Posts Tagged ‘E4S’

Events and things…

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

These are the dog days of summer.   I admit that I have been lax in my blog postings for the last few weeks, but as the back to school sales ads are reminding me, it will soon be fall and I am keen to enjoy as much of what is left of summer as I can.  There are plenty of things to do and keep us busy, all the same.

I have to give a shout out to my friends Jared and David.  They are celebrating their birthdays today.  They are going all out, but rather than make it all about them, they are doing something cool and unique.  They are doing a celebration that will the Cleveland Animal Protective League. They have asked that in lieu of gifts, guests bring cans of pet food for the APL.  They are selling “spank tickets” as well and the money will all go to the APL as well.  Where is this event?  Why the Happy Dog, naturally.  These days we are so wrapped up in our own lives, that we forget about the charities and non profits that so sorely need alternative funding these days.  But I am proud to have so many friends who look at these celebrations as a way to benefit the community, rather than themselves.

Tuesday is an interesting event that I was invited to by Kim Burant and my friends at ClearCut Promotions.   Kim is promiting cool and exciting events around the Cleveland area.  ClearCut Promotions is the company that put together the “Fearless” event.  GQ Magazine, Bombay Sapphire and the USBG presents The Most Inspired Bartender Competition.  This is a nationwide search for Bombay Sapphire mixologists.  Private party to be held Tuesday August 10th 8-11pm at the Van Swearingen Archade at Hyde Park Steakhouse Downtown Cleveland.  I think it will be a good time.  I would invite you all to join me, but this is a private party with a limited guest list…. I feel so exclusive, ooohhh.  I will tell you that you should email Kim@clearcutpromotions.com and ask if there is space, and to be on her mailing list for upcoming events.  Be sure to look for them on Facebook, too!

Also upcoming is the next Yumm event by Stove Monkeys.  I have enjoyed going to these events and trying our cool and crazy foods.  Last month, I was in Seattle, so I am doubly looking forward to August’s event.  This month it will be on a Friday, August 27th from 5-9pm.  Every month these events get more packed and more exciting, so be sure to get your advanced tickets! Check out the article at Cleveland Scene.

Lat week was the midyear event for the NE Ohio chapter of the USGBC.  I try to attend all of these events.  Not only are they all fun, but I like the people in this group.  It is always a good thing to hang with others who have the same passions and sensibilities as you.  If you are interested in the built environment at all, you should consider joining, or even volunteering a little for this great group.  Michelle Kilroy is the chapter coordinator and she could always use some help with a committee, planning an event, organizing sponsors, or even just simple filing.  And you get first hand notice of events like this one at the Harp:

Then on Thursday, August 12th, I will be attending (and speaking) at an event for E4S:

Zero Waste Office Best Practices -

August 12, 2010: 8:30 am – 11 am Trinity Commons - 2230 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115

Parking is free.  Entrance is off of Prospect Ave.

Purpose:

•           Inform business leaders and office managers about opportunities to reduce waste in the office environment

•           Inspire business leaders to set zero waste goals

•           Connect leaders to resources that can help them get to zero waste in their office

•           Provide actionable first steps, next steps

I hate to speak in public.  That being said, you cannot let your fears in life hold you back, so anytime I am asked, I always agree.  It usually ends up just fine, as it did when I presented at the annual meeting of the Ohio Museums Association near Columbus.  Tickets are only $25 for members of E4S, so come and see if I crash and burn!  Besides, there will be plenty of other great speakers at this event!

Monday is the monthly Lake Erie Moose Society meeting.  This is a great group of bloggers, developers, and overall web enthusiasts.  I love to go to this meeting when I can.  Not only is it a great group of people, but it is usually at the Barking Spider Tavern in University Circle-a great hangout.  Furthermore, I never leave a meeting without some new ideas, new information, or a new friends.  If you are interested, join the Ning group or the Facebook page for monthly invites.  This group welcomes all types, and experience ranges from people thinking about blogging, to owners of some of the longest running blogs in the area.  Stop by for a beer and check it out!

