For some communities, the word "sustainability" itself is the hurdle, tangled up in politics and easy to dismiss before the real work even starts. Brandi Whetstone spends her days getting past that. As director of sustainability at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, or MORPC, she runs Sustainable2050, the framework that has 39 communities, from small villages to the City of Columbus, moving toward the same healthier, more livable future. The trick is not a louder argument. It is meeting people where they are and showing them they are already halfway there.

The second half of the MORPC miniseries gets into the machinery. A Regional Sustainability Agenda, refreshed every four years and adopted by a board of more than 100 people. A bronze-to-platinum ladder that turns going green into a friendly competition between towns. Everyday wins most people never think to call sustainability, like composting programs, tree canopy plans, and sidewalks that make it easier to leave the car at home. The standout is Mount Vernon, a skeptical community that dropped the politics, reframed the work around saving money and quality of life, and built real momentum from there. It all builds toward the Summit on Sustainability, now in its 20th year, and a keynote from Happy City author Charles Montgomery that ties the season's Common Thread theme together.

Episode in a Glance

00:00 Inside the Job of Keeping a Region Sustainable
05:14 Why 2050? The Framework Behind Sustainable2050
10:04 From Bronze to Platinum: Sustainability You Can Measure
14:54 When Sustainability Is a Hard Sell: The Mount Vernon Story
18:45 What Any Community Can Borrow From MORPC
20:59 Inside the Summit on Sustainability

About Brandi Whetstone

Brandi Whetstone is the director of sustainability at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), a regional organization that brings Central Ohio communities together to share best practices and plan for the region's growth and sustainability. A native Ohioan from Bryan, she studied environmental policy and analysis alongside political science and government at Bowling Green State University. Before MORPC, she organized communities with Ohio Citizen Action, led the Buckeye Forest Council as its executive director, and worked on water quality with the Sierra Club. Over 16 years at MORPC she has grown from outreach specialist to director of sustainability, where she leads the region's sustainability initiatives and helps produce the annual Summit on Sustainability.

Connect with Brandi Whetstone and her work with MORPC

Brandi Whetstone on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandiwhetstone

Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission → morpc.org

Summit on Sustainability (register, it tends to sell out) → morpc.org/summit

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