Description:
Jonnie Sharp, visionary and mother of two, is a native North Carolinian of multiple generations and was reared to appreciate the traditions and beauty of our state. Her goal is to help preserve the innate qualities of the state while stimulating economic development through a triple bottom line model.

Executive Summary:

Two years ago Jonnie returned with her family to NC, settling in Wilmington. Jonnie's career background includes brand management, green interior design and residential real estate sales. She has had a lifelong passion for diversity and environmental issues, and has always enjoyed business achievement. Since moving to Wilmington, her personal mission has been to understand Wilmington's economic, environmental and equality issues and to find ways to help Wilmington reach its highest potential through sustainable practices.

Jonnie has been an integral connector for the green building, environmental, diversity and business communities in Wilmington. She is an active member of the Cape Fear Green Building Alliance, and helped Wilmington's first green building store, Sapona Green Building, with its store design and product selection. She co-founded Sustainable Wilmington, with the mission of educating and accelerating the adoption of sustainable principles within the Wilmington community. Sustainable Wilmington's first event was to host an Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, which educates around sustainability issues, and which garnered 50 more sustainability advocates for our area. Jonnie also serves as the representative for the City of Wilmington on a tri-county WMPO committee for bicycle/pedestrian issues. She is an original member of the newly formed Cape Fear Economic Development Council, a consortium of business owners seeking a clean, green future for Wilmington. She also serves on a committee for re-visioning the industrial corridor along the Cape Fear River.

Jonnie has been passionate about diversity issues since her childhood and continues to see those issues as core to our economic success. She serves on the diversity committee for the Friends School of Wilmington where she is involved in creating education events to help the community understand its history in diversity and to heal around those issues.

Jonnie recently formed Buena Sustainable Communities, a for-profit economic development firm focused on triple bottom line principles. Buena's tagline is "True prosperity is all-inclusive." Buena's first economic development project will be Wilmington, NC. Jonnie holds a vision for the future of our city and has come up with solutions for economic development that build on our core assets and the talents of our people, while maintaining our natural beauty. She has assembled a national network of leaders in sustainability to partner with in transitioning local economies to sustainable development approaches. Jonnie sees challenges as opportunities and believes that Wilmington, because of its size and its many assets is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the current economy. She has been able to show that the solutions to our economic problems do not lie in attracting new businesses, but in working with the natural talents and assets of our community members, and forming collaborations to solve our problems. Jonnie holds Real Estate Licenses in NC and CA, is LEED certified and has been accepted to the Presidio School of Executive Leadership where she will focus on her first Buena project, "Wilmington Inspired". Her efforts in sustainability reach across local, state and national connections.

What specific results have been achieved?

Jonnie has formed alliances with leaders throughout the region in arts, agriculture, business, green building, social justice and politics. She has been successful at putting together partnerships, whether various people working on health care issues, or connecting the green building industry to the film industry for documentary production, to name a few. She has formed an alliance with LINC, Leading into New Communities, which is an ex-prisoner rehabilitation group, and has successfully brought underrepresented voices to the table in the economic development discussions. Jonnie has been helping local leaders understand the benefits of sustainability and the connection that our social justice and environmental issues have to economic development. Jonnie is leading the charge for Wilmington to brand itself as a mecca for sustainability innovation and is making progress towards this goal.

In what ways are the efforts of this organization/individual unique and innovative?

Jonnie is on the cutting edge of the growth trends in re-development and economic stimulation. Her business takes advantage of best practices from key sustainability leaders in the nation, and combines social media and digital video to reach broader audiences. Jonnie is unique in her broad grasp of the issues and her whole systems approach to economic development. She has a unique ability to see how all the pieces fit together and to convey that in a way that makes sense to people who may not understand the underlying principles of sustainability. She is able to show that sustainability is not a partisan solution but that to be truly sustainable, a community must transcend partisan issues.

More than just a sustainability advocate, Jonnie has real solutions for economic development and ideas that make sense. She is able to see the big picture in terms of national trends, local assets, and opportunities around branding, events, business development and transitioning to a triple bottom line.

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How has the broader community been impacted?

Many people in the community have been worn down by years of unsustainable economic development, and have been left feeling defeated. Jonnie has brought an optimism to the call for sustainability and a broader understanding to the community about how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. She has endless viable ideas for the economic development of Wilmington and has helped spark other people to see what is possible. Her enthusiasm for Wilmington's potential has been contagious and there are many organizations and people that are now collaborating due to Jonnie's efforts. She is a practical and positive voice for the sustainability movement and has formed a more cohesive community in her two short years here.