Rowan Magazine | The People. The Places. The Way of Life.

When I started working here, the business community looked upon environmental issues as a cost,” Wear said. “They represented regulation that often hampered business. Slowly, that has changed.” The notion of stewardship has taken hold of business leaders on the local, regional and national levels. But that was not until the early 2000s, according to Wear. “Today we realize that everybody has to be a good steward.”
The recent Sustainable Business Leadership Forum in Charlotte backed up Wear’s view. Participants, including the president of IKEA and the CEO for Duke Energy, agreed that their businesses were in a prime position to provide environmental leadership in everything from energy efficiency and transportation networks to supply chains and waste management. That’s a sea change from the 1960s.
Joining the attitude shift are some of Rowan County’s major industries. “My personal goal is to have the entire hospital campus Energy Star-rated by the end of 2008,” said Ken Mowery, director of facility services for Rowan Regional Medical Center (RRMC). Energy Star, originally an international standard for energy efficient consumer products, was expanded in 1995 to include buildings. If Mowery is successful, Rowan Regional will be the state’s first acute care hospital to earn an Energy Star. He is off to a great start. Last year, as a test he installed a single waterless urinal that has saved 40,000 gallon of water. “I put it in an area with 22 mechanics,” said Mowery.

     Energy Stars already shine over 313 Food Lion stores in North Carolina. That’s 63 percent of the stores in the state, including all of those in Rowan County. No other grocery store chain in North Carolina has a better conservation record. Since 1998, Food Lion has partnered with the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency in energy conservation. It is the star of Energy Star.
     Visit the back room of many Food Lion stores and you’ll find skylights that practically eliminate daytime electric lighting. In the dairy cases, it’s plastic film, not heaters, controlling moisture and fog. Some newer Food Lion coolers use naturally occurring carbon dioxide gas for refrigeration. Not only has the Salisbury-based chain reduced its energy use by more than 1.2 trillion British thermal units (BTU) since 1998, but the organization also serves as the EPA’s national model for grocery store energy efficiency.
   In the 1970s, protecting the environment meant solar power. In those early years, Salisbury’s Beaver Brothers handled many home and business solar installations. Today, the company adds solar panels mostly to homes. “The biggest bang for the buck is solar thermal,” which supplies approximately 70 percent of a family’s hot water needs, said owner Mike Beaver. Installation costs range from $5,800 to $8,000. High-efficiency geothermal heat pumps, which use the ground to heat and cool a home, can cost four times that amount, but produce positive cost savings in two to three years, said Beaver.

Diversity of Players
     Fifteen years ago, when he first attended environment meetings across the state, Wear kept seeing the same faces. That exclusive club feeling has changed. “Diversity has truly increased,” he said, “and one key area is the faith community.” Some denominations have been engaged for a long time in caring for Creation. Others have come to the table more recently. “All are interpreting environmental stewardship from a faith perspective,” he said.
     Wear was not content just observing the trend. He organized a recent interfaith conference at the Center for the Environment on faith, spirituality and environmental stewardship. Speakers from as far away as California came to discuss theology of ecology and religion’s contributions to sustainable development.

     Seven Rowan County businesses, no longer leery of being associated with “tree huggers,” sponsored the conference. Over 200 participants – many of them Rowan County religious leaders – attended the three-day event. “The faith community has the greatest potential to shift an entire community’s thinking about the environment,” said Wear.
     Lutheran Services for the Aging (LSA), a ministry of the North Carolina Lutheran Synod, recently chose trees over parking spaces. In designing the grounds for their new headquarters on South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Salisbury, LSA worked with the city arborist to leave trees standing and not cover everything with asphalt. “We really wanted to be good stewards of the land and preserve the natural surroundings," said Kesha Smith, LSA’s director of special projects. Only four trees were removed to create a 40-vehicle parking lot that now resembles a shady forest of willows, elms, oaks and red maples.
For the People
     Governments are also getting a lot greener. The City of Salisbury was recently named by the Sierra Club as one of 39 Cool Cities in North Carolina. To qualify, the city promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent by 2012 from its 1990 levels. To achieve that goal, the city has a number of simultaneous programs in play. It now uses some hybrid, electric and biodiesel vehicles. Two police officers patrol downtown Salisbury aboard Segways, the two-wheel electric self-balancing transporter. To reduce airborne pollutants, the city allows anyone a free ride on city buses when ozone levels are Code Orange or Red. In its land use policies, the city strives for sidewalks and open spaces that connect homes on smaller lots with nearby commercial developments.

     And those brick on Salisbury’s Fisher Street? “They were made by Taylor Clay from recycled ceramics from catalytic converters and dehydrated sewer sludge,” said Joe Morris, the city’s planning and community development manager.
     “We do more than the city when it comes to recycling,” emphasizes Recycling Coordinator Lori Swaim of Rowan County’s Environmental Management Department. The county owns and operates eight free recycling and “pay as you throw” dumpster sites. In addition to what most regard as recyclable material – paper, cardboard, metal cans – the county adds motor oil, used antifreeze, propane tanks, fire extinguishers and all seven grades of plastic bottles. They even have a Paint Swap at the Julian Road facility. “We have a lot of paint out there. People take what they need and leave what they don’t,” said Swaim. “Rowan County has a great recycling program for its size.”
     Under Swaim, a Catawba College graduate with a degree in environmental science, recycling got even better. She started a recycling service for small businesses that have trouble finding a private recycling service. “There was no incentive for them to recycle,” said Swaim. “We go to 100 businesses and all 36 schools to pick up their recycled paper, aluminum, plastic and steel. We are the only county in North Carolina that provides that service.”
     Recycling plastics and metal has become a global growth industry. “Two years ago, globalization was not in our vocabulary,” Swaim said. “Today, it is cost-effective for China to buy our recyclables, ship it overseas, process it, make a product and ship it back to us.”

What’s New
    John Wear found new hope in Rowan County’s burgeoning organic dairy farms. Two herds are located in West Rowan County. Both are fed on grass or grain grown without pesticides or weed control. With certified organic milk, cows are not injected with bovine somatotropin (bST) to increase milk production or given antibiotics to control illness. “It is a lot harder to be organic, because natural remedies such as garlic take a lot longer, “said Brittany Parker, Catawba College’s first environmental education major. She is the daughter of organic dairyman Rick Parker. Parker’s Mary L Farm in Mt. Ulla sells its milk to Organic Valley. There is a good chance that the Organic Valley milk found in Rowan County supermarkets comes from the Parker farm.
      After graduation, Brittany intends to teach environmental science at the high school level. “Hands-on captures attention more than books,” she said. “I want to take my students outside to experience the environment.”
      We may not be in the Promised Land yet, but we can see it from here, and it’s Green.