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Newsletter Team
Editor/Design/Production:
Katie Bray
Copy Editor:
Carolyn Keefe
Contributors:
Tim Ballard
Lenny Bernstein
Randy Talley
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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:
Susan Weidmann
BRSI Business Manager and Advisor on Sustainable Tourism
Thank you, Susan, 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:
Lenoir Rhyne University Center for Graduate Studies of Asheville
Thank you
for your support!
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LEADERSHIP GROUP
Tim Ballard
Energy Campaign Manager
Lenny Bernstein
Projects and Programs Director
Brandee Boggs
Advisor of Collaborations
Katie Bray Administrative Coordinator Sue Brown Sustainable Tourism Advisor
Steve Cochran
Principal
Charlie Coggeshall Development and Finance Advisor
Rebecca Efroymson
Senior Advisor on Natural Environments
Michael Hull
IT and Web Developer
Ed Mayer
Sustainable Tourism Advisor
Bill Hargrove
Senior Science Advisor
Tom Hatley
Special Advisor on Rural Development
Carolyn Keefe
Copy Editor
Caroline Long
Advisory for Public Relations Design
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
Business Manager and Sustainable Tourism Advisor
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Asheville designated America's First Green Dining DestinationTM; mobile phone app released.
After a year and half of hard work, the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute, Green Restaurant Initiative Director Tim Ballard, the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, and sixteen of Asheville's independent restaurants have achieved their collective goal of establishing Asheville as America's First Green Dining DestinationTM as designated by the Boston-based national Green Restaurant Association. With sixteen Certified Green Restaurants�, Asheville has the highest density of green independent restaurants in the nation and is the first city to have a significant density of Certified Green Restaurants�.
You can find a full listing of Asheville's rapidly-growing green restaurants list at www.dinegreenasheville.com. Additionally, local developer Squiggle IT has created a green restaurant finder mobile phone app, which is currently available online for Android devices in the Google Play Store. It will soon be available in the Apple App Store as well.
You can see a series of WLOS News 13 segments on this announcement here or you can read more at any of the following:
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Upcoming BRSI Green Mondays
Asheville as Green Destination
Asheville as a Green Destination - Exploring the intersection of tourism and sustainability at the local level. A dynamic discussion of the opportunities and barriers to leveraging Asheville's existing strengths in sustainability and tourism for the greater benefit of the community.
One of Asheville's key community values has long been environmental conservation and sustainability, driven by its beautiful mountain home. One of its key economic strengths has long been tourism, also driven strongly by mountains and scenery. In December, BRSI will expand on its Eco-tourism Green Mondays from last year by exploring the intersection of sustainability and tourism at the local business level, focusing on how (and whether) sustainability and tourism can be leveraged against each other for greater benefit to the community. This Green Mondays will be led and moderated by Green Restaurant Initiative Director Tim Ballard.
Panelists will include:
The goal of Green Mondays is to educate and engage the community and to spur action-oriented collaborations that address the community's sustainability concerns.
BRSI Green Mondays are held in the Lenoir Rhyne Board Room at 36 Montford Avenue from 4-5:30p.m. Green Mondays are sponsored by Progress Energy, with support from the Lenoir Rhyne University Center for Graduate Studies of Asheville, and Purplecat Networks. Thank you!
Get connected at Green Mondays!
All are welcome to come and participate!
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BRSI Green Mondays Review
November 19, 2012
The (un?)Sustainability of Revitalization
in Asheville's River Arts District (RAD)
Asheville's RAD is currently the recipient of significant revitalization effort and investment. Given the three aspects of sustainability-economics, environment, and equity--many in our area wonder how sustainable that investment is. The November 19 Green Monday discussion, moderated by Stephanie Monson Dahl, City of Asheville Coordinator for Riverfront Redevelopment, City-owned Land
The video and presentations will be posted on our website soon! |
BRSI Becomes a Stakeholder in the Land-of-Sky Clean Vehicle Coalition
On Monday, October 29th, Lenny Bernstein represented BRSI at the Clean Cities Designation Celebration, which took place at the NC Arboretum. BRSI signed an MOU with the Land-of-Sky Clean Vehicle Coalition to become one of over forty stakeholders in our region. The goals of the MOU and the Coalition are:
- Advancing the energy, economic, and environmental security of the United States by supporting local decisions to adopt practices that reduce the use of petroleum in the transportation sector;
- Reducing dependence on petroleum-based and imported fuels in fleets in the Asheville, North Carolina, region comprised of Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania counties, consistent with the goals of the federal Energy Policy Act of 1992, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007;
- Meeting the petroleum reduction goals of the National Clean Cities Strategic Plan, and incorporating those goals into the coalition's own Strategic Plan;
- Complying with the health-based air quality standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulates contained in the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990;
- Carrying out the State of North Carolina's air quality and energy legislation, executive orders, or policies in a coordinated manner
- Increasing public awareness of the energy security and air quality benefits of using alternative motor fuels and vehicles, plug-in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, idle reduction technologies and other fuel economy measures;
- Encouraging the development of refueling, recharging, service, and maintenance facilities for alternative fuel, plug-in electric, and hybrid-electric vehicles;
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.