Later in the month is the Eco Tuesday meeting.  September is shaping up to be quite a month as well.  The next Sustainability Summit is coming.  Ingenuity Fest and the advanced energy showcase are also that month, but more on those later.  Mark you calendars for this month’s events.

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Rethink Plastic Waste with E4S

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Here is another great event from the E4S network:

RETHINK PLASTIC WASTE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Network Event
Zero Waste NEO Network Event

Date: Thursday, June 10, 2010
Time: 8:30 am to 11:00 am
register for this event
request a display table
Location: Trinity Commons, 2230 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115

Description:
Does your organization have a recycling program? Do you still find plastic in the trash? Join the Zero Waste NEO Network to connect with members of the recycling industry, learn from business leaders who have successfully implemented and maintained a recycling program, and set goals to reduce your own organization`s waste stream.

Featured panelists

Jim Galvin, President, Legacy Polymers
Joseph Hensel, Chairman, Polyflow
More TBA

Agenda
8:30 – 9:00 Networking
9:00 – 11:00 Program

Registration is Required: Click here to register online or call 216-451-7755

And here is more in the email that I received from E4s….
START-UP
New Design: E4S Start-Up Business Members Program
Member Roundtable
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 – 5:30pm to 7:30pm
E4S Connection and Learning Center
Price: E4S Start-up Members: Free; Start-up Non-members: $25
________________________________________

LOCAL FOOD
Growing the Market For Local Food
Local Food Cleveland Network Event
Monday, June 7, 2010 – 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Great Lakes Brewing Company Tasting Room
Price: Free
Whole Foods Market Cedar Center 5% Community Day
To Support Local Food Cleveland
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 – 8:00am to 9:00pm
Whole Foods Market Cedar Center

________________________________________

ZERO WASTE
Rethink Plastic Waste: Challenges and Opportunities
Zero Waste NEO Network Event
Thursday, June 10, 2010 – 8:30am to 11:00am
Trinity Commons
Price: E4S Members: Free, Non-members: $25
________________________________________

E4S THIRD TUESDAY
Sustainable Transportation @ Work
E4S Third Tuesday Network Event
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 – 5:30pm to 8:30pm
Great Lakes Brewing Company Tasting Room
Price: Free
________________________________________

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How much fiber do you have?

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

We all have fiber. No, I don’t mean dietary fiber, but rather fiber waste. When we talk fiber waste, we mean things like cardboard, paper and the like. It is a huge problem in the US. Estimates vary, but at least half of all the waste that fills today’s landfill is fiber waste. At the same time, paper and cardboard are a vital commodity that can be bought and sold on the open market. It seems foreign to me that people do not ALL recycle cardboard? I can remember using a bailer at every job I had in retail-going back over 25 years. Since moving to Ohio, though it seems that much of what could be considered a resource is casually dumped into the landfill.

Luckily, there are groups like E4S who are determined to raise awareness and connect people who can change this. Today I attended a fiber waste panel discussion. The room was packed, which made me happy to see so much interest. Let’s face it. We pay for garbage service, but we pay less for recyclables. In fact, sometimes we get paid to recycle. So what is the deal? This was the question that was put to the panel. This panel discussion was moderated by Victoria Avi. The panelists included:

Beau Daane, Business and Recycling Specialist, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District
Jaca Kaverman, Assistant Executive Housekeeper, Hyatt Regency Cleveland
John Piotrowski, VP of Operations, Green Recovery Group
Janet VonGunten, Specifications Sales Representative, xpedx

In addition, there was a supplier of recycling service pick up and a compactor company. Overall, the discussion was for businesses who have yet to start a recycling program or who are just getting their feet wet, it was filled with great ideas and resources. I even learned a thing or two from the talented and informed panel. Basically, though the idea was this:
Recycle your paper waste. It is the easiest thing to recycle and still most of it goes to landfill.
Cardboard is a valuable commodity and you can get paid for it.
If you are in an office setting, think about partnering with other tenants.
The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District has a welath of information on how to deal with your waste stream and reduce your impact on the landfill.
Start with reduction before recycling. If you can use less to begin with, you will save money on products AND trash.
Reuse paper products whenever you can.
Engage your staff.
Identify opportunities and use them to benefit your company.
Recycling can help your bottom line and save you some money!
I could go on and on, but we watched this video and I think it says it all:

E4S events are top notch and I highly recommend you try and make it to as many of them as you can! And join the Zero Waste Network.

