I had heard about the kick off event of Cleveland Conserves at City Hall last week. I went, expecting to see the mayor make a speech and some grandstanding by local government officials as to what we are doing as a city. I was entirely wrong!
The folks over at Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability put the event together. I arrived early to see rows of tables filling the rotunda of City Hall. As I watched, displays began to be set up. There were for profit vendors as well as non profits and departments of city and county government on hand. The displays were informative and the workers approachable. I was excited to see all types of information available. There was practical information for consumers as well as engineers and consultants for construction. This is exactly the type of cross section that we are looking to represent in our Education Center of the Eco Park.
First, let me give a shout out to Adrew Watterson and Frances DiDonato from the Office of Sustainability. They were scurrying aobut making sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be, but still managed to take a minute to chat with me. While I couldn’t stay for the entire event, there were a lot of people there, and everyone was having a good time. Kudos!
This was a great opportunity for me. I was able to talk with Joyce at the Cuyahoga County Office of Sustainability. I can’t wait to see what she can help me with on the buildings. I also had a chance to talk with representatives from Cleveland Public Power. Our site is supposedly serviced by CPP. However, behind us lies the Ecovillage Townhomes that are serviced by the Illuminating Company. Why is that important? The Illuminating Company is part of the First Energy group and in addition to offering net metering, there are a host of other incentives that can be had by adding renewables to our energy plan. We expect to add solar panels to the building and want to have access to the same incentives as our neighbors. We shall see what CPP has to say when we get a chance to meet. I was assured that they were extremely interested in adding renewable energy to their portfolio. I also managed to talk to Katherine Holmok at URS. They just finished their proposal for the city for the watershed area near our building. It was very interesting, as one reason we are big on managing our our rainwater is the overflow of sewers in that area.
I talked with the city reps about recycling, too. I am still irate that I don’t have curbside recycling at my house. It isn’t for me, because I take my recycling to the drop off, but for my neighbors and friends who don’t. I am sick of seeing couches, doors, mattresses and the like piled up on the tree lawn every week-all destined for landfill. The roll out may take as much as 6 more years to implement. I thought Mayor Jackson wanted us to be the greenest city in the nation…The cool thing about the city program is that every home will get two cans: one for garbage and one for recycling. That is it. This will severely limit the ability of people to just toss out anything on garbage day. It spawns creative re-use and recycling of materials. It is also cheaper! However, the roll out is stalled for now. The money to buy more cans for homeowners just isn’t there. I say that it is once more a case of short term thinking. Buying the cans now is an investment that will pay for itself in no time. Still, for Clevelanders who often take a short term outlook, it is hard to convince, especially in an election year.
Some of the other cool people that I met were TCP. TCP is the regional leader in CFL bulbs in the region. They have a program to sell bulbs and aid the NE Ohio USO. They also have programs to help schools raise money by selling bulbs. If you haven’t already switched to CFL bulbs, check out the site and get some practical info. I met some guys from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition. These guys are great. They work to promote healthy, equitable and sustainable food systems right here in our local area. Check out their site and see how you can get involved. There was yummy food by Spice of Life Catering Co. who has a local fresh food approach to cooking. Bon Appetit is a food services company that services mostly institutions and they do a great job of providing delicious nutritious food as an alternative to the usual cafeteria fare. Their booth was mobbed! I also saw Honey Hut giving away ice cream. A local legend, these guys recycle nearly everything!
Overall, I was quite impressed! This event was a great learning environment for Cleveland residences. I hope that we can have more!
