Notable Sustainable Companies
in South Carolina
At L’Autre Couleur, it is our intention to showcase sustainable development, including non-profits, startups, institutions, projects and more. That’s right— it doesn’t matter what shape, size and vision it comes in, if you are doing good for the world around you, we will spread the word. Today’s post will cover the next state on our radar: South Carolina! Home to the Edisto River Canoe & Kayak Trail which covers 66 miles of the river, we hope you enjoy discovering these local sustainable companies as much as we did.
There are many more sustainable companies that we may have missed, so if you believe you should be in the Notable Sustainable Companies in South Carolina, feel free to contact us and we will evaluate your sustainable initiative. We did not receive any funding or incentives to feature these companies. Our goal is to create awareness of sustainable development and encourage others to participate. Companies listed in this article are also welcome to add our eco-badge to their website, located at the bottom of this article.
Notable Sustainable Companies in South Carolina
Ever Green Environmental
Photo credit: Ever Green Environmental Facebook
First on our list is Ever Green Environmental, who provides single-stream recycling, used fluorescent lamps and electronics recycling. Recycling might be more mainstream than it used to be, but there are still many challenges that come with it, such as how to properly recycle, what to recycle and why it’s important to practice it. In this industry, we need help navigating and implementing proper, efficient processes to truly make an impact.
Ever Green Environmental is one of the key allies that is increasing the recycling infrastructure and the industry in South Carolina. Discover the full benefit of a comprehensive recycling program here.
NICO
The foodie’s community plays an important role in the sustainable seafood movement, and that’s why we chose to include NICO in our list of Notable Sustainable Companies in South Carolina. We discovered this restaurant through Seafood Watch’s Blue Ribbon Task Force, an excellent resource to fall back on when traveling or visiting a new region.
Since 2012, Seafood Watch has invited leading chefs and culinarians from across the United States to Monterey, California, to share their challenges and ideas about seafood sustainability, the work of the Seafood Watch program and their role in ensuring a future with a healthy ocean.
Members were selected for their leadership roles in their culinary fields—some are new acquaintances to the Seafood Watch program, while others are active spokespeople. Every individual in the Blue Ribbon Task Force has committed to promoting sustainable, delicious seafood and a healthy, wild ocean.
This upbeat oyster bar serves French cuisine prepared with ingredients sourced from the waters of the Lowcountry and a curated selection of the country’s most coveted raw oysters.
Urban Seas Aquaculture
Photo credit: Urban Seas Aquaculture Facebook
Aquaculture operations that work in collaboration with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch are ambassadors in supporting healthy oceans. Next on our list of Notable Sustainable Companies in South Carolina is another important advocate in the responsible seafood movement.
Urban Seas Aquaculture is a sustainable white shrimp farm located in Greenville, South Carolina. Recognizing the need for a source of sustainable shrimp in their area, husband and wife team Austin and Valeska Minkowski decided to raise their shrimp indoor in fully recirculating tanks.
Shrimp that are caught in the open ocean are generally caught using the otter trawl. This is essentially a giant bulldozer that scrapes the seafloor, killing the benthic habitat in search for shrimp. While this trawl does indeed catch millions of shrimp, it also catches several other marine organisms that are then thrown away as trash. When open sea trawling, up to 15 pounds of wild fish are regularly killed to bring one pound of shrimp to the market.
What about any added chemicals or antibiotics?
There are none to be found in Urban Seas Aquaculture’s white shrimp. Their shrimp are fed a natural diet consisting of algae and natural protein and no artificial additives are added to their systems. Using sustainable farming methods, Urban Seas Aquaculture minimizes the damage done to wild stocks of white shrimp and offer their community with an environmentally friendly alternative.
Freshly Grown Farms
Photo credit: Freshly Grown Farms Facebook
Freshly Grown Farms (FGF), located just outside Columbia, South Carolina, delivers high-quality, healthy, and sustainable local produce. Known for its award-winning hydroponic arugula, FGF provides farmers markets and restaurants with a wide variety of pesticide-free vegetables and lettuce.
Recent soaring electricity costs in South Carolina have resulted in small businesses seeking to control costs by buying food from local farms. To satisfy growing demand from customers, FGF needed a way to grow year-round, even on cloudy days.
We were thrilled to hear about their initiative to increase energy efficiency. With the help of Lumigrow, FGF was able to conduct research and consider new options for agricultural grow lights. The founder of Freshly Grown Farms, Jason Poole learned that a greenhouse LED lighting system would yield high crop growth and show the best financial return on all lighting options. High-intensity discharge (HID) lamps run too hot for plants and have exceedingly high electrical costs. Alternatively, the limited color spectrum of fluorescents cannot produce thriving greens and lettuce. To optimize plant production for minimal operational cost, FGF installed a LED lighting system.
Atlas Organics
Photo credit: Atlas Organics Facebook
Atlas Organics will take your food waste and convert it into the valuable soil to promote sustainable agriculture and landscaping. Their services include:
- Commercial Collection: Atlas Organics currently offers food waste collection for Upstate and Midlands, SC, Western, NC and Eastern TN. It doesn’t matter if you are private an public, as they serve both including clients in the fields of Education, Healthcare, Grocery, Manufacturing, Hospitality, and other private businesses.
