CityView Magazine

YOU’RE INVITED! Sustainable Sandhills is holding the 2nd Annual Pickin’ on the Porch Backyard Barbecue and Acoustic Music Concert from 5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m at Jon and Caroline Parsons’ historic farmhouse, which sits on 26 acres in Grays Creek. Dinner will be outdoors, music will be provided by The Parsons (Jon and Caroline’s acoustic trio) and the event will take place rain or shine. Tickets are $35 per adult and $15 for children 12 years old and under. There is a $5 discount for members of Sustainable Sandhills. The price includes the concert, food and soda, wine and beer. For more information, call Sustainable Sandhills at 910.484.9098 or email at info@sustainablesandhills.org. The program looks at a number of areas where businesses can become green: buying practices, transportation, reducing solid waste, conserving water and limiting runoff and conserving energy. Businesses are categorized into office and retail, restaurant and groceries, entertainment and recreation, hotels and motels, services and institutions and government. To become green certified, a business identifies a suitable area and works with Heidi Johnson, green business program coordinator, to develop a tailor- made certification program followed by on-site visits to ensure compliance. Frank Ferraro, relocation specialist for All American Relocation & Office Solutions on Home-grown home brew | Kinston, NC- based Mother Earth Brewing is committed to being green in every way. Tom Starling Road, knew the value of becoming green. Fifty percent of All American’s business comes from moving commercial customers and much of it is military. The Department of Defense adheres to Executive Order 1310: the greening of government through waste reduction, recycling and federal acquisition. That 1998 order, coupled with the Obama administration’s focus on a green economy and the more than $20 billion in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act green tax initiatives, makes the federal government a major green consumer. Workers at All American Relocation & Office Solutions had already installed water- Want to know more? Visit Sustainable Sandhills at www.sustainablesandhills.org and mark your calendar for the Sustainable Film Series on Nov. 16 at the Pate Room of the Headquarters Library. saving toilet bowls and faucets. The company also installed energy-saving lighting, and most of its office materials are made from 30 percent post consumer materials. Walking through company warehouse, where signs urge employees to use water wisely, Ferraro points to the minimal lighting and open doors. Strategically-placed fans move a cool breeze throughout the warehouse, despite the heat outside. He nods toward an empty 18-wheeler in the parking lot reserved for cardboard refuse. As for the rest of the 18-wheelers in the parking lot, none are washed on site. Instead, they are driven to a truck-washing facility that recycles the water, Ferraro said. Since the program began in April 2008, about 60 Cumberland County businesses have become green certified including the Cameo Theatre, Moore Exposure, Cumberland County governmental offices, the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce, Cape Fear Botanical Gardens, Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission and more recently, The Green Bean, a new coffee shop downtown. Johnson works with each client to arrive at a plan of action that a business can achieve. While there are no requirements that can hurt a business, the program does require the elimination of Styrofoam, a non-biodegradable product that harms the environment in its production and in its introduction into the waste stream. “It’s a challenge to get restaurants involved because of Styrofoam,” she said. Johnson said it may cost a business to recycle but there are savings, too. She recalled a business that recycled its cardboard and saved $500 in annual waste disposal fees. For Ferraro, it made good business sense and was the right thing to do. “I really believe people are becoming more aware of our environment. I think it’s cool,” he said.CV 34 | Oct/Nov • 2010

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