I had the pleasure of meeting two young ladies at the Sustainability Summit. They are LeeAnn Westfall and Erin Huber. Students at CSU they have helped for the Campus Sustainability Coalition. This core group of students, administartors, and faculty are working to advise the Energy Committee of CSU on how to best direct the campus’s 42.8 million dollar Energy Conservation Program. Good work, right? But the work for these two is actually bigger than that. 
Did you know that when the new CSU Recreation Center was built, there was originally a plan for a green garden roof? It was cut from the plan for budgetary reasons. Rooftop gardens and green roofs are an important tool in green buildings. In addition to adding natural beauty, they help to manage stormwater runoff (an important role in Cleveland), remove CO2 from the atmosphere, conserve energy by adding insulative value to the roof, and help to reduce the heat island effect (the effect of raising city temperatures that occurs from lots of dark roofs absorbing heat and holding it in). These progressive students learned about the green roof, and its demise, in their Environmental Science class. They refused to accept it. They organized and raised money through private and foundation donations. They convinced the university to match some of their funds and now the green roof is back on! The hard work of these two young ladies has meant a lot to the school and for future generations. I highly suggest that you contact the CSU campus and tell them how much you appreciate the work these women have done to further sustainability in our city. Give a small donation to further the cause, or drop them a line giving them Kudos! The project can be found here.
For Erin, the work has lead her to form a new downtown farmers market. It opens September 3 and runs through October 22, every Thursday from 10:30-1:30 every week. On the corner of 18th and Euclid (in front of the College of Law), here is a chance for those urban dwellers and students and even those who work downtown to drop by and pick up fresh market goodies to enrich their lives. I am all about local foods and farmers markets, but many in Cleveland are not convenient for some. Those working or living downtown now have a great new alternative! Stop by and help them celebrate their opening with the live music and prizes!
So what can a couple of students do? A lot! So what can you do? It seems that you can do a lot as well. I wrote briefly about Wastepedia in a previous post. The brainchild of our group at the Sustainability Summit, we have started meeting and working to move forward to turn the prototype we created into a reality. Last night, at the E4S meeting, I gave a little introduction to the group about our efforts and the feedback was tremendous! In addition to media opportunities and location options, I left with the names of artists and artisans who are interested in joining us on this project. How great is that? This could help bring a lot of factions of the community together! Four other groups presented and some were born out of the summit as well. Andrew Watterson of the Sustainability Department of Cleveland also talked for a few minutes and I was thrilled to hear that there were actually 7 groups who had begun to meet to turn their ideas from the summit into reality. If even one of these great projects happens then the entire summit was a success. In fact, if none happens, it can still be positive if it helps to propel any energy forward in this arena! One thing that Holly mentioned was that we have to not be afraid to fail, by failing we may find a path to future success. I am paraphrasing, but I think that is the gist. Holly Harlan always is uplifting and forward thinking. I applaud her efforts for this town!
Tags: Cleveland, Energy, environment, farmers markets, food, wastepedia