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Composting is a big topic in Cleveland!

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Since my work at the Film Festival and our efforts to reduce the waste of this event, I was thrilled to volunteer at the Cleveland Composts event held by E4S last week.   It was such a packed room, that they had to bring in extra chairs.  I was running the video camera (which died out in short order) so I was able to listen to all the presenters.  Sponsored by Rosby’s-the company that did the composting for us at the CIFF, and held at Trinity Commons, it was another fantastic E4S event.

The Guys from Rosby’s

Anabel and Victoria from E4S

After introductions by Anabel Kouri and Victoria Avi, we got down to business.  We were treated to some great speakers at this event.  First off was Nancy Hughes,Compost & Recycling Coordinator, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  She talked about Zoo Poo, and their efforts to compost zoo waste.  Manure is a big issue at a place like the zoo and they have learned how to turn that high cost into a revenue stream.  High quality manure makes great compost and when the elephants return, there is going to be a need for more composting.  Elephants create a lot of manure and when the new Africa House is complete, they hope to add even more members to their elephant family.

Then we heard from Josh Steffen, of the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.  He discussed how his team has been trying to compost in house and the difficulties they need to address before trying to include visitors in their composting goals.

Dave, the worm guy

The next speaker was Dave Pindel, LEED AP, from Herschman Architects, Inc.  He spoke mainly about their office’s new worm farm.  It was a cool presentation and fun to watch.  This guy is a man after my own heart.  Unafraid to be the “weird worm guy”, he just bought a worm farm and maintains in near his desk.  He keeps a compost scrap bucket under his desk and is not put off in the least at being the butt of jokes.  I look forward to seeing him in the future and finding out some of the struggles and pitfalls of this small worm operation in his office.

Denise

We got to hear about the efforts of The Gund Foundation to create a greener office from Denise Stoudenmire of The George Gund Foundation. She talked about their new in office composting machine that creates compost from the food scraps of the office members automatically, by grinding and bio degrading: no fuss no muss. I made sure to give her my card as I think there small-medium sized office is typical and that everyone would like to hear what they are doing and how they can follow their example

Jessie Jacobson, Director of Premium Services, Aramark – Quicken Loans Arena  and Jill Ziegler, Program Manager of Sustainability Initiatives, Forest City Enterprises, Inc. spoke together to round out the speakers. They worked together to explore the pilot program for a composting efforts downtown. They worked very hard to do a garbage assessment (yes, dumpster diving and separation) to determine just what they were throwing out at these two big locations near each other that are part of the heart of downtown Cleveland. Then they tried a 3 week pilot program to see just what they could compost and other things they could divert from landfill by recycling and such. These are big venues, and their efforts could have a huge impact on downtown. They are very near W 4th, and if they can get a hauler to come to their locations, then smaller venues like a restaurant nearby could reasonable expect to be able to compost as well. Like any such operation, they will start internally and move outward to get the general public involved. Jessie received a text message while at the event that okay’d their plan and the Q can move forward on its composting efforts. Jill was the contact for me at Tower City and it was with her support that we were able to compost 6 cubic yards of waste from the hospitality suite.  These two dynamic women alone could change the way that downtown operations think about composting.

Jesse and Jill

I was most impressed with the way the attendance and the engagement of the audience. Trinity had to actually come and throw us out, as everyone was so engaged in the topic. Once again, showing how Cleveland’s greener future can include us all!

