Special Thanks to:  

 

 

John and Annie Ager

 

 

for hosting this year's Annual Celebration at their beautiful historic home, Sherrill's Inn in Hickory Nut Gap.  

 

We appreciate your support!

 

 

Russ Martin 

 

 

This year's Annual Celebration will be our best yet! 

 

 

Mark your calendars for November 18 from 7-9pm

 

Sherrill's Inn

 

 

Please join in recognizing the volunteers and businesses that have contributed services, time, financial resources, and passion for building a more sustainable community.

 

This event is generously hosted by John and Annie Ager at their home, a historic site called Sherrill's Inn in Fairview, about 15 miles east of Asheville. Southern Exposure Sustainable String Band is returning to provide fair trade, old time and original tunes. Food and drink from local area restaurants will be served in a beautiful setting. 

 

 

Sherrill's Inn

 

A suggested $10 Door Donation supports the mission of BRSI and enters you into our raffle for prizes from local business owners, such as Thai Basil, Ananda Hair Salon, Early Girl Eatery and more!  

 

You will see old friends and meet new people in a beautiful, historic space.

Sherrill's Inn has was built in the early 1800's on the "Hickory Nut Turnpike" and has hosted travelers, cattle drivers, former governors, a U.S. representative, senator, and former U.S. President Millard Fillmore.   It houses the oldest building in the county. 

 

 

Please RSVP to rsvp@blueridgesustainability.org- space is limited!

 

If you would like to volunteer, contact Katie Cavert at kcavert@blueridgesustainability.org.  Thanks!

  

Thanks to our local restaurant sponsors, we will have amazing, freshly prepared appetizers and desserts! 

                                

 

French Broad Chocolate Lounge and others!

 

BRSI Launches Energy Education Program 

for Green Restaurant Initiative 

 

 

As part of the Energy Upfit Campaign, BRSI is partnering with the Asheville Independent Restaurant (AIR) Association to "green" 17 local independent restaurants through a $258,000 grant from North Carolina Green Business Fund. We intend to put Asheville on the map as a Green Dining Destination City with the highest per-capita density of Green Certified Restaurants® anywhere in the country. In support of the restaurant's pursuing Green Certification, the grant funding is to support energy efficiency upgrades and solar installations in participating restaurants. These upgrades will create savings for the restaurants on their monthly utility bills, provide jobs, and support the growing clean energy industry in the region.

 

The grant also provides funding for the development of an energy conservation education program. Significant reductions in energy use can be achieved through low cost efficiency upgrades, such as proper walk-in refrigerator lighting, or no cost through behavioral changes, such as turning off cooking equipment that is not in use. In an effort to ensure that the Green Restaurant Initiative has a lasting impact, the BRSI and the AIR Green Team included educational and outreach components in the project. Their goal is to lay the groundwork for a long-term self-sustaining educational program that will provide a rapid return on investment for restaurants and support the culture of cooperation already strong in Asheville's business community.

 

On average, 45% of the energy used in restaurants is consumed during food preparation, an area over which restaurant staff has significant control.[1] Energy conscious use of kitchen equipment can reduce restaurant energy consumption by up to 7%.[2] Strategies include assigning responsibility for turning off cooking equipment, exhaust fans, and lights between shifts and at the end of the day, keeping lids on stock pots and braising pans, flushing broilers, and defrosting freezers. Simple measures such as turning off sections of griddles and broilers during slow periods or eliminating long oven preheat times can save hundreds of dollars and millions of BTUs.  Simple measures applicable to other sectors that can be effective include displaying reminders to turn off lights, setting thermostats appropriately, and turning off all electronic equipment at night via a power strip to eliminate phantom loads. Our education program will teach these techniques and we will monitor utility bills to evaluate their effectiveness.

 

The following restaurants are currently participating in the Green Restaurant Initiative (click to go to their websites): 

 

• Bouchon
• The French Broad Chocolate Lounge
• The Corner Kitchen
• The Green Sage (both locations) 
• Fiores Ristorante Toscana (both locations) 
• Frankie Bones 
• Homegrown 
• Laughing Seed Cafe 
• Jack of the Wood
• Luella's BBQ
• Tupelo Honey Cafe (both locations)
• Neo Cantina 
• Rosetta's Kitchen, 
• Posana Cafe 

 

 Hungry yet? Eat well. Eat local. Eat green.

 

The potential of eco-tourism in Western North Carolina, an area rich in biodiversity, breathtaking landscapes, and authentic local cultural experiences, is readily apparent. However, the development of this lucrative market is relatively still in its infancy, despite the area's identity as a vacation destination. While eco-tourism, "the responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of the local people," offers the regional hospitality and tourism industry large opportunities for economic growth, this fast growing industry also requires sustainable management and planning in order to preserve the very landscapes and communities upon which the industry depends.

 

Eco-tourism encompasses nature-based and authentic culturally-based activities, as well as environmentally sustainable facilities, operations, transportation, and infrastructure, while taking an interdisciplinary systems approach to economic development. The community-based model of eco-tourism development involves engaging local residents in planning, management, and entrepreneurship to better respond to ecological and social impacts and to create a wider distribution of financial benefit across the community. The principles that guide ecotourism are closely related to the principles that guide the triple bottom line of sustainability, which considers the economic, social, and ecological impacts of an activity or design.

