Bowling in the Fog

Yesterday I attended the first annual Twin Cities Compass meeting. I'd never heard of this resource before, but it looks like a great place from which to gather information on a variety of topics (including education, health, civic engagement, early childhood, economy and workforce, housing, public safety, and transportation) and easily compare them to each other. The information is currently focused on the greater Twin Cities region, but it looks as though they are hoping to expand it to "Minnesota Compass" sometime in the future.

At the meeting they unveiled their new data in the area of environmental issues in Minnesota. The results are pretty amazing, and the meeting really honed in the idea that information on where we currently stand on environmental is really so important in order to measure our progress. It's time to stop bowling in the fog, as Peter Hutchinson from the Bush Foundation said. Things always look better than they really are in the dark, so it's time to turn on the lights. We, as people trying to "green" the built environment, need to keep up with this type of data to ensure that we're putting our efforts where they have the greatest and longest-lasting impact.

Click here for information on the environmental indicators for the Twin Cities area.

Twin Cities Compass is looking for feedback and other sources of reliable data, so please contact them if you have any.