Apr 14, 2011
Making a green valley even greener
Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley is known in song and story for its natural beauty and the bounty of its farms.
And over the last few years, like many areas across the US, the Valley of Virginia has sought to create jobs and raise its already high quality of life by exploring the new clean-energy economy.
Hometown talent
What makes the Valley’s sustainability effort different is that it is not driven by large national or multinational corporations investing from the outside, but by local ventures like Secure Futures that have grown organically and are intimately tied into the community of this neighborly area.
Powering the Valley: Sustainable Energy Ventures in Staunton and Beyond
Secure Futures CEO Tony Smith and other speakers
Thursday, May 5, 6:30pm at Staunton City Hall [map]
Free and open to the public
Info at 540-887-7111
A priority for Secure Futures, which is located at the crossroads of the Shenandoah Valley in the historic city of Staunton, has been to take an active role in the Valley’s green community. To meet that goal, the company has partnered with its clients, investors and local organizations to create a business and public policy environment friendly to the area’s budding green economy.
Most notably, in the city of Harrisonburg Secure Futures worked with a coalition of city residents and concerned groups, including our client Eastern Mennonite University, to pass a tax-exemption ordinance to encourage solar energy on both a commercial and residential scale. The company will be working with other cities in the near future on similar measures.
Please join us
Secure Futures CEO Tony Smith will talk about ways the company has worked with the regional green community and give his thoughts on how to grow the clean-energy economy in the Valley at a panel called “Powering the Valley: Sustainable Energy Ventures in Staunton and Beyond” on Thursday, May 5 at 6:30pm at Staunton City Hall at 116 W. Beverley Street (see map here).
Sponsored by a coalition of green groups, the panel will also include a green architect, a farmer growing switchgrass for fuel and the executive director of the local historic preservation group. When the presentations finish at 7:30, the panelists and attendees will decamp to the nearby Mockingbird restaurant to network and socialize.
If you’ll be in the Staunton area on May 5, we invite you to join us!
Written by: Tony Smith
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About The Author
Anthony Smith, PhD, is President and Founder of Secure Solar Futures. He brings over 40 years’ experience in energy efficiency, solar energy, and community economic development in Vermont, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. He founded Secure Solar Futures in 2004 as CEO and President and leads the company’s innovation development and strategic partnerships. He serves as a founding board member of the Virginia Renewable Energy Alliance (VA-REA). He served as co-director and associate professor of the Eastern Mennonite University MBA program from 2008 to 2015. He earned his Masters in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from the Wharton School of Management, University of Pennsylvania.