- Residential Collection: Composting can get pretty complicated depending on which jurisdiction you reside in. But Atlas Organic collects ALL of your organic waste once a week from your doorstep or a drop off location. They can then produce finished compost that is returned to your doorstep upon request. These services are available in Spartanburg and Greenville, SC as well as Chattanooga, TN. You get all of this by becoming a member of the Compost Community.
- Compost Product: Atlas Organics produces a premium, organics compost that is sold back into the agriculture, landscape, and home gardening markets through both bulk and bagged product (DIRTBAG) sales. Their food waste compost is STA approved and a Certified South Carolina Grown.
Green Roof Outfitters
Photo Credit: Green Roof Outfitters Facebook
Green Roof Outfitters® designs modular green roof systems that combine design vegetated green roof modules. Every single one of their standard module contain the layers of a complete green roof system including:
- Drainage,
- stormwater retention,
- filtering,
- growth media, and plants.
Green buildings bring sustainable benefits such reduced heating and cooling costs; stormwater mitigation; noise reduction; and habitat creation. Whether it is a healing garden, an urban oasis, or a vegetable/herb bed, GROWVista™ vegetated green roof systems utilize a combination of standard and hybrid planting methods. They can plant modules that include pre-vegetated mats or pre-planted and grown out for a mature green roof at the time of the installation.
South Carolina Solar
South Carolina Solar is one of the key allies that bring renewable energy to their state. Locally owned & operated, their focus is on providing full service solar electric contractors serving the state of South Carolina. For two decades, the company has educated the public on the benefits of solar energy.
As The Renewable Energy Hub stated, “Solar panels are one of the major technical innovations of our lifetime and are beginning to change the way we look at our energy needs, now and in the years to come.”
With offices in Greenville, Columbia, Fort Mill and Charleston, thousands of South Carolinians have made the switch to solar energy and now receive solar rebates. South Carolina Solar provides a solution to determine if solar energy is first a good fit for the property. Once audited, their team structures the initial design and navigates the approval process to complete the solar system installation.
Next Up: Top 15 Sustainable Initiatives in Washington, DC
SC Aquarium
Source: SC Aquarium Instagram “Stono the otter got his annual medical checkup last week, including a CT scan. He returned to his home in the Mountain Forest with a clean bill of health! #protectwhatyoulove”
To inspire conservation is not an easy task. Protecting existing land, territory and wildlife requires individuals who have integrity and who continuously engage with local peers to pay attention to the changing landscapes. The South Carolina Aquarium shapes this movement by exhibiting and caring for animals, by excelling in education and research, and by providing an exceptional visitor experience.
As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, they have excelled in organizing the following conservation events:
- Sea Turtle Care Center™: All seven species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered. This is a reflection of the growing issues surrounding coastal development and ocean conservation. To help ensure that sea turtles have a future in our oceans, the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Care Center™ aids sick and injured sea turtles in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).
- Citizen Science: Make a difference by contributing to the study of local environmental issues like plastic pollution, sea level rise or invasive species. The app features a collection of environmental research projects led by professional scientists at the South Carolina Aquarium who need your help collecting data. Contribute to projects of your choice quickly and easily from your mobile device.
- Good Catch: South Carolina Aquarium Good Catch generates awareness and leads communities in support of local fisheries and consumption of responsibly harvested seafood.
- Plastic Pollution: Download the Plastic Toolkit here.
- Research & fieldwork: South Carolina Aquarium staff participate in research and fieldwork to protect our state’s animals and environments. From population assessment surveys to the restoration of critical habitats, their contributions in the field help ensure a healthy future for South Carolina’s water, wildlife and wild places.
- Resilience: Sea level rise, storm surge and changing ocean conditions are a serious threat to human health and safety, commerce and culture, and wildlife and natural habitats alike. The SC Aquarium educates South Carolina coastal citizens to prepare for the effects of rising seas.
South Carolina Beekeepers Association
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
South Carolina Beekeepers Association is a private non-profit organization dedicated to education and advocacy. If you have a special place in your heart for the bees that grace us with pollination, then you want to get involved with the South Carolina Beekeepers Association.
They offer great resources on how to become advocates for the small, but mighty bees. In fact, the list of services, educational programs, grants and more is so extensive that we can only highlight a few in this post.
Here’s a good place to start:
Join the conversation that strives to provide South Carolinians, public and private organizations with factual and up to date information about the honey bee, beekeeping, and its importance to our food supply.
Charleston Waterkeeper
What would you choose between:
- Swimming during the summer or being restricted due to toxic and dangerous water conditions?
- Drinking water from the tap or only buying bottled water for the rest of your days?
- Fishing in local waterways or being restricted due to water quality issues?
If you answered you prefer swimming, drinking tap water and fishing in your local waterways, then it’s time to discover Charleston Waterkeeper, who’s a leading player in protecting the public’s right to clean, swimmable, fishable, enjoyable water.
