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Newsletter Team
Editor
Katie Cavert
Copy Editor:
Carolyn Keefe
Design/Production
Katie Cavert
Contributors:
John Stevens
Brandee Boggs
Katie Cavert
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Mission Statement:
The Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute drives knowledge into action, solving societal problems today for generations to come by harnessing world-class environmental, economic, and energy research to support collaborations among researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, government officials, and community activists.
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BRSI's
Definition of Sustainability
The Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute is an advocate and catalyst for actions that make the earth more sustainable. Sustainability means creating and maintaining conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling social, economic and environmental requirements of present and future generations.
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Board of Directors
Paul Bellows
Chair
Retired Chief Operating Officer, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP
Patricia S. Smith
Treasurer
Retired President, The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina
W. Louis Bissette, Jr.
Secretary
Partner, McGuire, Wood & Bissette
John Ager
Owner; Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Partner, Drovers Road Preserve
Becky Anderson
Consultant; Founder and Former Director, Hand Made in America
DeWayne Barton
Co-Director, Green Opportunities
Jack Haiden Britt
Blackwell Britt & Associates; Retired Executive Vice President of The University of Tennessee
Kitty Boniske
Former Chair, International League for Peace and Freedom, Asheville Chapter
Robin Cape
RLCape Consulting, Inc.
Susan Fox
Assistant Director of Research, Southern Research Station, US Forest Service
Pam Lewis
Director of Entrepreneurship, Asheville/Buncombe Economic Development Coalition
Holly Jones
Buncombe County Commissioner; Director, YWCA of Asheville
Randy Talley
President, The Green Sage
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BRSI Profile
We have an amazing collection of talented professionals who contribute their time and resources to the management and development of BRSI projects and programs.
This month's featured member is:
Brandee Boggs
Advisor on Collaborations
Thank you, Brandee, for your contributions!
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BRSI Sponsor Profile
We owe much appreciation to our sponsors who are instrumental to our existence and development.
This month's featured sponsor is:
Biltmore Farms
Thank you, Biltmore Farms,
for your support!
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LEADERSHIP GROUP
Tim Ballard
Energy Campaign Manager
Paul Bellows
Chair of Board of Directors
Lenny Bernstein Projects and Programs Director
Brandee Boggs Advisor of Collaborations
Sue Brown Sustainable Tourism Advisor Katie Cavert Communications Coordinator
Steve Cochran Principal
Rebecca Efroymson Senior Advisor on Natural Environments
Carolyn Keefe
Copy Editor
Ed Mayer Sustainable Tourism Advisor
Bill Hargrove
Senior Science Advisor
Tom Hatley
Special Advisor on Rural Development Carolyn Keefe Copy Editor Drew Kitt Special Advisor on Renewable Energy Russ Martin
Chair of Advisory Board
Teresa Matthews
Manager of BRSI's Contacts
Jonathan Robert
Advisor on Capacity Development
Jon Snover
Senior Advisor on Sustainability
John Stevens
Executive Director
Sherry Vaughan Administrative Assistant
Susan Weidmann
Sustainable Tourism Advisor
Kevin Locke Wilson
Special Assistant to the Executive Director
Noah Wilson
Manager of Information Technology
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ADVISORY COUNCIL
(Co-Chair)
(Director of Smith Mill Creek Permaculture School)
(Director of the North Carolina Arboretum)
(Retired, Former Western North Carolina Marketing Director, Self-Help Ventures Fund)
(Robert J. Deutsch, PA)
(Green Jobs Director, Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry)
(Partner, Integritive)
(Owner, Sundance Power Systems)
(President, Ridgetop Associates)
(Director, FLS Solar Technologies)
Janell Kapoor
(Spokesperson and Coordinator, Ashevillage)
(Transit Project Manager, City of Asheville)
(Director of Integrative Healthcare, Mission Hospitals)
(EcoBuilders Founder)
(Vice President, Entrepreneurship & AdvantageGreen)
(Professor and Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Wake Forest School of Medicine)
(Managing Director, The Nauhaus Institute)
(Former Director, LGS, Land of Sky Regional Council of Government)
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Become a
Friend of BRSI
for $25/year
Make a tax deductible donation now!
