Thomas Beam - North Carolina Journal for Women

If we fail to appreciate humanity's relation to the rest of life, how can we intelligently pursue our hopes in the world? How can we ensure a prosperous future not just for our own children, but for all children, of all species, for all time? - Bill McDonough, at the 2004 Sustainability Awards

As far back as the mid-1980s when Katy Ansardi was working in real estate development, she was concerned about the impact on the environment and neighborhoods in which they were built. She had pursued a degree in landscape architecture because of an interest in how people and the land shape each other. “I wanted to enhance that connection, yet unexpectedly found myself in the role of the developer, being vilified at zoning hearings,” she recalls. “Even though our company had high ethical standards, the business model forced us into certain positions.” Yet she did try to make a difference in small ways.

“On one project I managed, we preserved a bayhead with giant cypress and designed the landscaping entirely with native plants,” she recalls. “My boss didn’t get it at all; he just thought it was weird.”

Ansardi also found the environmental regulation system frustrating. “The attitude seemed to be, ‘if we can’t prevent you from building, we’re going to make it as difficult as possible,’” she said. “I remember being dismayed that conflict between meeting people’s need for housing and protecting the natural environment seemed inevitable. There just seemed no way out.”

An Atlanta native, Ansardi began her career in civil engineering. She then took a position as a construction project manager and was soon promoted to vice president as part of the start up team for a new business unit in Orlando, where she set up the construction division and handled pre-development coordination.

Guests mingle at the 2005 N.C. Sustainability Awards event. The 2006 presentation and conference is scheduled for Oct. 30. Go to www.sustainnc.org to register.

After the real estate market cooled in the late 1980s, she moved to Raleigh from Florida. She and her husband shared a love of teaching and purchased the Sylvan Learning Center franchise while her husband finished his Ph.D. at UNC Chapel Hill. A few years later, they co-founded Indelible Blue, which specialized in products for IBM’s OS/2 operating system. “We started the business in this funky old building in downtown Raleigh, thinking it would be a tiny niche supplier for OS/2 enthusiasts,” she recalls. “It didn’t exactly work out that way.”

Word quickly spread in the tight-knit OS/2 community through the fledgling Internet and inquiries began pouring in from overseas and corporate customers. The company rapidly grew to 40 employees and annual revenues of $12 million, making the Triangle Fast 50 list four years in a row before finally closing its doors in 2001 in the wake of the dot-com bust.

After the frenzy of Indelible Blue, Ansardi had the luxury of catching up on her reading, including The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken.* That was her introduction to sustainability, the idea that business is not only compatible with a just society and healthy natural systems, it is essential. Only through the creativity and energy of commerce will those goals be achieved on a wide scale.

“I can recall having a moment of absolute clarity that this was what I needed to do with the rest of my career,” she said.

Ansardi accepted the newly-created position of outreach coordinator for the North Carolina Solar Center. “I consider it my apprenticeship in sustainability. It also gave me the opportunity to meet people around the state involved in creating positive change in their communities.”

While there, Ansardi served on an advisory committee for what was then called Save Our State as it transitioned into Sustainable North Carolina. “I saw the potential for SNC to be a catalyst for change and felt that I could make more of a difference in a smaller, more entrepreneurial organization,” she says. She was named president of SNC in January of 2005.

Sustainability: A New Framework

“One of our biggest challenges is explaining exactly what this abstract-sounding thing called ‘sustainability’ means, and why we should care,” says Ansardi.

Frank Daniels, left, and Pat Nathan-Groves, members of the board of directors for Sustainable North Carolina, talk with a guest at last year's N.C. Sustainability Awards program.

The classic definition comes from a 1987 report by the Brundtland Commission: “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”**

In practice, sustainability is a framework for making decisions that places equal priority on economic, environmental and social concerns—sometimes referred to as the “triple bottom line.” It is an optimistic outlook that addresses root causes rather than just patching over symptoms.

“We’re facing issues on a global scale never before seen in history,” she explains. “The future Brundtland Commission—and I mean the next 10 years as well as the next 100 or more—depends on our ability to find creative solutions now. We’re at a tipping point.

“When I speak I often ask, ‘Can you imagine a car that cleans the air as you drive it around?’ You can see the surprise in people’s faces. We usually focus on how to pollute a little less, how to be ‘less bad.’ When you start asking how industrial processes can be redesigned to actually enhance the lives of all people and the natural systems we depend on, you open up this tremendously exciting creative potential.”

The current focus of Sustainable North Carolina is to promote and enable this approach throughout the state. Sustainability opens up opportunities for creativity and innovation that lead to the creation of new businesses and jobs at the same time it addresses many of our most intractable environmental and social issues.

Forming a New Council to Engage Businesses

SNC recently spearheaded the formation of the North Carolina Sustainable Business Council (NCSBC). The Council brings together a diverse group of companies to explore collaborative, cross-industry activities that create business value around sustainable practices.

“We looked at several organizational models before choosing the US Business Council for Sustainable Development because of their track record of implementing tangible, measurable projects,” Ansardi said. “We also liked their member-driven approach.”

Charter members of the NCSBC include Brayton International, Cherokee Investment Partners, Compass Group, GEEP, Glen Raven Mills, PBS&J, SJF Ventures, Weaver Cooke Construction, and Weyerhaeuser. Several other organizations have also participated in the planning sessions.

The primary ways that NCSBC will create value are through networking and partnerships, being a focal point for other groups to engage the business community and developing innovative projects.

There is already a great deal of interest in sustainability across the state. Builders, energy companies, biotech firms, and others are implementing sustainable practices and evaluating their performance using triple bottom line criteria. Many of those companies have earned SNC’s coveted Sustainability Award.

Recognizing Best Practices

On Oct. 30, SNC will present its fifth annual N.C. Sustainability Awards to companies taking the lead in implementing practices that integrate economics, people, and environment. Sally Jewell, CEO of Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) will be the keynote speaker. Noted authors and consultants, Brian Nattrass and Mary Altomare, are also on the agenda.

Given the increased interest in the topic, the program has been expanded to include a luncheon and interactive discussions on relevant topics: organizational change for sustainability, investing in emerging clean technologies, the pros and cons of “green” marketing, and strategies for ensuring our state’s long term economic resilience and security.

“Last year, we had to drag people away from all of the wonderful conversations taking place to start the awards ceremony,” Ansardi said. “This year we decided to hold the reception after the ceremony so people can hang around and talk as long as they like. It’s such a great opportunity for networking and brainstorming ideas.”

For more information on sustainability or the October 30 event, visit: www.sustainnc.org

*Hawken, Paul. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. New York: Collins, 1994.
** World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. This is the document commonly referred to as The Brundtland Report.