SSDN‘s Green Minds

SSDN's Green Minds rebooted! We welcome a new co-host, Dr. Robyn Byers (Sustainability and Resilience Manager, Charlotte, NC), and we are slightly changing the format of the podcast to be more engaging.

In this conversation, we speak with Laura Thomas, Director of the Office of Sustainability for Richmond, VA, about the recently adopted Climate Equity Action Plan 2030.

Also mentioned in this episode: Charlotte's Strategic Energy Action Plan

The third and last episode of this special series on regenerative design includes three interviews featuring The Sustainability Institute (Charleston, SC), Green Spaces (Chattanooga, TN), and our very own Southeast Sustainability Directors Network. 

 

These organizations are supported by the Kendeda Fund, an Atlanta-based foundation that invests in transformative leadership and ideas, and creating a more just and equitable world. Learn more about their work at kendedafund.org.

This is the second episode of three-part series focusing on pioneer practitioners in regenerative design. Co-hosts Catherine Mercier-Baggett and Laurel Creech speak to different organizations across the southeast region about regenerative design. These organizations are supported by the Kendeda Fund, an Atlanta-based foundation that invests in transformative leadership and ideas, and creating a more just and equitable world. Learn more about their work at kendedafund.org.

Part two features the Southface Institute and the Greenbuilt Alliance. 

This episode is a three-part series focusing on pioneer practitioners in regenerative design as co-host Catherine Mercier-Baggett and Laurel Creech speak to seven different organizations across the southeast region about regenerative design. These organizations are supported by the Kendeda Fund, an Atlanta-based foundation that invests in transformative leadership and ideas, and creating a more just and equitable world. Learn more about their work at kendedafund.org.

Part One of this three-part series features Dennis Creech, Fund Adviser for Sustainability with the Kendeda Fund, and Shan Arora, Director of the Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech University.

Michael Dexter and Chris Barber, both with SSDN's Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center, explain the basics of the Justice40 Initiative, aimed at distributing at least 40% of federal investments to disadvantaged communities. They also present an interactive mapping tool developed for SSDN's members that compares the various set of criteria that can define disadvantaged communities. 

 

SSDN's Justice40 Web App: https://uvalibrary.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9973040fb53f4d0faa91e42f4aca364d note this map will be moved to a different address soon - do not bookmark!

White House: Justice40 Initiative | The White House

Columbia University Capstone Report:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DXhzk3Ys54pifVr_PyxulgQHktGseTJQ/view?usp=sharing 

This episode of Green Minds Podcast features the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) - why they are important and how municipalities can engage. First podcast co-host Laurel Creech speaks with Anne Livingston, SSDN Director of Policy Programs, about her knowledge of IRPs. Then we focus on GA and Georgia Power's IRP process that concluded in July 2022 with guests Alicia Brown, City of Savannah's Clearn Energy Program Manager, and John R. Seydel, City of Atlanta Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer.

The availability of food, fresh and nutritious food in particular, is naturally a primordial preoccupation for communities. Some local governments are taking initiatives to facilitate the production and distribution of food, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable areas.

This episode hosted by Catherine Mercier-Baggett looks at the work conducted in the cities of Atlanta (GA) and Winston-Salem (NC). J. Olu Baiyewu and Moriah Gendy, both municipal employees dedicated to increasing food resilience and security in their respective cities, graciously share their experience. 

Atlanta's AgLanta: https://www.aglanta.org/

Winston-Salem's Think Orange Program: https://www.cityofws.org/3050/Think-Orange-Food-Resilience-Campaign 

On this episode of Green Minds, co-host Laurel Creech talks with two cities who received SSDN's Community Collaboration Catalyst Micro Grants aimed at providing small pots of funding to local governments to overcome barriers to systemic inequities alongside dedicated community partner organizations. Learn how the cities of Richmond, VA & Nashville, TN leveraged collaborative partnerships to work innovatively impact community-led and equitable approaches to sustainability. This SSDN grant was made possible with support from The Kresge Foundation,

MaryPat Baldauf (Columbia, SC) nominated the session hosted by Tobin Freid (Durham County, NC) and KatieRose Levin (Cary, NC) as her favorite highlight of SSDN's 2022 annual meeting. The peer learning session was on Addressing Urban Heat Islands and Heat Mitigation Strategies - an appropriate topic with summer unofficially starting with Memorial Day in the Southeast.

 

Resource mentioned in this episode: 

• UHI Mapping Initiative (Columbia): https://cpac.columbiasc.gov/urban-heat-island-mapping-initiative/
• Extreme Heat and UHI (Durham County): https://www.dconc.gov/county-departments/departments-a-e/engineering-and-environmental-services/sustainability-office/climate-resilience/extreme-heat/-fsiteid-1#!/
• Cool Roadways Partnership: https://globalcoolcities.org/cool-roadways-partnership/
• Tree Equity Score (American Forests): https://treeequityscore.org/

This episode of the Green Minds Podcast is hosted by Laurel Creech (Nashville, TN) and features food waste awareness and mitigation in recognition of April being Earth Month and many states and cities recognizing the month as Food Waste Awareness Month. This episode kicks off with NRDC's Darby Hoover and Nashville's Linda Breggin on a national food waste perspective then we visit the cities of Asheville, NC; Hollywood, NC; and Orlando, FL on how these Southeast cities impactful initiatives are reducing food waste.