Donate online or fill out this form and send it in. Thank you!
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GREEN MONDAYS SURVEY: Your Feedback Please!
BRSI would like your feedback about our Green Mondays program, including your suggestions for topics in the future. Please complete our Green Mondays survey. It will take you about 3 minutes and will provide us with valuable program evaluation information.
Thank you in advance!
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 Sustainability- It is about a Paradigm Shift A Note from John G. Stevens Executive Director, BRSI
Our current world system is driven by capital and material goods. This system is not sustainable with the world's growing population. A paradigm shift is necessary for our world to be more sustainable. The mindset of gaining capital and material goods must shift to a mindset of forming relationships.
Nature survives well with essentially no waste and no need for energy input beyond what is locally available; it is all about the relationships within nature, not the accumulation of capital and things. Central to the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute (BRSI) is collaborations both within the Institute and with other individuals and organizations in our community. Collaboration is just another word for relationships. Most important for BRSI as it grows and develops is the importance of strong relationships among our various projects and programs, the relationships amongst the various components within BRSI (finances, communications, personnel, facilities etc.), and the relationships BRSI continues to develop in our community (local, regional, and national).
BRSI has developed its capacity as an organization with its organizational structure (Board, Advisory Council, and Leadership Group), its legal structure (non-profit status, financial structure, and contracting ability), its mission of knowledge into action through BRSI's programs and projects, and its abilities to collaborate with others in the community while developing its agenda. Driving these entities are the relationships among individuals and components of the organization.
Development is an ongoing process, and we have recently realized that BRSI's financial model, one heavily dependent on grants and contracts, is not sustainable. At the national level, the average non-profit depends on 75% of its needed income stream to come from annual giving. BRSI's dependence on annual giving is one-tenth that of the national average for non-profits. Because development is about relationships, we at BRSI hope to broaden our relationships and thus increase our annual giving capacity in order to become a more sustainable, thriving organization.
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Green Restaurant Initiative Updates and more:
Since our last Green Mondays, AIR Restaurants Lead the Way in Sustainable Practices, two more restaurants have received their green certifications and the GO-Kitchen Ready program has announced its first graduating class!
Congratulations to:
Strada Italiano- 3 star Green Restaurant Certified
Green Sage South- 4 star Green Restaurant Certified
(Exceptional rating- only the eighth in the United States and the first in the Southeast to reach this lofty goal!)
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10 Reasons to Support Asheville Local Restaurants:
(Adapted from the Buy Local campaign and Top 10 Reasons to support locally owned businesses via the Asheville Grown Business Alliance)
1. Support Local and Unique Restaurants
Locally owned restaurants cater to the culture of the communities they serve. Unique restaurants are vital to the diverse character of our community.
2. Get Better Service
Local restaurants tend to hire people with some knowledge of the product and the customers they serve as well as knowledge of the area and other local businesses. They tend to provide better customer care by giving special attention to the customers they serve.
3. Reduce Environmental Impact
Many Asheville Independent Restaurants are completing a rigorous Green Restaurant Certification! They have invested time and money in upgrading to energy efficient appliances and lighting, have trained staff to conserve water and energy and some have installed solar thermal systems for hot water. These restaurants choose eco-frielndly cleaning products and tend to rely more (often solely) on local farms and organic quality. Click here to see all restaurants that are green certified!
4. Invest in Our Community
Local restaurant owners live in the community they serve and invest their resources here, in Asheville.
5. Create More Good Jobs
Local businesses, collectively, are one of the largest employers nationwide and local restaurants provide jobs for residents in Asheville.
6. Conserve Local Tax Dollars
Small neighborhood and downtown businesses require less public infrastructure and make more efficient use of city services compared to big box stores and shopping centers.
7. Have More Choices
Buy what YOU want, not what someone else wants you to buy. Independent restaurants purchase products and cook the food that the local customers desire, not a national sales plan. This guarantees a more diverse and innovative range of choices.
8. Support Our Community
AIR and AIR restaurants give back to the community via supporting fundraisers for health, non-profits, the environment and the arts. Have you heard of the GO- Kitchen Ready Program or A Taste of Asheville?
