Greenville, #yeahthatgreenville, is a southern treasure

Over the past decade plus Greenville, SC, #yeahthatgreenville, experienced a tremendous resurgence as a coveted business and personal destination. National and global media took notice and consistently give Greenville prominent accolades related to quality and value-oriented travel, the excellent food scene, a sports and nature destination as well the city's livability.

Below and throughout the article are impressive accolades listed on the Visit Greenville, SC site.

Best Small Cities in the U.S. 2018 (Greenville, SC is #9)

Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards

9 Affordable U.S. Destinations for 2019

AARP

#3 Top New Foodie Cities in America

People

2018 Reader's Choice Awards - Favorite Destinations for Community Engagement

Sports Destination Management

49 of the Best Hiking Trails in the U.S. to Try Out This Fall

Business Insider

#22 Best Place to Live in the USA 2019

U.S News & World Report

BMW Manufacturing Plant 

BMW Plant
image courtesy of BMW

Until BMW opened their nearby manufacturing plant in 1994, Greenville and the entire Upstate SC remained economically traumatized by the textile industry demise in the 1970's. The BMW plant opening served as the catalyst for Greenville's economic revival and resurgence as a nationally and globally recognized great place to work, live and play.

Twenty-five years later, the BMW plant continues as a powerful regional-economic driver. Pursuant to the BMW Plant Spartanburg Stats and Information page:

BMW Manufacturing employs more than 11,000 people to produce the X3, X5 and X7 Sports Activity Vehicle and the X4 and X6 Sports Activity Coupe. The 1,150-acre, 7-million-square-foot campus generates its own power, offers an on-site Family Health Center and provides 24-hour security and firefighting personnel. To date, BMW has invested over $10 billion in its South Carolina operations.

Beyond the direct impact, BMW spurred business development in auxiliary companies and seemingly unrelated organizations. With a strong economic foundation Greenville is simply a good place for businesses to flourish.

#21 Best Small City to Start a Small Business

Verizon.com

Greenville Amenities

Reedy River Falls
view from Liberty Bridge

Greenville is blessed with an array of natural and man-made amenities. Within downtown Greenville's Historic West End, the city-owned Falls at Reedy Park is an urban paradise enjoyed by residents as well as visitors. Completed in 2002, The Liberty Bridge overlooks the impressive Reedy River falls.

Funded by Greenville's hospitality tax, the $4.5 million Liberty Bridge honors Liberty Corporation founder W. Frank Hipp and his children for their commitment and contribution to the Greenville community. While bridges with similar structural concepts have been built in Europe, the Liberty Bridge is unique in its geometry and there is nothing like it in the United States.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail is 22-mile path designed for cycling and walking that connects Travelers Rest to Greenville. Traversing along an old railroad corridor and the Reedy River, the trail crosses through the Falls park.

Liberty Bridge

Located within Greenville County, Caesars Head State Park and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains are excellent cycling, both bicycle and motorcycle, venues. Professional cyclist (bicycle) George Hincapie, a longtime teammate of Lance Armstrong, trained in the the Greenville area for the Tour de France and other global races.

When he retired George chose Greenville for his permanent home. Along with his brother, George launched two local businesses: Hincapie Sportswear, a high-end sportswear shop carrying technical apparel, gear & casual wear for cyclists & triathletes, and Hotel Domestique, part countryside auberge, part modern boutique hotel and culinary destination.

2018 Champions of Economic Impact in Sports Tourism: Innovations in Sports Tourism

Sports Destination Management

An acclaimed food, music and arts festival, Euphoria was founded in 2006 with a four-prong mission:

• To promote tourism in Greenville, SC
• To create a destination event for food, wine, and music lovers across the country
• To highlight the  culinary and music arts community of Upstate South Carolina
• To raise money to give back to the community

Euphoria showcases Greenville at its best and attracts locals as well as travelers to enjoy the festivities. Attendees enjoy exclusive tasting events, intimate musical experiences, cooking demonstrations and wine seminars, as well as multi-course dinners and live music concerts.

The Top Food Festivals & Foodie Events for Fall (Euphoria & Fall For Greenville)

StyleBlueprint

Organic, local lettuces
destined for The Anchorage

Over the past decade, Greenville attracted talented chefs to the quaint city who opened a wide array of dining destinations. Passionate about food quality, the chefs are drivers in supporting local-organic agriculture and showcase the produce, dairy and protein on their menus. Additionally, many chefs embrace zero-waste practices and contract with Atlas Organics for commercial food-waste collection for compost.