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Nature does it best: Biomimicry

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Webster’s online dictionary defines biomimicry as “the conscious copying of examples and mechanisms from natural organisms and ecologies. It is a form of applied case-based reasoning, treating nature itself as a database of solutions that already work.” That means that nature has already provided us with the best ways to do things. But looking to nature we can find answers to some of today’s most challenging problems. That is why I was so excited to hear that Chris Allen of the Ask Nature project at the Biomimicry Institute was going to be in Cleveland.  Brought to us by E4S , this evening at the Cleveland Institute of Art is going to be a blast!

From the event listing at E4S:

Join E4S and the BiomimiryNEO Network on March 16th to learn more about how biomimicry inspires innovation from Chris Allen. Doug Paige, the Associate Professor of Industrial Design at CIA and several CIA industrial design students will share how they are putting biomimicry to work to solve challenges in the Cuyahoga Valley. Lisa Schmidtke, a recent graduate from the Biomimicry Professional Certification Program and Victoria Avi, E4S Network Entrepreneur for BiomimicryNEO, will be on hand after the main program to answer your questions about how you can learn more about the biomimicry design models and tools.

First off, let me say that any event put together by E4S is a blast.  These guys truly know what they are doing.  They find speakers who have a wealth of knowledge to share.  I know that Chris Allen will be no exception.  If you do not really know what biomimicry is, it basically is the concept of looking to nature to inspire us in design and creation.  The hottest tickets at Greenbuild the last few years have been the biomimicry seminars.  At greenbuild, you might spend over a $100 to hear a talk like this.  Not only do you not have to travel, but the cost is exceptional at only $30.  If you are an E4S member, then you can get in for a mere $25 and students are only $10!  This is your chance to hear a world class speaker who will be a leading force in this new area of study and design.

Chris is director of the AskNature project at the Biomimicry Institute and serves on the management team for the expanded operations of the Biomimicry Guild and Institute.  He is among the fifteen graduates of the first cohort of the Biomimicry Institute`s two-year professional program.  Trained in International Business at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas (1985),  Chris has over twenty years experience providing strategy and management consulting services related to sustainable development for a variety of private sector clients as well as the US Department of Energy, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, the Northwest Area Foundation, and the United Nations Man and Biosphere Program.

You can register for this event here. I am sure that space will be limited, so do not hesitate!  Register now for your seat to this incredible evening.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010  5:30 pm – 8:30 pm

The Cleveland Institute of Art

Ticket Prices: $30.00 for non-members, $25.00 E4S members, $10.00 for students w/ a valid student ID.

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So many events…so little time…. I love Cleveland!

Friday, February 5th, 2010

I am looking at my calendar and trying to get caught up on some things before it gets too hectic.

Monday ( Feb 8th) I am attending a meeting of the Lake Erie Moose Society.   The Lake Erie Moose Society fosters camaraderie and shares technical advice among NEO Bloggers of all experience levels.  The meeting is at least once a month.  Monday it is at the Barking Spider Tavern at CWRU.  If you are a blogger or thinking about starting one, this is a great group of folks.  I always learn something new, and I have new friends because of this group.

Tuesday night (Feb 9) is the wrap party for Got City Game.  If you don’t know what this is, then you are missing out.  The idea was to promote some of the truly cool things about Cleveland by creating a reality tv show.  We here in Cleveland don’t go for the mainstream, so why not put it out on the web, so everyone can see how cool the NE Ohio region is.  I am so proud of the producers and what they have done with this program.  Tuesday night we will find out who won the scholarship prizes and who won the grand prize-a year of rent free living in Tremont and gift certificates to all the major entertainment attractions around town…  Stop by the Barley  House and find out how you might be involved in the next season, and catch up on all the past episodes online atGot City Game.