Opportunities for "green job" growth related to eco-tourism offer promise of revitalization and stimulation of our local economy. Studies completed by Tourism Queensland and the American Travel Association found that ecotourism became the fastest growing type of US travel, with 43 percent of American vacations including ecotourism activities in 2010. Rapid urbanization across the country and much of the south is likely to increase the demand for nature-related experiences, while rising fuel costs are an incentive to look for domestic travel options. However, when a community-based model of development is not utilized, low wage and seasonal jobs have traditionally dominated the industry, despite the steady increase in tourism-related regional employment over the last decade. Yet for eco-tourism entrepreneurs, there can be a low barrier to entry, as no advanced degrees or new technologies are required, and many eco-tourism experiences build on the assets a community already has- rather than require capital intensive investment.

 

Pre-existing green certification programs offer standards travelers can trust and help market participating businesses. Many small business owners currently operate our region's bed and breakfasts, summer camps, rafting companies, and the like- but may not have the time or knowledge to "green" their businesses, offering employment opportunities to those who can help them meet certification requirements.

 

To advance community-based eco-tourism in the region, we need education, advocacy, industry-specific expertise, marketing, and capital to "green" the current industry, construct a supportive municipal infrastructure and transit system, and help communities attract new eco-tourism business. A new Appalachian Eco-tourism Network (AEN) led by BRSI could help realize this new vision. The AEN could bring together the diverse stakeholders involved in eco-tourism, and better coordinate activities in order to avoid negative ecological or community impacts, and greener facilities can be built from the start.     Working together with communities, conservation professionals, industry, and new entrepreneurs, the AEN can identify opportunities and resources to support the transition of Appalachia to the nation's premier eco-tourism destination - in a place both residents and visitors equally enjoy. 

 

 

 

 

 

The faith-based community has played an important leadership role in achieving the major social changes of the last hundred years, and it will have to play a similar role in achieving a more sustainable world. Many in the faith-based community see support for sustainability initiatives as a natural extension of their religious beliefs and are actively involved in promoting such initiatives in their churches and synagogues, among their members, and with the general public. The five speakers at BRSI's October 17th Green Monday presented specific initiatives their communities were taking.

  

Susan Garrett, Director of the Asheville-Buncombe Christian Community Mission (ABCCM)'s Green Jobs Program, spoke about her program's efforts to place 266 of their graduates in green jobs that at present do not exist. One of the ways to create these jobs is to show member congregations the benefits of improving the energy efficiency of their churches. ABCCM has created a Greener Pastors program in which pastors commit to green their churches by conducting energy assessments and raising money to make the upgrades identified by these assessments. In doing so, they save their churches money on energy bills, create green jobs, and help the local economy. Three churches in the Greener Pastors program benefited from detailed energy audits conducted by Environmental Defense Fund Climate Change Fellows, and three other churches were helped by the Land-of-Sky Waste Reduction Partners program. The Greener Pastors program is being expanded to church congregations through a Green Shepherds program that offers lower cost residential energy assessments. Thus far, 25 homeowners have taken part in that program, but none have implemented the upgrades identified by the assessments.

  

Mark Burnham, Senior Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Asheville, was one of ABCCM's Greener Pastors. Last summer his church hosted one of the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Change Fellows, who carried out a detailed energy audit of the church. The church's sanctuary was constructed in 1890, and other portions were built in 1968 and 2003. This energy audit led to the design of seven energy projects, which are projected to save about 174,000 kwh/year, reduce CO2 emissions by 49 tons, and have an average payback time of 3.16 years. The first of these projects, a lighting upgrade in the Sanctuary, is now being implemented.

  

Howard Jaslow, Past President of Congregation Beth HaTephila, discussed his congregation's program, known as Preserving Our Planet (POP). POP, which incorporated existing sustainability efforts, has four focus areas:

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, under which the Temple is composting kitchen wastes and recycling paper and waste, eliminated Styrofoam cups, encouraging Meatless Mondays, and providing tips in its monthly newsletter;
• Energy Conservation is focused on educating the congregation on energy reduction and climate change, and includes advocacy on these issues;
• Sustainable Agriculture has addressed food choices at congregation social events and interfaith activities, including a CSA with St. Mary's Episcopal Church;
• Transportation has developed an internet map of congregation members to promote ride-sharing and advocated for increased public transportation.

  

Lael Gray, Program Development and Marketing Director for the Jewish Community Center, described a hands-on gardening program they have developed for pre-school children based on Jewish environmental values. This program teaches the concepts of sustainability through a faith-based (in this case Jewish) lens.

  

Richard Fireman, Public Policy Coordinator, North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light, a program of the NC Council of Churches to identify and implement positive, hope-filled responses to climate change, presented a summary of NCIPL's efforts. These include:

 

• free energy audits for congregations;
• Cool Harvest, which focuses on growing, purchasing, cooking and eating in ways that reduce carbon footprint, improve health, and promote sustainable agriculture;
• Earth Sabbath celebrations, which focus on restoring and repairing the Earth with traditions drawn from many faiths;
• a clearing house to share information on renewable energy; and
• advocacy effort for low/no carbon energy.

 

The discussion that followed included comments from members of other congregations on both the challenges they face and the programs they have instituted. A video of this Green Monday can be found on the BRSI website: www. blueridgesustainability.org.

 

  

Green Mondays 26 Video- October 17, 2011