CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/17354
b usiness GREEN IS BIG BUSINESS Sustainable Sandhills is working to renew our community and its resources, one business at a time By Jason Brady W hen does becoming green put a business in the black? When it brings in business from Fort Bragg or attracts an emerging “green” consumer. “It’s a huge, new market with diversified demographics,” says Jon Parsons, executive director of Sustainable Sandhills, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of environmental and quality-of-life issues for the eight-counties surrounding Fort Bragg. On any given day, you can find workers and volunteers installing energy-saving light bulbs in private homes, talking to classrooms of children about gardening or working with county governments to improve our air quality. Sustainable Sandhills sponsors a spring urban garden tour and year-round film series, encourages aggressive recycling programs and lobbies for more sustainable practices with government bodies. A new federal stimulus grant will allow Sustainable Sandhills to place recently- graduated university and college interns with local governments to conduct building, transportation and energy analysis. Parsons plans to start with the local school system. Not only will this help schools save money, he said, it will allow the program to promote environmental issues in the curriculum. “We get to the kids, and the kids get to the families. It’s a great investment,” he said. Among Sustainable Sandhills’ newest venture is the Green Business Certification Program modeled on several successful programs throughout the country but, according to Parsons, adjusted to the area’s economy. “A successful green program has to be a program businesses can be successful in, a program tuned for our community,” Parsons said. “What works in San Francisco doesn’t necessarily work in Fayetteville.” Certified Sustainable | Heidi Johnson, the green business program coordinator, meets with a business owner. Top Left | Sustainable Sandhills offers checklists for businesses that want to go green. CityViewNC.com | 33