Thursday (Feb 11) is a big day.  I will be spending the day at CWRU with the rest of the design committee to help plan out the next Sustainability Summit.  We will be mapping out next year’s summit, reporting on progress from last years summit, and planning the strategic communications for our groups.  Thursday evening is the launch party for Endure, an online exhibition for Red Dot Project.  I am proud to be a fetured artist in the exhibit and can’t wait to see some of the work by other artists.  The evening runs from 5-7pm at environments 4 business, at 515 euclid.  Stop by for a nibble and see some cool art.  My work is all photography on canvas, so I am eager to hear what people have to say about it.  The show will be online shopreddotproject.org through March.

Tuesday of the following week (Feb 16th) is the networking event at E4S, Entrepreneurs for Sustainability. This month’s topic is UNIVERSITIES PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY TO WORK:

Join the E4S Network in February to learn how Northeast Ohio universities are implementing sustainable business practices in their buildings, operations, research, and curriculum. From innovative energy efficiency projects, to green buildings, to cafeteria`s filled with local food, universities in the region are leading the way towards a sustainable economy.

But what else might be possible if all 27 NEO universities – with over 200,000 students and an annual budget of nearly $3 billion – worked together to have an even greater impact? Join the dialog with our panel of sustainability experts from local universities as we explore the present and future of sustainability in higher education.

It is a great group and I encourage you to come and check it out.

Then on Wednesday I am attending a meeting at the Cleveland Film Society.  I am very excited about participating in the Cleveland International Film Festival this year.  This is only my second year, but I had such a great time last year, that I can’t wait for this season to begin!  If you have some time on your hands, I encourage you to give them a call at 216.623.3456 or to sign up online.  When you volunteer you can help out a great cause and you just might get to see a movie that will change your life.  I saw a couple last year that really made me change the way i look at the world, and I hear that this year’s line up is shaping up to be even better!  If you just want to attend, then think about getting an all access pass.  You can see a ton of movie for a great price, and you get lots of perks when you go this route too!  See the trailer and other videos on You Tube.

On Thursday (Feb 18th) is the Social Media Club monthly meeting.  It is another great group and discusses all kinds of ways to use social media to enrich your life.  If you are interested in learning more about twitter, Facebook, or other social media try attending this event of folks who love this form of communication.

Then on Friday (Feb 19th) is the 78th Street Studios Third Friday event.  I always enjoy myself when I go here.   There are tons of great artists to see and so much in one location.  Perfect for those blustry winter evenings when walking the streets of Tremont is a cold proposition:

The hottest new arts center on the west side of Cleveland housed in the former American Greetings Creative Studios building between W 78th and W 80th Streets. Stop in to explore this eclectic mix of world class art galleries, studios, and creative businesses anchoring the west end of Gordon Square Arts District!

You can find them at 1300 W 78th St. or get the mat at their website.

What are YOU doing over the next couple of weeks?  If you have a great event to add, put it here in the comments section!!

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Can Cleveland sustain its sustainability momentum?

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Since moving here in 2000, I have found that Cleveland has so many positive things going for it. While the economy and population shrinking is bad for morale, business and prosperity, it has also served as a wake up call for NE Ohio. Everyone is starting to realize that the steel mills are never going to come back in abundance, and that manufacturing jobs that are lost rarely return. Yet, with groups like E4S, Green City Blue Lake, Local Food Cleveland, and a host of other small groups we can see change coming. It starts with a few people. People like Holly Harlan who come together to form a little group to make a change. As we need to reinvent the regional and national economy, these small groups have begun to flourish. And all these groups got a big boost from the city of Cleveland with the introduction of the Sustainability Summit last August.

