What is Annie's House?
Located at 60 Baxter Street in the Nicholtown Community, Annie’s House is an interfaith initiative demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of living more simply and sustainably. Bordering the Swamp Rabbit Trail and just minutes from downtown Greenville, Annie’s House is passed by over half a million people annually, making it an ideal location for maximum impact.
Food and energy costs create a burden that reduces the ability for low-income individuals to break out of poverty. Annie’s House seeks to leverage its more than 60 partners to help break the cycle of poverty and progress Nicholtown to be a more sustainable community.
Annie’s House was built in partnership with Genesis Homes and completed in early 2015 to be a model of an affordable, highly efficient home. The home and grounds serve as an education center and demonstration site as well as a base of operations for Sustaining Way. It is regularly visited by the public to develop the community’s knowledge about sustainability.
We educate, demonstrate, and advocate to develop individuals and the community in 6 areas of sustainability: Food and Landscape, Energy and Energy Efficiency, Consumption and Waste, Healthy Lifestyles, Environmental Sustainability, and Social Sustainability. Some of the current sustainable practices demonstrated on-site include:
What is Sustainablity?
To understand Sustaining Way’s focus it helps to better understand what is meant by sustainability. For us, sustainability is simple and practical. It is about caring for people while caring for the environment and doing this all in an affordable manner.
How do we do it?
We do this through working with our partners to purchase and upgrade an underutilized property in marginalized communities and the selective employment of individuals with skills and passion for sustainability and community development. Annie’s House is our flagship site in Nicholtown, Greenville, SC. Its landscape was sustainably remodeled to serve as an education center, demonstration site, and as a base of operations. We break sustainability down into six areas:
We educate, demonstrate, and advocate to develop individuals and the community in each of these areas.