9. Ensure Asheville Stands Out from the Crowd
Asheville is a tourist destination and it is a large portion of our economy. What makes Asheville unique is what brings people coming back to our town. We will soon be named America's Greenest Dining Destination!
10. Buy Local - Support Yourself
For every $100 spent in locally owned stores $68 is reinvested in the Asheville. If you spend it at a national chain only $43 stays here.
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Meet Brandee Boggs: Advisor onCollaborations Brandee is a North Carolina native. She was raised in rural Davidson County but has called western North Carolina home since the mid '90's, when she moved to the area to attend forestry school in Haywood County. She went on to a decade long career of Fire Management, mostly in the Western United States, but always spent her winters in the North Carolina mountains. In 2008 she returned to school at UNC Asheville to finish up a degree in Land Use Planning and Policy as well as to study Economics. Brandee's paid work for the last four years involves being the Director of the Student Environmental Center at UNC Asheville. There she supervises 5-11 students in yearlong internships. The students address most aspects of sustainability including energy and water conservation, more sustainable transportation, urban gardens and composting programs, and sustainability policies at the university. This past year and a half, Brandee was awarded grants of over $300,000 from the NC State Energy Office and has been working with 20 recent graduates addressing energy conservation throughout the community by engaging in both hands-on reduction measures and policy and advocacy work. Brandee has served on BRSI's Leadership Board since 2010. Additionally, she volunteers with many local organizations to address sustainability on a social level. Her volunteer work includes serving as Chair of the Policy and Advocacy Committee of Just Economics; Technical Director of the Runaway Circus; Guardian ad-Litem, Children First's Success Equation Policy Team; Advisor to Freedom Mobile Market Project; and a member of Asheville City's Tree Commission as well as GroWNC's Land Use Committee. During the last year, Brandee has joined four colleagues in starting the first ever Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council. The membership is more than 300 strong and has made great advancements toward making Asheville City and Buncombe County more food secure. In addition to being a founding member, Brandee currently serves as a Co-chair for the Access Cluster and on the Policy & Legislation Cluster. Brandee enjoys building projects, especially those involving reclaimed materials. Over the course of several winters, she built her own house (the casita) out of objects that were slated for the landfill. She likes to grow her own food, spend time with her friends and family, and laugh as much as possible. |
BRSI Sponsor Profile:
Biltmore Farms was instrumental in BRSI's development in its beginnings. Jack Cecil, a member of the Asheville HUB and President of Biltmore Farms, supported the creation of a sustainability organization in Asheville. BRSI began in 2008 with initial funding from Biltmore Farms. In addition, BRSI used office space donated by Biltmore Farms for three years until we moved to our downtown offices. BRSI is very grateful for the contributions that Biltmore Farms has made to BRSI and the community at large.
Biltmore Farms consists of four divisions: Commercial, Communities, Hospitality, and Residential. Based on founder George W. Vanderbilt's vision and philosophy of sustainability, the company honors that legacy in its five tenets of community development: education, healthcare, economic development, arts & culture, and the environment and quality of life in the mountains of WNC.
From hotels to communities, Biltmore Farms leads in sustainable practices. All hotels are committed to energy reduction, tracking energy consumption and striving for a 20% reduction by 2014. Hotels are changing out light bulbs to use CFLs, using environmentally friendly cleaning products, and reducing waste by composting and recycling, including giving waste oil to Blue Ridge Biofuels. Also implemented are farm to table produce practices, tree plantings, water conservation measures, and staff education. The Hilton in Biltmore Park® is LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified silver, recognized for its installation of solar thermal panels. Read more about Biltmore Farms' sustainability initiatives here.
The Ramble® Biltmore Forest, a residential community in south Asheville, was awarded the Environmental Conservation Award from Mountain Homes and the FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway for using sustainable development practices in designing and building the community.
Biltmore Farms is proud to be a part of Western North Carolina's transition to a more sustainable environment, and Jack Cecil applauded BRSI for its vision and leadership in the arena of sustainable community development.
Thank you Biltmore Farms for your dedication to BRSI and sustainability in Western North Carolina!
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BRSI's monthly newsletter Knowledge Into Action is made possible by a generous donation from the
James McClure Clarke Fund
Thank you for your dedication to sustainability in Western North Carolina!
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