Top 20 America's Favorite Cities for Food

Travel + Leisure

Furman University, a private liberal-arts school, calls Greenville home and Clemson University, the state's second largest university from a student-population perspective, is a mere thirty plus miles away.

Greener Greenville

In 2011, Greenville City Council established the Green Ribbon Advisory Committee to advise City Council and City staff on the development of programs and initiatives, including the development of a Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, to reduce the City's environmental impact and distinguish Greenville as a leader in sustainability efforts.

Downtown dual-stream
recycling bin

The Committee issued a comprehensive report, Greener Greenville: Goals, Strategies & Tasks in June 2018. The report focuses of four sustainability categories: Energy & Buildings, Mobility, Natural Systems, and Recycling & Waste Management.

Electrical vehicle-charging stations were installed in city-owned parking garages to encourage citizens to drive low-emission vehicles. There is no fee for the chargers other than the standard parking garage stipend.

Greenville uses dual-stream recycling for their downtown collection bins. ... and the recycling bins come complete with fine art compliments of the Metropolitan Arts Council and the City of Greenville.

Reedy Farms compost sign

Within the Recycling & Waste Management section, a priority is an assessment of the food-waste collection for compost options, commercial and residential. Tasks detailed include finding a site to pilot food-waste composting, increasing awareness on home composting, and setting-up a commercial food-waste composting pilot for downtown restaurants. 

Local urban farmers embrace the use of compost to build and restore their soils for growing healthy, organic produce.

Top 10 America's Greenest Cities (Greenville is #5)

Hertz.com

Urban Agriculture
In October 2018 Elemental Impact (Ei) along with Ei Strategic Ally Feed and Seed hosted the Ei Exploration of Fungi, Soil Health and World Hunger. During the final exploration session at the Clemson organic-student farm, Feed & Seed Chair Mary Hipp gave an overview of the amazing healthy food-school programs at the Greenville County Schools as well as up the road 20+ miles at the Spartanburg County Schools, District Six.

Inspired, Ei Founder Holly Elmore traveled to Greenville in May 2019 to meet the masterminds behind the healthy food-school programs and tour their respective operations. Mary was generous with her time, connections and spirit as she hosted Holly for two consecutive days of meetings and tours.

After the Greenville County School District meeting, tour, and lunch, Mary took Holly on tours of two prominent, impressive urban farms, Reedy River Farms and Horseshoe Farm.

Reedy River Farms

Reedy River Farms

In September 2015, George DuBose and Chris Miller started Reedy River Farms with the mission to provide the best vegetable produce to their community and the most talented chefs in Greenville.

Located on an acre plot less than a mile from downtown, Reedy River Farms makes efficient use of their land via a covered high tunnel along with open-air plots. Committed to organic practices, the farm is "cide-free" (pest, insect, herb, and fungi) and nurtures their soil with local Atlas Organics compost. With close proximity to downtown, Reedy River Farms minimizes transportation emissions.

Horseshoe Farm
Back in 2017, a prominent local chef asked Chris to help him start a chef's garden at his restaurant. Thus, Chris left Reedy River Farms and launched That Garden Guy (TGG) to educate in and facilitate the "grow-your-own" and "local-food" movement.

In his consulting practice, Chris partners with Feed & Seed to help farmers improve restaurant-specific varieties and practices to maximize those relationships.

Hand-harvested carrots at
Horseshoe Farm

Last year Greg McPhee, Chef Owner of The Anchorage, partnered with TGG on Horseshoe Farm, an urban farm that is chef-driven with what and when crops are planted. Beyond another source for organic, locally grown produce, their intent is to drive the next wave of chef | farmer relationships and expand the Upstate's regional food system.

“Mother nature is always difficult, but (with this) I’ll know exactly, in theory, what we have coming in, in what months and how we can plan the menu accordingly,” Greg said in the October 2018 Greenville News article, Anchorage chef and a farmer start a farm in a new approach to local food in Greenville.

Recently Chris was recognized as 2019 Urban Conservationist of the Year by the Greenville County Soil & Water Conservation District for his sustainable-agriculture work in urban areas.

The Holly Elmore Images FB album, Greenville, SC, is a pictorial recount of Holly's May Greenville visit with sections on the farm tours, school system meetings | tours as well as downtown | neighborhood scenes.

Greenville, #yeahthatgreenville, is a southern treasure and lives up to its tremendous accolades.