High Profile: NIKKI SEIBERT

Nikki Seibert may find more kindred spirits on the environmentally aware Pacific Coast, but she knows she can make more of a difference in her native Southeast.

"I'd like to stay here a while," says the 26-year-old, who works as the green building coordinator for Sea Island Habitat for Humanity and recycling coordinator for the College of Charleston. "There's such an atmosphere of change here. If I lived someplace like Oregon or California, I'd just be an ordinary person."

Seibert admits she's idealistic, but she matches it with passion, work and realistic ideas as well as a personal eco-friendly lifestyle. And while she has a lifetime of potential accomplishments ahead, she's already getting recognized for her efforts.

Earlier this month, the Sustainability Institute of South Carolina presented her with the Nathaniel Jones Individual Honoree Award for being a "green catalyst of change."

She embodies what she sees as our greener future — one that is smarter, more efficient and more determined.

Seibert, who also is a student in the Master of Environmental Studies program at the College of Charleston, eventually sees herself moving from eco-friendly building efforts into "political ecology," connecting scientific findings with improved public policy.

"Green building is something that I fell into and I'm enjoying the road I'm taking, but it's not my final goal. It's a stop along the way. I'd like to go into political ecology because scientists are so in their own bubble that they don't know how to talk to the public and politicians."

Nothing new

Seibert's zest for trying to do good follows the same track of her not-so-distant youth. A self-described "overachiever," this tom-boy (She says she's "the son her parents never had.") was active in her church not because she was a "churchgoer," but because it gave her an outlet for giving back.

In high school, she also was president of Students Against Drunk Driving and the National Art Honor Society. She worked as a waitress and in an animal hospital.

That active involvement turned a once-shy girl, whose parents divorced when she was 9, into a talkative extrovert. And she says it also helped her mature quicker than her peers.

"I worked all the way through high school, and I think when you do that, it makes you grow up faster. I think that gave me an advantage because I understood responsibility," says Seibert.

Knowing herself

Enrolling at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, the young woman who was drawn to the ocean initially went into marine biology, but it didn't take her long to know it wasn't a match.

"After one semester, I realized it wasn't the right field for me because it was way too much time in the lab, and I wasn't getting to work with people. I wanted to be able to educate people. I took one environmental science class and fell in love. I took a lot of science classes, but my passion is bridging the gap between science and the public, and science and policy."

As in high school, Seibert got to work. She founded a campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity, held internships with the Audubon Society, Wilmington's stormwater services, Cape Fear River Watch and the cooperative extension's 4-H program, along with working as a waitress and a nanny.

Was there any time for being a conventional college student?

"I did the college thing. I loved to go out and definitely had a social life," says Seibert. "But I am action-oriented. I didn't go out on Fridays because I had to be building houses on Saturday. Besides that, it was expensive (to go out)."

Charlotte, heck no!

Her first foray into the job market also was a learning experience. She took a position as an environmental education assistant for Mecklenburg County, N.C., but didn't realize that her commute would put her in Charlotte traffic for about two hours every day. She was miserable.

"It wasn't my kind of city," she says succinctly.

She pondered the Peace Corps, but her tendency to get sick easily and Third World conditions was a recipe for disaster.

"I saw that backfiring," she says, laughing.

So she checked out AmeriCorps and found an opening with Sea Island Habitat.

Once down here, she quickly noticed that construction involved too much waste. That led her to check out ways to build affordable housing in a more green way. And that proceeded to Sea Island Habitat implementing resource- and energy-efficient designs, improved site and stormwater drainage control, recycling construction waste, improving indoor air quality and educating house recipients on energy efficiency.

After a year with AmeriCorps at Habitat, Seibert decided to pursue her master's in environmental studies and proposed a job for herself at Sea Island as the green building coordinator. It will all tie in together for her master's project: creating a guide on how nonprofits, housing providers and Habitat affiliates can be more environmentally sustainable.

That girl on a bike

Seibert talks the talk and walks the walk. Actually, she bikes it.

Frustrated with cars, traffic and expensive repairs, Seibert got rid of her '97 Nissan in June and started biking from her West Ashley rental to downtown Charleston while car pooling to get out to Sea Island Habitat on Johns Island.

Biking has been a rewarding, learning experience — one that she documents in an entertaining blog The Road Less Traveled.

But she quickly admits that just because she's biking now doesn't mean she won't ever have to get a car in the future, or that she looks down on people who do drive. In fact, she wonders how ardent she will be this winter, when it's cold and rainy. She hates the cold.

Part of Seibert's charm is honesty about herself.

"There's a misconception about me. People think because I bike, I must be athletic. I'm not. When I bike, I'm winded. People sometimes will say, 'Do you want to bike the Cooper (River bridge)?' and I say, 'Yeah, right.' "

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.