I have talked about the Summit several times, and it was great! Somewhere between 500 and 700 people attended the event where we strove to create new public policy and identify key areas where we can use sustainability to drive Cleveland’s economic engine. I am a member of the Waste to Profit group. I joined this group because of my passion for recycling and the need for educating Cleveland’s populace on this issue. Besides, I already work in the Green Building industry and wanted to work on something outside my norm. I was drawn to a sub group that was working to create a locale where building materials and other volume amounts of items could be redirected from landfill and turned into resources. Among the people seated at the table were Nicole McGee, a materials reuse artist (if you have ever been to an Aladdin’s restaurant, then you have seen here flowers on the tables), Mike Dungan, the driving force behind Zero Landfill, and Chris Kious-Cleveland’s king of building deconstruction. We built a prototype to present to the group, and then thought, “Why not make this happen?” We set a time and date for our first meeting before the conference day was done. Since that time, we have met on a regular basis. We are working on the final Executive Summary and Business Plan. We applied for some preliminary funding and are looking at the future to see what we can do next. While this is exciting for us, we are not alone….Other members of the Waste to Profit group were members of the Regional Zero Waste Collaborative. While the group was actually formed in 2008, the summit gave them some added members and galvanized some of their efforts. They are working on practical ways to get the city toward zero waste and trying to figure out how to form public policy on this issue.

There were 20 groups developed at the summit on a range of sustainability topics. But how do we keep up the good intentions of this occasion and drive movement forward. Cleveland has done its part. They are forming a sustainability committee and have promoted Andrew Watterson to Chief of Sustainability. They are committed to moving forward and are setting the date for another summit next year. Meanwhile, representatives from the various groups are meeting to set dates and plan the next summit. There are so many people engaged, and many things moving forward, so I can’t wait to see how some of these groups are progressing. We have a report out meeting coming up next Tuesday. If you were at the summit, and want to see how it is going, join us at Great Lakes Brewery Tasting room on Tuesday to hear some of the great news. Afterward is the E4S sustainability awards. This should be a great event as well! Stay and see what some of the leaders in the movement are doing in Cleveland. Go here to register for the E4S event!

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Akron is a hotbed of activity for sustainability!

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

If you are into sustainability, living in NE Ohio and not a member of E4S, then you are missing the boat. Not only is it a great chance to meet with like minded people, but also an opportunity to hear about the things going on in your backyard. This group was started by Holly Harlen, who I am standing behind to run for mayor of Cleveland, or State Senator or something , as she has it going on.  She started this group with the idea of bringing business minded people together to support sustainable ideas.  Where this group stands apart from other similar groups is it is focused on business.  In addition to the monthly networking meetings, they host business round tables from various stages in the business cycle.  The advice that can be gleaned from these discussions is enormous.  There are events of all sorts throughout the year that help businesses grow and support the goals of furthering sustainability.  This group is focused on helping green businesses succeed, because successful green businesses is the real key to growing our green economy in NE Ohio.

I usually stick to our Cleveland meetings, but one month I made the drive to Akron for the Start-up Business Showcase.  Since E4S supported us at the Cleveland event, I wanted to be there to support the start ups in Akron.  I was so glad that I made the drive.  The event had a huge crowd, and I was able to meet some of the great minds that are sure to be shaping Akron’s future.  New technologies were represented.  A new fuel efficient vehicle was shown.  And most exciting to me, the recycle lunatic, was the work around recycling plastics.

One cool idea was the single person, three wheeled vehicle.  It was presented by Dana Myers of Myers Motors.  It was all electric.  One thing that has bothered me was the question of shifting the blame, when it comes to electric vehicles.  A plug -in electric car uses the electricity from the grid, which is often created from coal burning power plants.  So is it really any better than a gas powered vehicle, as far as emissions go?  I found out that yes, it is!  The emissions are less from the electricity of the coal plant than from the use of a standard gas powered vehicle. The goal of this company is to produce affordable electric vehicles for a specific purpose. The idea is that for the average housefold, one car could be used for the single person commute, for short trips and basic use and have no emissions. It is cool looking, so check out their site to see it in action!

Jim Garrett spoke about his company,and their goal of creating a synthetic crude from waste oils and natural gas from waste solids. Tony Lammers from Mars Systems talked about his company and its goals to remove heavy metals (like mercury and arsenic) from water. This is a big deal, not just for our water use, but for its implications on the fishing industry, as many types of fish are so mercury polluted that they really shouldn’t be eaten. Along the same lines, Absorbent Materials Company’s Stephen Spoonamiere spoke about how his company was developing new technologies for remediation of contaminated sites. These are unbelievable companies with goals that could change the face of the planet. Imagine using garbage to make oil. All water being free from mercury and other heavy metals. A world without brownfield sites. All right here in NE Ohio.

