Southface is preparing to recognize four projects that embody the philosophy of sustainability that forms the foundation of the Fulcrum Awards, which are a highlight next week at Southface’s Greenprints program.
For 40 years, Southface has been leading the way in making Atlanta a more sustainable city.
The environmentally-focused nonprofit has been a pioneer in green building practices – and it deserves much of the credit for Atlanta’s national reputation as a city committed to energy and water conservation.
But now Southface is facing its own challenges – likely having to move from its headquarters, now on a .74-acre site along Pine Street near Piedmont, where it has been since 1995.
When the City of Atlanta sold the 19-acre Civic Center site to the Atlanta Housing Authority for $31 million, the deal occurred with virtually no public involvement.
It was a deal struck by two public officials – Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Catherine Buell, president and CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority.
A nascent movement in the sustainability arena flexed its young wings in Atlanta last week.
The movement involves the merging of issues including renewable energy, green buildings, and consumer products free of toxic chemicals. Apple CEO Tim Cook epitomizes the new concept for one advocate who spoke at a panel discussion sponsored by Southeast Green.
Cook drew headlines for this Feb. 28 remark to shareholders who criticized Apple’s green investment strategy: “If you want me to do things only for ROI [return on investment] reasons, you should get out of this stock.”
Dennis Creech, who today is the executive director and co-founder of Southface Energy Institute, was in graduate school training to be a systems ecologist when he had his Moment. Throughout his education in the 1970s, his focus had been aimed at improving environmental conditions, but it wasn’t until that day at Emory University that a, well, light bulb went off that pointed him in a unexpected direction.
As he was studying smog, acid rain, and even the water crisis of Atlanta, it dawned on Dennis that there was a common denominator to many of the threats to the environment’s health and sustainability – the consumption of energy.
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