These goals are fully consistent with BRSI's mission "to drive knowledge into action, solving societal problems today and for generations to come by harnessing world-class environmental, economic, and energy research while encouraging collaborations among researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, government officials, and community activists," and BRSI is proud to be part of the Coalition.
Currently, BRSI does not have any projects in the transportation sector, but we are actively looking for ways to reduce transportation emissions and energy use in Western North Carolina. Ideas for such projects, and volunteers to implement them, would be greatly appreciated.
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BRSI Sponsor Profile:
On March 1, 2008, The Green Sage--Coffeehouse & Caf� opened in downtown Asheville, in the old Bean Streets location. The mission of the business was to serve healthy food in a restaurant committed to sustainability values. The founders, Randy Talley and Al Kirchner, made the decision to be the first restaurant in downtown Asheville to install a thermal hot water solar panel system on the roof-a risky investment for a start-up business. The Green Sage was also one of the first restaurants to incorporate composting into all facets of its operations, including a composting station on the sales floor.
The Green Sage believed that its commitment to the environment, along with offering organic coffee and all natural foods, would attract healthy, green-conscious customers and serve to inspire the greater business and residential community to embrace energy efficiency, renewable energy systems, water efficiency, and composting. Perhaps the most notable aspect of The Green Sage is the food itself, which accounts for about 65% of the business's sales. The menu includes local meats, eggs, tempeh, and milk; 25% of the ingredients are organic. Most everything is made from scratch, including over 25 baked goods. Scores of options exist for vegan and gluten-intolerant customers.
In 2010, Randy Talley joined the Asheville Independent Restaurants (AIR) Board and was a founding member of AIR's Green Team, along with Rosetta Starshine from Rosetta's Kitchen and Kevin Westmoreland from the Corner Kitchen. The Green Team started off with modest goals of sharing green business tips with other AIR members. However, the modest beginnings led to a grander vision to enroll 18 restaurants in a process of achieving green restaurant certification from the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). The AIR Green Restaurants partnered with the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute (BRSI)--and was awarded a grant from the NC Green Business fund for $258,000 to help achieve a combined energy savings of 3.4 Billion BTU's (amount of energy required to boil approximately 2.5 million gallons of water). Restaurants received financial assistance to purchase solar thermal hot water systems, energy efficient lighting, insulation, and weatherization kits.
On November 10, 2011, The Green Sage partners, joined by Roger Derrough (founder of Earth Fare), opened its second location in the old Southside Caf� location in South Asheville. Soon after, the original downtown Green Sage received 3 Star Green Certification from the GRA. Later in the year, the new location was awarded 4 Star Green Certification, the first restaurant in the Southeast, and one of only 10 in the United States to achieve the highest level of certification from the GRA. Notable improvements to the south location include: (1) the creation of a hot water system that incorporated six solar thermal hot water panels, plus a heat reclaim system using hot gas from the refrigeration system to pre-heat water, with the overall goal of heating 80% of the restaurant's hot water needs with free BTU's; and (2) 95% LED lighting with bulbs rated to last over 20 years creating a lighting system that could run on one 20 amp circuit (5x less than a typical restaurant).
In November 2012, the Green Restaurants achieved the goal of greening 16 area restaurants and achieving GRA's status as America's First Green Dining Destination. The entire list can be viewed at dinegreenasheville.com.
Thank you Green Sage Cafe for your continued support of BRSI and sustainability in the region! |
Meet Katie Bray: BRSI Administrative Coordinator Katie has taken on most of BRSI's administrative and financial responsibilities; as a volunteer she coordinates BRSI's newsletters and Green Mondays. Katie grew up in Minneapolis, MN, and the Sawtooth Mountains of Sun Valley, ID. From day one she has been guided by environmental values and a bone-deep affection and fancy for the mountains. As an undergraduate, she attended and skied for the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she studied environmental economics and completed original research in non-parametric contingent valuation methods. Upon graduating, Katie took a job in Washington, D.C., at an economic think-tank and soon after migrated South to explore and live in the charming Blue Ridge Mountains. In Asheville, Katie worked as a caretaker for autistic individuals, a coordinator for MANNA Foodbank, and a wilderness therapy guide at a recovery center. Though she found this work to be extremely fulfilling, she missed the intellectual challenge of research and administration and seized the opportunity to move to San Francisco, CA, and work for the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) in 2011. At WISER, Katie travelled between San Francisco and Asheville to establish and direct an international volunteer and internship program for individuals working within the global Sustainability movement. After the project was completed, Katie moved back to Asheville and had the good fortune of joining BRSI. Katie's professional interests include econometrics, resource efficiency, and non-market valuation. Her personal interests include painting, mountaineering, and meditation. Katie has lived in Asheville for a few years now and says of her new home, "I think it's the cat's pajamas and am as happy as a clam at high-tide here." Thank you Katie for volunteering your time, energy and expertise to BRSI! We appreciate you! |
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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