What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “sustainable living”? Sorting your recyclables? Maintaining a backyard compost pile? Taking steps to reduce pollution? Maybe the phrase elicits a more expansive image: a self-reliant community living off the grid, with solar panels glinting on residents’ roofs; and carrots, kale and arugula growing in neat rows […]
By Andrea Golden Dulce Lomita Mobile Home Cooperative began in June 2013 with the purchase of a six-unit mobile home park in the Emma neighborhood. Members of the cooperative, who had been renting mobile homes in and around the area, created the cooperative as an opportunity for our families for first-time homeownership. But we also […]
Amber Weaver, the city of Asheville’s chief sustainability officer, is working ahead of time. She’s working with the year 2035 in mind, when the Buncombe County landfill will be at capacity, and toward 2050, when the city has promised to reduce its carbon footprint by 80 percent. However, with new hotels on the horizon and […]
Everybody needs to be needed. We want to be of use to our friends, family, community and the world at large, to have a purpose and to know that we’re making a positive impact. What that impact should look like, however, can vary widely: For one person, it may be stuffing thank-you letters into envelopes; […]
In spite of Western North Carolina’s growing reputation as a dining destination, food insecurity is still a pervasive problem for the region. With more than 15 percent of WNC’s population identified as food-insecure by the 2014 Map the Meal Gap study (and that number is not declining, even with improvements in the economy), eradicating hunger […]
North Carolina reached a milestone last year when its installed solar capacity exceeded 1 gigawatt, according to a clean-energy census by the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association. This feat makes North Carolina a national and regional leader in solar energy behind only California, Arizona and New Jersey. The NCSEA census also noted that the Tar Heel […]
Despite high hopes for Obamacare (aka, the Affordable Health Act), not all residents of Buncombe and surrounding counties have benefited from the national effort to extend insurance to those who can’t afford it. Part of the shortfall is blamed on North Carolina’s decision not to expand Medicaid. Meanwhile, nongovernmental caregiving entities in Western North Carolina, […]
Through policy advocacy and grassroots leadership development, the members of Just Economics of Western North Carolina marked several items off the organization’s 2015 to-do list. Among the most notable: getting the city’s living-wage policy extended to include part-time, temporary and seasonal employees and the implementation of Sunday bus service through Asheville Redefines Transit. “Our mission is […]
In 2005, the city of Asheville adopted an official plan aimed at ending chronic homelessness by 2015, drastically reducing reliance on emergency shelters and streamlining support services to get people into permanent housing faster. The plan — dubbed “Looking Homeward: The 10-year Plan to End Homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County” — was a cooperative […]
When it comes to saving the family farm, Robin Reeves knows a thing or two. As a member of the sixth generation to grow up on her family’s Madison County farm — a lineage that predates the Civil War — Reeves was faced with being the last generation. The solution? A conservation easement made possible by the Southern Appalachian […]
Transitioning to a new language, country and culture can be extremely disruptive — particularly for children who are just beginning the process of learning to understand themselves and their heritage. To address the growing numbers of students from non-English-speaking households, the Asheville City and Buncombe County schools are each gradually developing a curriculum that gives […]
Churches are a special type of building — funded, operated and occupied by a community of users who must balance such priorities as care for the community, evangelism, education and worship. Even as these considerations remain crucial, many faith communities are also increasingly aware of ethical and faith-based imperatives to reduce the environmental impact of their operations. As Asheville’s […]
The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project has kicked off 2016 with expanded outreach, not the least of which is a renovated version of its Local Food Guide. First released in print and online in 2002, it now features a new domain name and improved search and navigation functions, along with an interface optimized for smartphones and tablets. “It has […]
Tucked away in the corner of A-B Tech’s Enka campus, budding local businesses like Buchi Kombucha and Lusty Monk Mustard have had the opportunity to grow their roots in an 11,000-square-foot, FDA-inspected, shared-use facility called Blue Ridge Food Ventures. Success for this organization doesn’t come from keeping clients, but from watching them leave. “It’s the […]
Green Opportunities, a nonprofit job training and employment program founded in 2008, works to ensure that all residents of the region have access to sustainable employment in our rapidly growing local economy. Operating out of the Arthur R. Edington Education & Career Center in Asheville’s Southside neighborhood, GO focuses on workforce development in selected growth […]
Each year, millions of dollars in loans flow into Western North Carolina-based businesses, and Mountain BizWorks is a big reason it happens. In 2015, the group made “nearly $2 million in loans to 80 new and existing local businesses. Those businesses directly created 175 new, good jobs in our community and supported an additional 200 […]
The Western North Carolina Green Building Council was established in 2000 as a volunteer effort by a handful of conscientious builders who wanted to educate others on the health and environmental impacts of design and construction. In the intervening years, the group has grown and provided direct services and weatherization education to 6,000 professionals and […]
“Best for the World” is the goal of the companies that make up the B Corp movement. The “B” stands for benefit — and not just the monetary kind. Certified B Corps create benefits not just for their shareholders, but for the community, the environment, employees, consumers and more. “Instead of just focusing on maximizing profit, […]
In fulfilling their mission to help make Western North Carolina’s communities more sustainable, our nonprofits rely on grants, fees and donations to continue fulfilling their charitable missions. A sustainable cycle of giving and receiving lies at the core of their survival. Nonprofits are deeply woven into the fabric of WNC. They provide direct services, such as […]
“With Asheville’s unprecedented growth and tourist traffic, we face new challenges and opportunities,” says Franzi Charen, founder and director of Asheville Grown Business Alliance, a grassroots movement helping level the playing field for locally owned businesses. “We want to foster a more in-depth conversation about what we want this community to look like 20 to 50 […]
