People in Action - Mack Pearsall

The Asheville-Buncombe Sustainable Community Council has as its goal to meet schools’ energy costs and undertake repairs while stimulating the area’s green economy.
Its first major project is the comprehensive “greening” of 54 public school campuses within the Asheville and Buncombe County school districts.   Program elements include everything from energy efficiency upgrades, water conservation, use of recycled or renewable construction materials in renovations to sustainability metrics to measure success.

North Carolina is one of the most economically impacted states due to climate change and this partnership is an example of good building practice and successful energy retrofits. A core focus of this effort is greening the existing public school campuses because new construction only accounts for a small percentage of the total building stock.  Mack Pearsall, a leader in the Asheville area, and one of the architects of this plan, credits the Emerging Issues Forum with the impetus for action.

“As a futurist and restless idealist, over my many years of attending the Institute for Emerging Issues Forum, what I refer to as an event for forward engagement, I have had my creative juices stirred to action annually. These inspirations have served me well in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world which is fraught with avalanches of change,” said Mr. Pearsall. “This creativity currently finds itself manifested in my engagement with Reading, Riding and Retrofit, a collaborative effort to green the public schools of Asheville and Buncombe County. Long ago I accepted the premise that what we think and what we do as individuals makes a difference in bringing about a preferred future; it makes the only difference.”

If IEI has inspired or influenced your work as it has Mr. Pearsall’s, we would love to hear about it! Please email us at institute@ncsu.edu with your stories.