A Glance Back on Sustain SC
Board Chair- Tom Hutto, GEL Engineering
From fisticuffs to breaking bread—how did Sustain SC form a bridge from conservation to commerce? We all know Ethel Bunch is the force behind this organization, but where did it start?
While serving on the Board of the Lowcountry Land Trust (LLT), we realized LLT was not fully connecting with the business community despite having many business leaders on its Board. We each had a personal commitment to conservation, but this commitment largely did not extend from our personal conservation ethic to our entire companies. So LLT formed a Business Leadership Council in 2015 to solicit input directly from the business community. And who better to organize the Council than one Ethel Bunch, who had a foot in so many sectors she was a veritable octopus. From the Business Leadership Council, LLT confirmed a sincere desire existed in the business community to support a healthy environment through land protection.
Fast forward. Ethel’s work at LLT done, she moved on to other assignments in both the business and conservation communities, but the nucleus of a concept to unite commerce and conservation remained fixed in her mind. With a small group (Ethel, Hope Lanier, Marc Fetten, Rob Howell, and myself) Palmetto Green a 501(c)(3) was hatched in 2017. We believed better planning tools were needed to help businesses land on the best properties that met their specific infrastructure and labor market criteria while minimizing environmental impacts. To do that we needed input from a diverse cross section of sectors including stakeholders from agriculture, conservation NGOs (Audubon, LLT, Coastal Conservation League, The Nature Conservancy), energy, forestry, business, industry, real estate, regulatory (DHEC), recruiting (Department of Commerce), natural resources (DNR), and transportation (DOT).
This unlikely group of over 20 convened after a certain amount of prodding and charming from Ethel. (She was only kicked out of one office!) We went through exercises to identify our shared values around conservation and what we envisioned as high priorities for South Carolina’s future such as protecting our essential agricultural lands, working forests, and water quality while recruiting and siting leading manufacturing plants. Although at times it felt more like an exorcism than an exercise, we discovered our points of agreement were many and our disagreements few.
With the help of Clemson University and volunteers from the member organizations, Palmetto Green launched the Watershed Resource Registry which streamlines the process to identify the highest quality wetlands across SC. This process facilitates choosing the best locations for development and the wetland areas to preserve. As this tool came to life in 2020, the overall importance of sustainability issues emerged as a critical consideration for business and conservation. Sustainability extends beyond land use to encompass concepts of carbon neutrality, water quality and quantity, renewable energy, and the circular economy. Concepts of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) fall under sustainability as do the 17 measures of sustainability encompassed by Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).
Palmetto Green was uniquely positioned to respond to these emerging trends and last March rebranded itself as Sustain SC, representing the intersection of commerce and conservation. Sustain SC has blossomed over the past year as SC’s leader in sustainability, providing educational opportunities and setting the table for conversations between business and local stakeholders so investments can be made right here in South Carolina. Sustain SC’s unique model of creative stakeholder engagement is now recognized nationally and internationally. Ethel is now fielding inquiries from other states and nations. Sustain SC has accomplished a lot during its seven-year genesis, but it’s only the beginning with its best days ahead as the convener of unlikely bedfellows that will lead South Carolina to its best future, a future that respects our past and our beloved natural resources, while launching our state into a prosperous and sustainable future.
