Strawless In Seattle
Written by Mami Hara, CEO/General Manager of Seattle Public Utilities
In one of my earlier blog posts, I shared the opportunity I see for us to become an even more community-centered utility. One of the six primary goals of this new vision is to expand our impact through effective partnerships.
I believe partnerships are essential to building a community-centered utility because they allow SPU to hear, understand, and respond to the needs of those we serve, and for community members and organizations to become part of our team in developing and implementing solutions. Building partnerships is a dynamic process — not only are we able to listen and act, but communities are able to respond to our actions too.
Today, I’d like to share with you an example that I believe embodies the ideal partnership — one that connects ideas with creative solutions, and acts as a catalyst for change.
If you’ve scanned your social media feed recently, or watched the local news, you will recognize the phrase “Strawless in Seattle.” More than a clever tagline, “Strawless in Seattle” is a campaign created by Lonely Whale Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to protect marine and ocean health. The motivation for the campaign is to combat plastics pollution in our oceans.
There’s the idea, now here is the ingenuity: positioning something as small as a straw as the gateway to advocate for a big environmental issue. Lonely Whale creatively highlighted a single object, the humble straw, to help us evaluate our individual and collective relationship with the disposable plastics that pervade our lives and waterway.
When asked why Seattle was chosen as the start of this innovative campaign, Lonely Whale said that it simply made sense to partner with a city that has established leadership in sustainability and environmental stewardship.
It’s true, reducing plastics pollution is not a new idea to SPU. In fact, we were working to reduce the impact of disposable plastics almost 10 years ago. In 2008, we passed an ordinance to ban all single-use plastic utensils — including straws. This ban was paused due to the lack of available alternatives to disposable utensils that businesses could switch to.
Early this year, SPU re-evaluated the market for plastic alternatives, and decided to start implementing the ban in July 2018.
The “Strawless in Seattle” movement demonstrates the power of partnerships to inspire meaningful change. Lonely Whale brought creativity and the ability to capture imaginations; SPU brought the regulation. Both contributions are important.
We all have a role to play with unique approaches and abilities to create change. It is when we work together that changes like this can endure.
While the “Strawless in Seattle” campaign successfully eliminated 2 million straws in September alone, we all know that strong community partnerships are not tied to a single issue or event. We must cultivate strong, lasting partnerships with all types of groups and organizations in order to tackle today’s pressing issues.
I also want to recognize that the success of “Strawless in Seattle” did not come without the hard work of SPU staff engaging stakeholders in various sectors and industries to pave the path for a ban on single-use plastics to exist.
While I couldn’t have imagined that the stars (at least the Hollywood type) would align this partnership between SPU’s disposable plastics ban and the social-savvy driven “Strawless in Seattle” campaign, it is an excellent example of the magnitude of positive change that can happen when we are ready to jump into the right opportunities.
Your turn next. How do you see partnerships impacting the work that we do?
Reposted with approval from Seattle Public Utilities
