Bringing two passions together at Trueline GVL: Andres Ospina ’24

Community building, entertainment and artistic outlets for many. These are just some of the few benefits and aspects that make music one of the oldest and most enjoyed forms of art around the globe. From hearing Vallenato in the car with my parents as a child while they reminisced on their lives back in Colombia, to hearing Black Sabbath for the first time when I was six years old, music is something that I have always loved. As I got older and got to college, that is when I realized that the local music scene in Greenville has so much potential to grow and that our options for venues are very limited considering how much the city has continued to develop over the past two decades. Thankfully, with the current development of Trueline GVL, a significant gap in the music scene here in Greenville will be filled.

Trueline is a music/entertainment venue currently under construction in the west end of downtown Greenville. While the venue will not be open for another year, they are already thinking about how to incorporate sustainability into their operations and make it one of their core values. A lot of the work that I have been doing during my fellowship is researching sustainability initiatives that the venue can implement into their operations in order to ensure that sustainability is a priority once the venue is open and fully functioning. Some of these initiatives include researching zero waste events, maximizing energy efficiency and incorporating water conservation efforts. Another one of my favorite aspects of the fellowship experience has been networking with stakeholders in the Greenville area that are also doing sustainability work.  I have met with the director of the non-profit make GVL Greener on multiple occasions and gotten in contact with the Sustainability Programs Manager for Greenville County Solid Waste.

One of the visible and tangible ways that Trueline has started their commitments to sustainability can be seen with what was done with the glass bottles from our recent Neon Noir party. Through connections I made in Dr. Quinn’s Leadership for Sustainability course, I got in touch with Zeb Parsons from Bricolage Dynamics, a business that offers glass recycling services and pick up for residential and commercial businesses. After the party, we held on to all the glass liquor bottles that were provided from our drink sponsor and gave them to Bricolage so that they could be recycled. Not many may know, but there is a global sand shortage happening which makes the waste diversion and recycling efforts that Bricolage does even more essential. Being able to integrate sustainability into a businesses that will help strengthen community and be a hub for entertainment feels extremely fulfilling. Doing this kind of work for a business like Trueline has lots of potential to influence other businesses in the entertainment venue to make sustainability one of their core values. Prioritizing sustainability, especially here in the Southeast, can not only influence other businesses to follow suit, but it will also show that sustainability isn’t restricted by geography or politics and that it deserves to flourish and be taken seriously everywhere.