Contribute.
Volunteer
Volunteering with S2 is a great way to get involved in your community, gain or deepen your experience in sustainability, and contribute meaningfully.
For any volunteer opportunity, you should consider your availability, skills, and your own interests.
To the right are some suggestions to get you started.
If you like to work with your hands:
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- Black Star Food Collective (formerly Ujamaa Food Circle) – help package fresh food and deliver it to families
- Food Not Bombs – A community-run food bank
- Black Farmers Collective and Black Star Farmers – Farmworker Days (options for all communities, BIPOC, and Black and Indigenous farmwork days)
- Food Lifeline – help get food to those in need
- Puget Soundkeeper – clean-up activities and kayak patrol
- 350 Seattle – Direct action and activism
- Sunrise Movement – Climate justice organizing for people under 35
Note: If you are volunteering for an organization led by a specific community group, and you are not of that community, please be sure to follow guidance closely and enter the space with respect to the leadership and cultural expectations of the organizers.
If you like admin tasks or planning:
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- Join a planning committee for an upcoming event
- Offer assistance with data entry
If you like people and events:
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- Greet guests
- Help with event activities
- Show off the cool merch and market
If you want to flex your sustainability talents:
Are you a specialist of some sort? Chef, boatsmith, subject matter expert, mushroom forager, craftsperson, or some other magical skill?
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- Offer a special talk or experience for the S2 community
Internships & Professional Development
Sustainable Seattle accepts internship and professional development proposals on a rolling basis.
Individuals developing their expertise around sustainability (students, emerging professionals, transitioning professionals, and so on) may submit an idea for a special project or research proposal.
We love sharing knowledge and building the community through internships.
You should have a clear picture of what you’d like to study or contribute, and a good understanding of S2’s work.
We recommend attending an S2 community event to get to know the organization.
Proposals may include, but are not limited to:
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- Nonprofit management (administration, donor engagement, resource development)
- Sustainable business management (management strategies for sustainability, industrial trends, industrial ecology, whole-systems business models, theories of change)
- Community Engagement
- Activism and community organizing
- Participatory research
- Data and trends (analytics tracking, CRM, climate impact data in Seattle and Puget Sound region, GIS)
- Design thinking and systems change
- …and what else?
Current organizational projects:
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- Organizational history – research, design, present (an archiving, impact assessment, and communications project)
- Local practitioners review – a comprehensive, interactive resource guide to active organizations and key regional events (A resource mapping, regional industrial ecology assessment project)
Research topic suggestions:
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- Full footprint, circular economies, and materials use in and for Seattle
- Greenwashing and Authentic Engagement
- Sustainability, Banking and Financial Institutions in Seattle
- Houselessness and best practices in Seattle
- Public Engagement towards Regenerative Cities
- Critical Culturalism and Social Change
- Gamification and Disaster Preparedness
- Sustainable Urbanism
- Just Transition Frameworks and best practices
- Queer/Crip/Intersectional/Feminist Ecology
- …and what else?
Research may be applied to develop new programs, inform strategic direction, or be published on a blog or white paper. We enthusiastically welcome innovative, unconventional, radical, playful, game-changing thinkers.
Interested in sponsoring an S2 Intern? We welcome partnerships with funders who are committed to providing equitable internships for emerging sustainability leaders in the Seattle area. Contact em[at]sustainableseattle.org to share your interest.