From 5:30-7:30 p.m. on July 16, the North Carolina Composting Council will be hosting its Sustainable Spirits event at Pelagic Beer & Wine. The event is intended to be an opportunity for people who are interested in sustainability to come together and talk about their ideas and projects.

According to Julie Moore, administrative coordinator for the North Carolina Composting Council, the event happens monthly at different venues from Wilmington to Asheville.

“Sustainable Spirits is a public gathering intended to create a space for people to have conversations about sustainability,” Moore said. “We read articles and we hear things on the news or read them online, but there’s very few ways to actually get together with other like-minded people and talk through ideas, share ideas.”

Moore said that the event venues tend to be in the Triangle because there is so much discussion about legislation in Raleigh, but there is a need for people to have access to solutions they personally can implement.

“I think there’s a need in Raleigh for positive interaction,” Moore said. “We have a lot of people telling us what’s wrong and what’s happening and how scary that is, and there’s just a need for people to talk about solutions, and it needs to be solutions that we, everyday people, can manage… There needs to be a venue for people to go find ideas and feel like they’re making progress and be hopeful.”

This month, the event is being held at Pelagic Beer & Wine, a craft beer and wine retail store in downtown Raleigh. According to Moore, Pelagic Beer & Wine was chosen, as all of the venues are, because of its commitment to composting.

Matt Allen, a co-owner of Pelagic Beer & Wine, said the North Carolina Compost Council approached them because of their sustainable practices and commitment to the community.

“They targeted us as a good place for this event because we kind of have the same mindset as them,” Allen said. “We are a very community-oriented business… We have to use disposable cups at our business, but we choose to use compostable cups and napkins and other things. We also support local businesses in the area. Most of our business comes from North Carolina, and we try not to ship beer from miles and miles away.”

According to Moore, food for the event will be catered by Sweet Peas Urban Gardens, which grows its crops in urban gardens and can fit acres worth of microgreens into a single shipping container.

Moore asks that anyone interested in the event register for free online in order to assist in knowing how much food to order.

More information about the event can be found on the North Carolina Composting Council’s website. More information about the venue for this month can be found on the Pelagic Beer & Wine website.