’s carbon footprint.  Interested in helping out?  Join in the conversations happening at Coworking Seattle via our Google Group.  We’d love to talk to you!

Thanks to flickr user Robert S. Donovan for use of the above photo under the Creative Commons License.

Last night I was happy to present a quick 3-minute stint on coworking at Great City’s “What’s the Big Idea?” event.  This was the first time they’ve held an event like this, and it seems like they got enough positive support to host more in the future.

I was excited to share a big idea for Seattle, and am now happy to pass along some of what I presented.  Ideas are still very much in the initial stages, but if any of this catches your eye and you want to get involved or pick our brains about it, definitely get in touch!

Coworking Seattle: A Platform for Shared Working Spaces in Seattle
Coworking is a community-based approach to getting work done.  Coworking spaces exist to provide shared resources to independent workers and telecommuters to allow them a sustainable, local, professional option when it comes to trying to successfully “work from home.”  Seattle has put coworking on the map in the pacific northwest and has proven that it can succeed.  Coworking is recognized as a method by which cities can drive innovation and encourage collaboration – key success matrices when it comes to surviving difficult economic times. Worldwide, there are over 165 coworking spaces currently in operation, and coworking has attracted the attention of a wide spread of media outlets.

Why are coworking spaces a big idea for Seattle?  These spaces are a simple, resource-efficient way to address the transportation issue in our city. They encourage urban sustainability by encouraging individuals to work closer to where they live without sacrificing their sanity and professionalism by trying to work from their living rooms.  Coworking spaces enable citizens to get out out of their cars, save valuable commuting time, and keep their dollars local by supporting other neighborhood businesses.  Coworking spaces are economic generators for neighborhoods.

Seattle is current pouring huge amounts of tax dollars into building more roads and bigger transpiration systems to move people all over the Seattle region.  While this work is important, it also begs a question: when it comes to daily transportation needs, why not work on encouraging our citizens to stay closer to home?  Why push to do more when we could succeed by doing less? We have the technological capacity (access to the internet, virtual private networks, etc.) and city-sponsored programs to support increased telecommuting in our area. As the job market tightens, we see more and more individuals deciding to strike out on their own and start their own businesses.  Instead of asking these people to attempt to succeed by working isolated at home or amongst noisy cafes, why not support shared workspaces which not only allow individuals to work in their own neighborhoods, but also to share resources and save energy by sharing space?

There are an average of 210,000 cars going over and back on the floating bridges each day.  This is a shock, and an embarrassment to our city as we claim to be an environmentally friendly place to live.  Seattle can do better, and Seattle must to better.  Coworking spaces, whether for desk jockeys, caterers, woodworkers, or artists, are one way in which our city could take a strong step forward in making a difference.  In our current market, and with so many commercial offices spaces laying vacant, we cannot afford not to.  An effort which combines the energy of private coworking spaces and leverages their knowledge to support public spaces is going to be key to making these spaces available to all.

There is a conversation going on across the intertubes today about the many reasons why telecommuting can help reduce costs to employees as well as reduce emissions across the board.

Charlie pointed me to an article this morning on Treehugger, “Calculating How Telecommuters Make a Difference.”  The folks at Treehugger point telecommuters and their employers to a new tool developed by SonicWALL designed to help folks realize the impact they can make by kicking their commute goodbye.

This is a wonderful step.  For a long time now we have only been able to rely on our instincts about why it is a resource conservation step to telecommute.  We have the same issue when talking about potential savings for coworking spaces – it is often difficult for us to point to specific savings that members of a coworking space can refer to in order to convince their employers or their colleagues that coworking is the real deal.  Well, thanks to SonicWALL, we may be on our way to being able to get some true data on what the financial and environmental value of telecommuting.  Their calculator gives employers a way to measure the impact of telecommuting on the planet as well as the cost savings to employees by telecommuting. The tool lets you customize your data depending on how far you’re traveling, how many days you telecommute, as well as fuel costs and fuel efficiencies of the vehicle you’re using.  Pretty simple, and an easy way to realize the benefits.

I’d ask, could employers then support their employees to work out of a coworking space so they could still have the benefit of a productive, energetic workspace while avoiding the nasty commute?  Seems like a logical fit to me.  In fact, we’ve talked about the benefits of coworking to the commuting world before.  A couple of times.  If employers want to ensure that they’re not losing productivity from employees, they could realize some serious financial benefits by encouraging telecommuting from a coworking space.  They could reduce their overhead costs of running a larger office, as well as allow their employees to have the benefit of not only saving their money, but saving them valuable commute time.

What do you think?

[Thanks to Flickr user blair25 for the great calculator shot, made available by the Creative Commons license!]

Yeee-haw! Susan’s first blog post EVER. I don’t know about you all, but this is a pretty big day for me. I’m surrounded by bloggers daily, and am excited to get my first thrills from publishing my thoughts out on the world wide web.

On a more news-worthy note, a few fun things have happened today at the space. I thought I’d share.

First, I painted another set of walls. We’ve been hemming and hawing over how to get some color in the space to make it feel more comfortable, and it is a spectacular feeling to get the process get started. With the amazing help of our good friend and amazing interior designer Piper, we’ve chosen a few great colors and have started making progress. Today was another set of brown walls – chocolate-colored goodness. Check it out:

Second, thanks to my good friend Drew, I came across a noteworthy article I thought I’d share. The P-I reported on a local gentleman who procured an award-winning vehicle from a 1970′s competition for gas efficient vehicles – this one racked up an amazing 376 mpg! Talk about exciting, and this with 230-plus-year-old technology. You can find the full report here, but this is a particular section I enjoyed:

The mileage from the mostly stock four-cylinder came from heating and insulating the fuel line so the gas entered the engine as lean vapor. Then they drove the car on a closed course at a steady 30 mph.

So some of that wouldn’t work in the street, McMullen concedes. But if the car were made more drivable and lost 200 mpg — it still would get 176 mpg.

“Here’s a car that was 20 years old at the time of the contest that was the project of a couple of guys in a garage,” he said. “You can’t tell me we can’t do better than this with cars today.”

Here at Office Nomads, there is always talk about ways in which we can help to make an impact on climate change and to help create a more sustainable neighborhood in Capitol Hill. Although personally I believe that one of the keys to moving forward is to move away from individual cars and really start digging into better public transportation, I thought this article was pretty uplifting. Though y’all might get a kick out of it.

That’s it for now. Happy Thursday, folks. Over & out.