Q/A with Matt Sepic

KWMU reporter Matt Sepic was a participant in today's proceedings, as emcee for the morning welcome session. We caught up with the young newshound in the exhibition hall and touched on a variety of topics.

GTH08: Can you tell about your involvement in the conference?
Sepic: Well, Brandyn Jones asked me to be the emcee and I was glad to do it, because green building is the future. Look at the price of everything, from fuel to building materials. I'm rehabbing a building in the Shaw neighborhood in South St. Louis and everybody that's done any kind of construction knows it's getting more expensive to do it. Going green and reducing waste is going to be a necessity, in just the economics of the situation.

GTH08: So this has a direct, personal appeal, then?
Sepic: Somewhat. Yeah, I'm not an architect. I'm doing this on the margins and learning as I go, but I've been interested in construction and this crowd's certainly public radio-friendly, so I'm glad to do it.

GTH08: Tell us about this morning's event.
Sepic: I was really interested to hear from Ray Anderson from Interface, a carpet company. It's a really resource-based industry, with lots of resource needs for carpet fibers. This guy has figured out ways to reduce the environmental impact of his operation. And he's making money at the same time. If you can do that in the carpet business, then any large corporation can follow his lead. I'm really impressed by that.

GTH08: What about the impact of this taking place in St. Louis? What's it mean to the town?
Sepic: I think it's great. This is a city that - and I don't know this as a fact - as far as rehabbing, it's one of the leaders, especially with the state tax credits. It's a natural fit for St. Louis, which is recycling buildings, essentially. It's important for us to talk about sustainability, waste and reusing buildings again.

GTH08: For people from outside St. Louis, would you like to give a plug about 90.7?
Sepic: I would. It's the NPR station here. Looking around, I think that we have many members here.