As a data-driven organization, they rely on strict empirical evidence to identify water quality issues and reach pragmatic solutions. Here’s a glimpse into what they do:
Five Loaves Cafe
Source: Five Loaves Cafe Facebook
When it comes to the food industry, we get really really warm and fuzzy when hearing about those that go to great lengths to contribute to the local community in health and in the economy. Five Loaves Cafe has impressed us and here’s why:
- Their team is committed to serving only fresh, local ingredients and Carolina-raised, organic meats.
- Developed strong partnerships with local purveyors and makers of food, wine and beer.
- The restaurant is built with sustainable materials and use ecologically sound building practices.
- Take out food and drink containers are biodegradable and made from recycled materials.
Bull’s Bay Salt Works
While on our search for notable sustainable companies in South Carolina, we came up Bull’s Bay Salt Works. They are the first company that we chose to feature in this campaign that focuses on salt procurement, and we’re grateful that they made us reflect and rethink how we procure things we need in our lives.
Here’s an excerpt from their website that made us pay attention:
“Repurposing materials and trying to think about how things were done 200 years ago, rather than hopping in the truck and driving thirty miles to town, became habit. If you spend any time in the Charleston area, you will have already noticed the distinctive regional taste that we’re all about, its in the air. For us, it might have started when we first ate Bulls Bay oysters, could have been from a walk around Lighthouse Island helping the Turtle Crew one day, or maybe from just hanging around at The Battery. Somehow, the salt, our salt, your salt, Charleston salt, made an impression and we wanted more. One of the first experimental batches of salt was produced during a 12-hour long hog roast at our home. Lots of heat and extra room in the smoker also led to the first batch of our Smoked Sea Salt. As new friends stood around at the potluck, much of the talk was about the salt – well, mostly about the pork, but the salt was next best!”
Compost Rangers
Compost Rangers is a grassroots compost initiative based in Charleston, SC. This energetic team will challenge you to rethink what you typically throughout in a day. What started as a passionate project has transformed and evolved into a determined non-profit organization.
This dedicated team is spreading their knowledge and expertise to the masses. Some of the services they offer that actively diverts organic materials from the local landfill include:
1) managing the waste stream at events such as farmers markets, fundraisers, and education fairs;
2) providing residential solutions for both homeowners and renters.
Compost Rangers has accelerated the adoption of composting practices through partnerships with Keep Charleston Beautiful, The Green Heart Project (up next!) and SMART Recycling.
The Green Heart Project
Source: The Green Heart Project Instagram “2018 Harvest Dinner that took place one week ago today — over 700 attendees and $32,300 raised!”
The Green Heart Project builds garden-based experiential learning projects and school garden programs to educate students to connect people and cultivate community through growing, eating, and celebrating food. If that doesn’t sound like a fun and hands-on approach to engage youth, consider the following activities they also lead:
- In partnership with Whole Foods Market, the Green Heart Project has been able to supplement their garden curriculum with “Healthy Hearts,” a culinary and nutrition education program. Healthy Hearts offers a unique culinary experience that teaches students, parents and volunteers how to cook delicious, healthy meals practically and economically while utilizing garden-fresh veggies from their gardens whenever the opportunity arises. Healthy Hearts aims to bring the Green Heart Project’s farm-to-school program full circle. In order to improve diets, lifestyle, and increase the consumption of fresh produce, these classes connect participants to the source of our food, expand access to healthy fruits and vegetables, and increase knowledge of how to prepare and cook these whole foods.
- At the end of each spring season, the Green Heart Project and its affiliate school host their annual Harvest Dinner in the garden to celebrate another year of growth. Parents, family members, friends, neighbors, and community members are invited to come and enjoy a delicious dinner hosted by our students and volunteers. The menu features fresh produce grown in the Green Heart gardens and is supplemented with food donations from local organizations and corporate sponsorships. It is a celebration of the students’ hard work and success, local agriculture, and the health and well-being of our community in the Lowcountry.
Coastal Conservation League
The Coastal Conservation League is determined to protect the threatened resources of the South Carolina coastal plain — its natural landscapes, abundant wildlife, clean water, and quality of life — by working with citizens and government on proactive, comprehensive solutions to environmental challenges.
Their work is divided among the following program areas: Air and Water, Energy and Climate, Food and Agriculture, Land and Community, and Transportation.
We hope you enjoyed L’Autre Couleur’s Notable Sustainable Companies in South Carolina!
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This was the 15th post in the Notable Sustainable Companies series; one for every State in the United States. By the end of 2018, you can expect a Notable Sustainable Companies article for every State in the United States! To stay updated on the up and coming initiatives, subscribe to our monthly newsletter and follow us on Facebook. Also please comment if we have left out any important sustainable companies in South Carolina that you believe should be part of our list of top sustainable companies, or if you have any thoughts/comments on the article.
Check out some of the sustainable companies happening in your neighbouring country.
- Top Sustainable Companies in Washington, DC
- Top Sustainable Companies in Pennsylvania
- Top Sustainable Companies in West Virginia
- Notable Sustainable Companies in North Carolina
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L’Autre Couleur
