(SAVANNAH) – “Sustainability in the City: Local Governments Going Greener” will be the topic of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business SMART Luncheon on Tuesday, Aug. 5. Tommy Linstroth of Savannah sustainable development real estate company Melaver, Inc. will speak. The lecture is free and open to the public.
“The main message is that actions taken locally can really have a profound impact on a national or international issue,” Linstroth said. “Does one business, by itself, necessarily do enough to impact climate change? Maybe not, but when one business, and the next and the next start to, then those savings really start to add up. It happens on the state level to the city level all the way down to the individual business level.”
The lecture will be held in the Savannah Morning News auditorium, with networking to begin at 11:30 a.m. The meeting begins at noon and ends at 1 p.m. Lunch is optional and costs $9; RSVP for lunch by Aug. 1 to ssmith@savannahchamber.com or 644-6434.
Linstroth is the co-author of “Local Action: A New Paradigm in Climate Change Policy,” an upbeat and accessible guide for citizens, communities, and local governments interested in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Local Action” provides a framework for both community and government initiatives, with sections on the action plan, the motivation, the process and the plan for making changes. These grassroots efforts can and have made a difference.
In the book, Linstroth examined efforts by local governments that are having a significant effect. A handful of jurisdictions in the United States are preventing over 20 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere annually and have saved over $400,000,000 in the process.
Linstroth is the Head of Sustainable Initiatives for Melaver, Inc., a sustainable real estate firm based in Savannah. Linstroth is responsible for spearheading all of the company’s sustainable real estate developments, including one of the first sustainable projects in the U.S. to also be cited on the National Historic Register and the first all-retail sustainable development in the country.
Linstroth is the founder and a board member of the Savannah Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, and is on the Board of Trustees of the Live Oak Public Libraries and the Georgia Conservation Voters. He is a regular speaker on sustainable development throughout Georgia and the South east.
Melaver, Inc. is a third-generation, family-owned business based in Savannah, Georgia. The sustainable real estate developer currently has eight LEED certified projects in their portfolio and developed one of the first LEED certified buildings in the U.S. which is also on the National Register of Historic Places. Melaver Inc. also developed the first all-retail LEED shopping center in the country, Abercorn Common, including the first LEED McDonald’s worldwide.
Contact: (912) 236-0781
www.melaver.com