Sustainability + Environment

Ohio City FarmBob PerkoskiOhio City Farm

The City of Cleveland launched a 10-year initiative in 2009 to transform itself into a "Green City on a Blue Lake." With the goal of making the region attractive to young professionals, this administration seeks at every turn to reduce carbon emissions, expand green spaces, increase bike access, and improve the health and wellbeing of its residents -- all while fostering sustainable economic growth. Sustainability is about more than installing CFLs; it is a way of looking at everything from food and art to architecture and transportation with an eye towards the future. Paying heed now to the triple bottom line ensures that tomorrow's generation will have the opportunity to do the same.

Holden Forests & Gardens receives $1.8 million to expand regional forest landowner support
Holden Forests & Gardens last week announced that it received $1.8 million from the USDA Forest Service to connect forest landowners with emerging climate markets. The grant is the largest climate investment in history.
Gardening withdrawal cure-all: Nature Center offers class to start seeds now for spring planting
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes recognizes that many people’s green thumbs are itching to get outside and dig in the soil during this cold, dreary period of winter. So, it is hosting a Winter Seed Sowing Workshop, using seeds from the Nature Center's Native Seed Library, to get people ready for spring plantings.
Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium: Weaving sustainability into textiles
Rust Belt Fibershed will convene textile artists, farmers, and community members at 78th Street Studios this weekend for its first annual Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium to discuss the potential of a place-based, soil-to-soil textile system.
How a city shapes its forests: Researchers look at 220 years of declining forests in the Forest City
Researchers at Baldwin Wallace University chronicled centuries of decline in the size and diversity of forests in Cuyahoga County. They used aerial photos and forest inventories from early land surveyors to determine the rate of decline and noted the current reforestation efforts to evaluate how the region can grow one-third of its remaining primary forests.
St. Casimir Church blazing new paths in green infrastructure on its 130-year-old property
St. Casimir Catholic Church in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood is currently working on the second phase of its green infrastructure plan—installing permeable pavers and other systems to divert rainwater from the storm sewers to help keep Lake Erie clean—thanks to green infrastructure grants from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.
Full steam ahead: Irishtown Bend stabilization project breaks ground
Last Friday, Aug. 25 at the Cleveland Rowing Foundation, city officials and organizations celebrated the beginning of the vital next step in the Irishtown Bend project—the stabilization of the banks of the Cuyahoga River to move ahead with a 23-acre park.
Holden Forests & Gardens celebrates Arbor Day
Arbor Day is tomorrow, Friday, April 28. In honor of the day set aside for the planting, upkeep, preservation, and celebration of trees, Holden Forests & Gardens has a bunch of activities planned.
Shaping the future of energy: A look at Ohio’s renewable energy sustainability challenges
At a recent Global Shapers Cleveland Hub forum on Shaping the Future of Energy, the conversation centered around the Ohio’s renewable energy future, its innovators, challenges with carbon emissions, and opportunities.
Western Reserve Land Conservancy marks banner year in land and tree conservation
Western Reserve Land Conservancy, Ohio’s largest land trust, last year marked 70,000 acres of public and private land in Ohio that is now permanently protected for future generations.
 
Shaping the future of the environmental impact of transportation: What’s the solution?
In its series about the environment, Global Shapers recently held a conversation with local thought leaders on the future of transportation and the environment.

 
Drink Local Drink Tap exceeds a half million pieces of trash collected on Lake Erie shores
The nonprofit Drink Local Drip Tap hit a milestone in October—the organization has collected more than half a million pieces of trash, or more than 15,000 pounds, from Lake Erie's shores.
Charged up: Garden Valley Neighborhood House goes green with solar power
Garden Valley Neighborhood House last week celebrated a 40-panel rooftop solar array that will save the nonprofit, and largest food pantry in Northeast Ohio, $64,000 in electric bills over five years.
Tree symposium will explore how to improve Northeast Ohio’s tree canopy
The upcoming Cuyahoga Tree Symposium at the Beachwood Community Center will explore nature-based means for improving the region’s tree canopy and using science-based means to improve the tree-related health of county residents.
Help decide the future of Horseshoe Lake Park
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will host a virtual meeting and host an open house at Horseshoe Lake Park in Shaker Heights to present the Doan Brook restoration goals and gather public input on what the park should look like after the restoration.   
Talking trash: Meet Cleveland’s volunteer garbage man of the water
Since 2015 Eddie Olschansky has been cruising the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie in his kayak, collecting plastic and other waste that contaminates our natural waterways. After recruiting a group of volunteers, in 2019 he formed the nonprofit Trash Fish to keep the group cleaning effort going strong. 
Clean Sweep: Volunteers remove 23 tons of trash from the Cuyahoga River Valley
Volunteers came out in force last weekend for Canalway's annual RiverSweep—picking up more than 23 tons of trash along the Cuyahoga River Valley.
Global Shapers’ Kwame Botchway named as a delegate at World Economic Forum
Kwame Botchway will represent Global Shapers Cleveland Hub later this month in Switzerland as a delegate to the 2022 World Economic Forum.
How the distributive leadership model gets more done for environmental justice
Black Environmental Leaders Association and the Global Shapers Cleveland Hub have seemed to figure out a way to get more done with fewer people—approaching the work from a distributive leadership model—where everyone is a leader in the fight for environmental justice. Meet five of those leaders and their motivations behind the work they do.
 
Watering the world: Drink Local Drink Tap celebrates World Water Day on March 22
To recognize World Water Day, Drink Local Drink Tap is hosting a virtual event focused on this year's groundwater theme. 
Landing a reboot: CycleWerks co-founder transitions into launching a new e-bike breed
Scott Colosimo launched his e-bike career with Cleveland CycleWerks in 2009, but now he's on to bigger and better things with the LAND District—a new business and a new generation of transitional vehicles.