”Green Minds” is a collaboration between members of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network and guests who have experience, knowledge, passionate and dedication to sustainability.
About SSDN: The Southeastern U.S. is no different than the rest of the world when it comes to dealing with the problems associated with climate change. Extreme heat, rising seas, strengthening storms, flooding, drought, and crop loss are just some of the challenges we face.
The Southeast Sustainability Directors Network (SSDN) addresses these problems through sustainability efforts — work that creates a healthy, clean, and more stable environment for current and future generations.
We connect local government sustainability professionals throughout the region to accelerate, scale, and implement sustainable best practices so that communities are equipped to adapt to and mitigate climate change.
Learn more about SSDN at www.southeastsdn.org
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In this episode, Dr. Shaleen Miller with Winston Salem and I tackle what we love about SSDN member and talk with Rebecca Coplin, Beautification Project Manager for the City of High Point NC, who is considering SSDN membership. We talk about the traditional and non-traditional benefits of SSDN, gush about our relationship building and connections, talk about grant support, and more. If you are not a member of SSDN, consider listening to all the benefits and let's sing you up :). For those of us w...
This episode features a conversation with Anthony Flaccavento of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative on effectively communicating technical sustainability and climate information to diverse audiences, particularly in rural and working-class communities. Discussion includes practical strategies like using concrete examples and understanding different environmental priorities, addressing misunderstandings and fears about climate solutions, focusing on opportunities and adaptation, and employing universalist messaging to build broader alliances.
This episode is a dose of laughter straight from our members. Welcome special co-host for this episode, Dr. Shaleen Miller, and I as we talk about funny moments we've had, and invite two members to share their funniest moments. Takeaways from this episode, check what other groups have the acronym you're hoping to use before you confirm committee names, search for context clues when talking to someone you don't recognize, Always have a re-usable cup and/or bag on you just in case, and have lemons...
This episode is a short primer for the fall season of the SSDN Green Minds podcast. We start with host Robyn Byers sharing a quick recap from the SSDN Annual Conference, held in Charlotte last May. We even reveal who was "A Spy" for the Charlotte trivia game ;). There's a short review of what's coming up for the fall episodes and we close out with quotes from you, our network, captured from the conference of your favorite bits. Enjoy jumping back in this fall and we can't wait to continue sharin...
Join us for this half hour dedicated to trees and urban heat in an urban setting. We are joined by Dr. Vivek Shandas with Portland State University, Victoria Aguilar - Asst. City Arborist for the City of Charlotte, and Erin Oliverio - Division Manager with the City of Charlotte's Landscape Management team. Thank you! Related Links: Charlotte's Renew Brew Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story...
In this short episode, we share the responses we received from SSDN members on what gives them hope to continue working in sustainability. Through our philosophical musings, we come to suggest a "word of the year" for 2024.
Is your organization struggling to access federal funding? Michael Dexter and Nick Deffley with the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network present the Inflation Reduction Act and the assistance services provided by the Local Infrastructure Hub. Links mentioned in this episode SSDN's Grant Opportunity Database: https://www.southeastsdn.org/programs/ssdns-federal-programs/southeast-sustainable-recovery-center-ssrc/ SSDN's Local Infrastructure Hub: https://www.southeastsdn.org/programs/ssdns-fe...
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 ...
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...
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=9973040fb53f4d0faa91e4...
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 res...
On this episode of Green Minds, co-host Laurel Creech talks with two cities who received SSDN's Community Collaboration Catalyst Micro Grant s 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 wa...
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-initi...
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 r...
Sustainability spans across a multitude of disciplines, and the variety of individual backgrounds of sustainability professionals are a reflection of this reality. In this episode, we visit with Casi Callaway (Mobile, AL), Glen Hadwen (Fort Lauderdale, FL), Lennie Massanelli (Little Rock, AR) and George Santucci (Town of Boone, NC) to discuss their unique paths.
This episode of Green Minds focuses on the sustainability organizational and staffing structures of four different size cities in the SSDN network and both their differences and commonalities: Susannah Troner of Miami-Dade County, FL; Helen Peplowski of the City of Winston-Salem, NC; George Santucci of the Town of Boone, NC; and Rebecca Harvey of Boynton Beach, FL. We discuss their histories, their current staffing, and future growth plans of each of these diverse cities.
The first 2022 episode of Green Minds explores the making of the latest canopy study for the City of Sandy Springs (GA) with Bridget Lawlor, GIS Manager. She is followed by Dr. Kendra Abkowitz, Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (TN), who discusses the latest efforts in Metro Nashville to preserve and increase the tree canopy. Sandy Springs' urban canopy resources Root Nashville initiative Free canopy assessment and plann...
Tune into this episode as Green Minds Co-hosts Catherine Mercier-Baggett and Laurel Creech as we talk with five SSDN cities to hear about their accomplishments in 2021: Fulton County, GA; Winston-Salem, NC; Orange County, FL; Durham, NC; and Chapel Hill, NC. For more headlines and stories from SSDN's members in 2021, check out our year-end newsletter ( plus our archives !) and latest blog post on our website ....
This episode of Green Minds is focused on City Scale 's recent report The State of U.S. Local Climate Action Planning , a collaborative reflection of a group of local climate practitioners. Through a series of conversations in 2019, climate practitioners across the country came to a shared recognition that local climate action planning had reached an inflection point. Guests Michael Armstrong, Katherine Gajewski, and Ariella Maron, of City Scale, bring their local government expertise to this en...
The IPCC is releasing its sixth round of reports (AR6), confirming that we must control our impact on climate. Dr. Jairo Garcia, author of the Atlanta Climate Action Plan and instructor at Georgia Tech, explains what is the IPCC and why their findings are critical for local governments. Nell Boyle, Sustainability & Outreach Coordinator for the City of Roanoke, VA, reveals how the IPCC report release makes a difference in her work. IPCC AR6 - Summary for Policymakers...
This episode of Green Minds features Michael Dexter, SSDN's new Manager for the Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center (SSRC) which supports communities in their mobilization of COVID-19 relief and economic recovery in innovative ways which yield equitable solutions that make our communities more resilient to future stressors. We talk about the SSRC and how it will be valuable to members and Michael's previous roles in federal and local agencies. Learn more about the SSRC here....
In this second episode of Green Minds, Catherine Mercier-Baggett (Sandy Springs, GA) discusses what sustainability means in the municipal context with Dr. Lynn Patterson of Three Points Planning and Georgia Tech, and Vanessa King, Network Manager at SSDN.
This is the first episode of Green Minds hosted by Laurel Creech and features Kris Stenger, the founder and former host of Green Minds Think Alike. We discuss Kris' new position as he leaves City of Winter Park to work as International Code Council's (ICC) Director of Energy.
Meg Jamison, Executive Director of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network , joins the podcast to talk about the power of the network and the SE Sustainable Communities Fund. We also dive into what impacts Covid has had on the network and what opportunities lie ahead.
Chris Castro has been making headlines and the silver screen with the work he and his team at the City of Orlando have been accomplishing. Chris joins us for a few minutes to talk about how he arrived in Orlando and how the Mayor of Orlando laid out ambious goals that has Chris thinking globally but still acting locally.
Kim Cheslak of New Building Institute and Institute for Market Transformation talks about the energy code training provided through Southface as part of a DOE Commercial Building Study. Kim is formerly the Building Official for Washington DC and talks about how her experience in government has really benefited her work at IMT and now NBI.
Alissa Farina @FarinaAlissa from the City of Miami joins us from the Florida Sustainability Directors Annual Meeting. Alissa speaks to her work on Resilience and Resilience Hubs in the City of Miami.
