Champions of Sustainability work to transform Birmingham area
My Green Birmingham honored six area businesses and nonprofits as Champions of Sustainability this week. (EQS Photography)
A game-changing real estate development, a legacy coffee and tea company, and organizations and individuals working to preserve natural resources and educate the community about the environment were honored at this year’s “Champions of Sustainability” event, organized by the digital information site My Green Birmingham.
Birmingham’s Zyp Bikeshare system was chosen as the “Project of the Year.” In its first few months of operation, tens of thousands of people have tried Zyp, the first bikeshare program in North and South America to use electric-assist bicycles as part of its fleet.
David Dionne, executive director of Red Mountain Park, was named a champion in the “Leadership” category. The 1,500-acre urban park on former mining land is on a long-term path to fully restore the property using some creative approaches, including deploying goats to consume non-native plants, like Chinese privet, so they can be replaced with native plant species.
Birmingham Champions of Sustainability 2016 from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Jones Valley Teaching Farm took home the “Social Progress” award for its efforts to teach urban youth in the Birmingham area about growing food in a sustainable way, as well as the importance of healthy eating and nutrition.
The Village Creek Society, which has worked for years to improve the largest urban watershed in the state and build creekside parks and greenways, mainly in inner-city neighborhoods, received the “Environment” award.
Royal Cup Coffee and Tea, founded in Birmingham in 1896, received the “Outstanding Business” award for its efforts to reduce waste, cut air emissions and conserve water.
And the Sloss Real Estate/Lakeview District Sustainability Committee received the “Building & Design” award for the Pepper Place development, a multi-use project spread over several blocks west of downtown Birmingham. Originally a collection of run-down factories and other structures, Pepper Place has become one of the city’s most dynamic office, dining and entertainment destinations. It also is home to one of the city’s most popular weekly farmer’s markets.
More than 200 people crowded into Saturn, a coffee shop and entertainment complex, on Tuesday night to recognize the honorees, and to support another nonprofit focused on sustainability, the Green Resource Center for Alabama.
A special guest at the event was Laura Turner Seydel, daughter of businessman Ted Turner and chair of the nonprofit Captain Planet Foundation, which supports a variety of environmental and eco-friendly initiatives. She praised the honorees and a number of green initiatives taking place across the Birmingham region.
Sherri Nielson, who works in Birmingham Mayor William Bell’s office on a number of the city’s sustainability efforts, provided an update on several ongoing projects, including updating streetlights with more energy-efficient LED fixtures. Alabama Power is working with the city on the project.
Natalie Kelly, president of Sustain, a local environmental strategy and media company, and publisher of My Green Birmingham, said the success of Champions of Sustainability is another sign of Birmingham’s forward movement in becoming a more progressive and greener community. This was the third year for the event.
“The fact that we’re able to recognize and honor so many local successes through Champions of Sustainability each year demonstrates that our city has moved well beyond a period of initial revitalization,” Kelly said.
“It’s evident that Birmingham is filled with the kind of renewed spirit and positive energy necessary to not only sustain and give new life to our local resources, but to also use them as an integral part of the natural solution to keep our city progressing for decades to come,” Kelly added.
Alabama Power was among the sponsors of Champions of Sustainability. Other sponsors included the city of Birmingham, the Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Trane, Brasfield & Gorrie, Southern Research, Whole Foods, Shindigs, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Green Building Council of Alabama, Protec Recycling and Evolutia.
