ATLANTA, Georgia (Atlanta News First) – An Atlanta-area nonprofit is helping other nonprofits save money through sustainability.
One of those nonprofits told Atlanta News First the help changed everything.
The new visitor center is located near the entrance to Oakland Cemetery and took years to complete.
“This will really help us better share the cemetery with the hundreds of thousands of visitors each year,” said Richard Harker, executive director of the Historic Oakland Foundation.
It will be a community space and also a place where the stories of all those resting here will be kept alive. The cemetery is over 48 hectares in size and more than 70,000 people are buried there.
The Southface Institute, through its GoodUse program, helped the Oakland team build a sustainable building. The work is made possible by grant funding.
“We are working to make buildings more efficient and use less energy, which lowers your costs,” said James Marlow, president of the Southface Institute.
“We are really pleased that their team has been with us throughout the process of making this building the most environmentally sustainable building it can be,” said Harker.
The Southface Institute is a sustainable building nonprofit. They work with businesses to help them save money through sustainability, and their Gooduse program allows them to do the same with nonprofits. They help reduce operating costs, and the money saved goes directly back into the nonprofit’s mission.
“Insulation values, the specifications for the HVAC system, all the ways to make the building envelope tighter and more environmentally friendly,” Harker said.
“We have worked with 600 nonprofits in 30 states to modernize their buildings and make their operations more efficient,” Marlow said.
In this case, the mission revolves around the people buried in Oakland and the stories that continue to be told.
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