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Vinyl, as in those LPs you still cherish and play on a turntable. Invented by a University of Washington chemical engineering grad student in 1926. The automated fish cleaner, single-handled water faucet, portable heart defibrillator, kidney dialysis machine, the bone...

"These new battery buses will multiply our ability to protect our climate and clean air in King County,” says Councilwoman Claudia Balducci. Transportation creates nearly half of all of Washington’s greenhouse emissions. The King County Strategic Climate Action Plan...

Community energy efficiency programs keep Washingtonians working, and conserving energy, while bringing robust economic benefits and improving  building stock. This is no accident. Energy planners in the northwest understand that the smartest, most cost-effective way...

Employers are always looking for the ideal employee. The one who comes to work when scheduled, is on time, takes initiative and is a team player. Hard to find, right? Maybe it's time to start taking a more creative approach to finding those employees. There is growing...

In the last 2 years, high school graduation increased by 7 percent from 73.7 percent to 79.0 percent of incoming ninth graders.

“It can become another signature of sustainability for a region known for environmental leadership - what other types of buildings can you literally grow from a handful of seeds?” – architect Susan Jones Progress in creating a regional and national market for cross...

For the first time in over a hundred years, consumers can choose the source of their home electricity. In fact, with factorial increases in the adoption of solar technologies due to lower costs, technological gains, and policy incentives, some consumers are already...

Welcome to Catalyst, the blog of the Washington Business Alliance's PLAN Washington initiative. As you'll see, PLAN Washington is an ambitious and non-partisan strategic plan for the state pegged to Year 2025 performance goals and emerging strategies for achieving...

Americans hold roughly $30 trillion in long term savings, and in Seattle it’s about $70 billion. Yet nationally almost none of that – less than one percent – is invested in the small, locally owned businesses that make up nearly 50 percent of U.S. GDP and 80 percent...

by Matt Rosenberg on April 15, 2014 Computer coding doesn't have to be your core competency but increasingly it's an important skill to have for scientists, engineers, economists, creatives and many more. The problem, one felt in Washington state and across the U.S.,...

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"Parents should encourage their children to participate in Career Tech Education (CTE)." That's the data-driven message coming from the National Parent Teacher Association and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). They've released a new...

For two years the Washington Business Alliance has been advocating for and celebrating the importance of hands-on, applied training that Career and Technical Education (CTE) delivers to high school students. CTE, also known as vocational training, actively engages and...

By Crosscut's Tom James. After a long wait, the debate over state education funding got underway in earnest last week, as Democrats grappled with the year’s first major proposal from Republicans. The plan, released the previous weekend, details a series of policy...

Washington has some of the worst achievement gaps in the entire country. The state needs to address the performance gaps that divide student outcomes across incomes levels and racial backgrounds. Only five states rank worse than Washington in terms of the gap between...

CTE is shorthand for “Career & Technical Education”a set of programs that teach career and technology skills to middle & high school students. In recent years, CTE funding has become increasingly weakened in Washington State schools. If students can’t access...

Technology is rapidly changing the expectations of users on how government data is accessed. The days of endless PDFs with pages of heavy text and a few pictures for illustration are disappearing. The public expects government data to be presented much like the apps...

Following a legislative session where the Washington Business Alliance stood front and center in debates over carbon policy, we continue to collaborate with stakeholders in charting a productive course on this challenging issue for business. In recent months the...

by Matt Rosenberg on April 21, 2014 To succeed in the new century, U.S. metro regions including Seattle and 10 others in Washington must continue to build companies in advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, aerospace, software, computer systems...

It’s boom time again in the technology sector and every major region in the country is busy stretching the truth to declare itself America’s “next Silicon Valley". Most of these claims are silly on their face; the Bay Area has an 80-year head start as the global...

by Hans D. Stroo on February 15, 2016 On February 2nd, the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Committee was packed with businesses, educators, parents, and students who came to testify in support of Senate Bill 6415, a bill to fund career-connected learning for middle- and...

by Hans D. Stroo & Quintin Barnes on October 20, 2014 1.) After Coal: The future of Washington's emission profile Where do Washington's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from? What are we doing to reduce GHG? Washington legislated GHG reduction targets for 2020,...

From introduction forward, you can track bills in the Washington state legislature online, and can even customize delivery to your inbox of legislative hearing videos by topic or bill number using the Scout tool of the state’s public affairs cable channel TVW. However...

In today’s economy, is a 4-year degree the only viable route to career success? One popular narrative compares college-goers to those whose education ends at high school graduation. This approach boils down to one simple finding: college grads perform better than...

by Hans D. Stroo on September 9, 2016 “Given that 70% of jobs in Washington do not require a 4-year degree, what is your vision to ensure CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION (CTE) classes are strongly supported in every high school in Washington to create career-connected...

Recently there has been significant conversation in our state about climate change policy. Washington State residents have found need to evaluate many proposed policies aiming to price and regulate greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon tax appeared on the ballot in 2016...

We’ve passed the first “cutoff” day of the 2016 legislative session. The number of bills being considered is winnowing down, as those that failed to move out of their first committee are brushed away. In terms of appropriations, the legislature received unexpected...

In 2016 the Washington Business Alliance is focused on strengthening Career Tech education and advancing its Low Carbon Prosperity agenda. We will also contribute to discussion on other strategies and recommendations within the recently released 2016 edition of PLAN...

For decades, most rural economic-development efforts have focused largely on hitting that ever-elusive home run: landing the big corporate relocation or expansion. But as any economic-development professional knows, this can be a labor- and resource-intensive process...

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in late July the parking lot at Sunrise in Mount Rainier National Park - elevation 6,400 feet - is full of visitors speaking German, Spanish, and Japanese. Dozens of hikers are setting off in different directions, often in large groups and...

Areas outside of Greater Seattle continue to post higher unemployment rates than the state average. The graph below uses data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Local Area Unemployment Statistics survey. The Seattle-Bellevue-Everett line captures the dramatic...

In the United States, the plastics industry is the third-largest manufacturing industry. The outlook is strong nationally, from injection molding companies to high-demand 3D printing, plastics companies are expecting a 4.6 percent growth in 2016, which is projected to...