We often hear of good companies being connected to questionable funders or investing partners who don’t share the vision of the business, so we thought we should take a moment to celebrate one of our most influential partners, Wendy Neu, and how her current passion project reflects the soul of Sage.

Sustainability in action

When you talk about Wendy Neu, you can’t avoid talking about the fire that drives her. Wendy is a staunch environmentalist and true sustainable visionary. Case in point is her current project to transform a desolate post-war shipyard into a vibrant, active, and unbelievably cool epicenter of business and living. The place: Kearny Point.

This is newsworthy mostly because we see Kearny Point as a metaphor for the work that Sage is doing across the country, namely: finding value in the discarded remnants of technological progress. Wendy Neu first purchased Kearny Point a number of years ago when it was still mostly like a scene straight out of some dystopian novel. Massive, empty warehouses spotted by hulking masses of forgotten industrial flotsam were all she had to show for the significant investment she made.

But, as she worked to bring her vision of an epicenter of commerce and coworking, slowly the dilapidated husk of wartime industry morphed into a modern, trendy space that now fetches a handsome sum when rented. And vacancies are rare.

Continuing the legacy

Wendy’s involvement with Sage has been just as committed. Wendy’s investment—both financial, as well as an advisor—shows just how far Wendy is willing to go to bringing sustainability to reality. Both at Kearny Point and at Sage, her fingerprints are helping to forge value out of things that most people have written off as waste.

Hugo Neu recycling was the first place where Wendy’s sustainable thinking took form specifically to address e-waste. Eventually, the recycling business was not as lucrative as flipping forgotten maritime stock houses, so Kearny Point won out. Our loss, initially, but thankfully, Wendy has stayed on in an advisory role with Sage.

But Wendy’s amazing advocacy doesn’t stop there. A true testament to how much altruism runs in her veins is exemplified by her flying generators down to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Maria—with her own plane—and returning with a cabin full of abandoned animals that she had rescued while down there. If that isn’t a model of how to make a difference, we don’t know what is.

To say that we are thankful that Wendy is woven into the fabric that makes up Sage is a far cry from the weight with which we utter those words. Wendy is a Godsend. Her investment and continued support serves as a daily reminder of the foundation upon which this business was built; making it a completely honest statement when we say that sustainability is in Sage’s DNA.