{"id":9938,"date":"2022-06-02T16:41:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T16:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2022\/06\/13\/leading-the-way-to-a-sustainable-state\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:48:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:48:26","slug":"leading-the-way-to-a-sustainable-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/leading-the-way-to-a-sustainable-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading the way to a sustainable state"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 2, 23 South Carolinians representing organizations across the state gathered in Hartness Pavilion at Furman University for a graduation ceremony. At the end of the day, they were ready to take what they learned back to their organizations \u2013 including Google, BMW, Coca-Cola, Milliken, The Nature Conservancy and Audubon and state government agencies \u2013 as graduates of the inaugural class of the\u00a0Sustainability Leadership Initiative<\/a> (SLI)<\/u>, a joint effort between\u00a0The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sustain SC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal of the SLI,\u00a0announced last fall,<\/a>\u00a0is to create a network of leaders in the state with the knowledge, skills and desire to collaborate and support each other in identifying pathways and executing solutions for a sustainable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re attempting to do is connect individuals, leaders and businesses to ideas and resources centered around sustainability in a way that allows the business community to really embrace sustainability for the benefit of South Carolina,\u201d said\u00a0Kelly Grant Bertrand<\/a>, associate director of sustainability programs at The Shi Institute.<\/p>\n

Centering sustainability amid diverse perspectives<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The initial cohort of 23<\/a>\u00a0gathered for six day-and-a-half sessions between October 2021 and April 2022 to discuss how they could bring sustainability to the front and center of their organizations, learning from Furman faculty as well as experts from around the region including Furman graduate, Grady Powell, Founder and CEO of Openfields. Sessions included dialogue, active learning, case studies, and site tours including BMWs Spartanburg factory and Sonoco. Each session was paired with a Sustainability Forum for deeper dives into topics such as energy and electrification, carbon neutrality and water, ethics and human well-being, and climate and\u00a0circular economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bertrand credits SLI Program Director\u00a0Courtney Quinn<\/a> with shaping those classes. Quinn, who is a visiting research associate in sustainability science and adjunct professor at Furman, said she aimed for a mixture of leadership development, relationship development and learning about sustainability.<\/p>\n

A mixture of perspectives was important, too, say the leaders. They intentionally selected participants with diverse backgrounds and priorities. Fellows found themselves working with collaborators they might not have ever expected to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first class was extremely awkward,\u201d remembered Bunch. \u201cI mean, feeling like they didn\u2019t have anything in common.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn said the role of the fellowship program is to bring together people from diverse sectors, in effect, \u201cforging relationships between people whose sectors might conflict, to develop personal relationships with each other and have conversations around sustainability. And then partnerships can come out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A united voice\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The fellows dug into specific sustainability topics, but also considered broader concepts such as systems thinking, storytelling and imagination, said Quinn.<\/p>\n

The fellows already understood many of the challenges facing their state, including \u201cpopulation growth that\u2019s pushing land-use change and a statewide energy policy that\u2019s not as competitive as the states around us for green energy that can affect our ability to recruit corporations and jobs in the future,\u201d said Quinn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are now best friends,\u201d Bunch said of the first group of fellows. \u201cLiterally best friends. They have a group on WhatsApp, and it\u2019s hilarious. I didn\u2019t want to put any expectations on them other than a basic structure, and they totally created their own thing. They have a lot of ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The classmates are leaving with \u201ca united voice,\u201d said Quinn, noting that the fellowship is working on a joint statement in support of the\u00a0Conservation Enhancement Act<\/a>\u00a0currently moving through the South Carolina Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cA letter of support that\u2019s coming from business and conservation groups together can be a powerful voice to promote policy changes and systems-level change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Breaking down barriers and finding the future<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And even before they had finished their year in SLI, the first group of fellows was already planning how they could help the next group, whoever they may be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very protective of the next class,\u201d said Quinn. \u201cThey want to be mentors. They\u2019re going to be part of selecting the next class, and they\u2019re already starting to create the alumni program.\u201d<\/p>\n

SLI leaders hope to again find a balance between private, public and conservation NGO representatives, continuing the open exchange of perspectives the first cohort had. And they want to get to work quickly, because there\u2019s a lot to be done, said Bunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have time for small talk,\u201d she said. \u201cThe world doesn\u2019t have time. But I think the world is shifting, because the financial institutions and the industries are driving a lot of this conversation, and it does break down some of these barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 2, 23 South Carolinians representing organizations across the state gathered in Hartness Pavilion at Furman University for a graduation ceremony. At the end of the day, they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":9939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17,37,18,9,76],"tags":[1459],"class_list":["post-9938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-centers-and-institutes","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-shi-institute-for-sustainable-communities","category-sustainability","category-top-four-news-3rd-story","tag-sustainability-leadership-initiative"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}