On the recycling front, there were a few speakers. Jeff Guritza from REDUSA Enterprises is developing a process to connect recyclables. Right now they work with all types of people to haul away their junk and find a home for it that is other than landfill. The goal is to be able to link end users to the ones with recyclable on a large scale. We heard from Legacy Polymers‘ Jim Galvin. They are recycling partners, helping to set up recycling programs, and help companies to make money from the recycling of plastic waste instead of sending it to landfill. Similarly, Polyflow is using new technologies to create new plastics from old ones. Their goal is to create new products by recycling a variety of different plastics and rubber, even what would be considered contaminated. Basically, they break down plastics into the various chemical components that make it up and create things like gasoline, diesel fuel and the basics used to make new plastic polymers. Jay Schabel was very interesting to listen to, and their site is interesting to check out. So imagine being able to collect our plastics and ship them to Polyflow with no tipping fees. How much would that save our trash department?

I am excited to see so much going on outside the Cleveland borders. While Akron is only a short drive away, it isn’t a place that I am well connected to. I am so excited to see so many great minds working so hard on the problems of our region and the planet. With the brains that built the Rubber Capital of the World on board, I am sure that we can expect these new technologies to reinvent the region!

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E for Who? E4S!

Friday, May 1st, 2009

For everyone in Northeast Ohio that is interested in sustainability and how they can make a difference, you should look into a group called E4S. E4S stands for Entrepreneurs for Sustainability. We heard about this group late last year, and started attending the events. We were not disappointed. The group has proven to be a hotbed of creative ideas on how to make the world a better place. They explain who they are best, so here is the text from their site:

E4S is a diverse network of over 5000 leaders who are putting the principles of sustainability into action. We started the E4S Network in 2000 with the classic entrepreneurs and have attracted the entrepreneurial thinkers, the change agents from business, government, academic and non-profit sectors of our community.

What we share is a belief that sustainability principles are drivers for new business opportunities and tools to improve our quality of life. Together we are building a sustainable economy in Northeast Ohio that will create prosperity and total community health.

To E4S, success means that there are increasing numbers of businesses and organizations embarking on the sustainability journey. Building a sustainable economy starts one business at a time, one project at at time. To support these projects E4S provides network connections (CONNECT), and sustainability skills learning programs and resources (LEARN). E4S also provides a range of implementation services for individual companies and industry-focused economic development projects (DO).

Working together with the E4S Network, we have begun to propel the new triple-bottom line business economy forward—teaching entrepreneurial business leaders how to integrate people, planet and profit to create a healthier, more prosperous economy and community.

Holly Harlan is the president and founder. She seems to be organized and driven. I have heard her speak at a number of events locally and have always been impressed. She is also dedicated to helping business find solutions to the issues at hand, and help them be more successful in the marketplace. Every time I have talked with her about our business, I take away new ideas and insights.

We attend the monthly networking event. It is the third Tuesday of the month and is usually held at the Great Lakes Brewery Tasting Room. I love the Great Lakes Brewery, and they are always friendly. The events are always a good place to network with like minded individuals, and E4S has done a great job. They vary the content of the presentations, and work to involve the entire group to some degree. This makes their monthly event one of the best events that we attend. I look forward to it every month. They also have an event in Akron every month. This month is about growing the local food economy. Last night I attended a start up member roundtable. Basically it was a chance to for start up companies to discuss ways to be more successful in the current economic climate. I came away with more than just a “rah-rah” feeling, but with some tangible ideas that I can implement to make our business more viable. They have Green Energy and Green Jobs Regional Workshop and Tradeshow events coming up this summer. They are truly working to help create the future of Cleveland. The next event is Tuesday, May 19. It is free and open to the public, but you need to register. I hope you will come down and meet some of the people who are making Cleveland a great place to thrive, not just live!

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