Posts Tagged ‘E4S’

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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