How do we move forward in creating a Green City on a Blue Lake? It is hard to believe that it has only been 76 days since the Sustainability Summit ended. Today we meet as a steering committee to decide on how to create the 2010 Summit. We have plenty of time, but when you look at getting 40+ people to coordinate their schedules, time runs out fast. I am excited about the energy and enthusiasm in this group. It is easy to get a large response to have people SAY they will make a commitment, but when you really get down to it, it is often harder to get the action to back up the words. As I look around this room, I see pwople who have busy lives and important jobs, but all are making the effort to make this idea produce results. There are no “Debbie Downers” in this room!
What is our first step in moving forward? The first thing we are going to do is to set the date for next year’s sustainability summit. It is key to those who are skeptical to realize that these summits are not just some cheer leading sessions, but really making this something that can change the city that we live in. One great thing about this whole process is that it is based on the Appreciative Inquiry methodology. This means that we are brainstorming and honing ideas together. This allows us to build on everyone’s strengths to create new things and build public policy. How often does one get the chance to actually work with the city government to create policy, rather than sit back and wait to see what the city is going to do.
The AI summit allows us to move forward in multiple ways. It allows us to use “Whole System” ideas. There were students, business leaders, teachers, non-profits, government representatives and ordinary citizens. It is very much a task driven process. It gets all the ideas from across the board and works to put the best ideas forward and how to make them happen. It is focused on the future and designed to build on continuity-in order for new things to happen, some things have to remain the same. This whole summit process is design driven, we want to move beyond the dialogue and into designing the future. The summit allows us to organize participants based on expertise and energy, allowing us to move into building real prototypes. Throw into this whole mix the fact that there will be between 500 and 1000 participants over 3 full days, and you are talking about getting the full voice of Clevelanders involved. All of this will lead us to uncommon action results. Who knows what can happen when we move from the inside out to the world, not regulated or driven by the government or other outside force.
Another thing on our agenda for this meeting is to identify who we would like to see as a keynote speaker at the next summit. Who would you like to see speak at our next summit? Of course, I think that Al Gore would be a prime choice. We were lucky enough to hear speakers from MIT, outside countries, even leaders in the sustainability movement who are business leaders like IBM. We have a lot of great ideas, who would you like to see?
The thing that inspires me most about being a part of this summit process is the ability for the public to shape the city’s plicy. Anyone can have ideas and opinions about a myriad of subjects. Unlike the rest of us, Mayor Jackson and his team have realized that to be successful and really create change and momentum, you have to engage everyone. As Cleveland moves forward, they are providing us with the framework to create change ourselves, rather than leaving it up to the government to do it. If we all get involved in our own little way, then we can have a huge impact on the sustainability and more importantly the economy of the NE Ohio region.
Our group came together to work on turning waste into profit. There were lots of great ideas in our group. So many, in fact, that we had to split up into smaller factions. Our sub group came up with a great idea. We created a prototype. Unfortunately, by the time our group was able to speak, we could barely even share our idea. So here it is: Wastipedia. Wastipedia is a location. At this location, we take in materials and turn them into something else. Our main goal is to divert 2019 tons of resources from landfill annually. How will we do it? We intend to bring together partners into one main space. This space would allow us to turn organic material into compost. We would take building materials and resell them. We would take materials and reuse them to create art. We would re-distribute materials where they could be reused, rather than deposited in landfill.
The final day, we created prototypes for our ideas. Some were thought out, and ready to go. Our team developed a prototype for a year-round facility where materials could be diverted from landfill and turned into resources for the community. The plan includes job creation, promoting the arts and the local economy, and job and art training. When I sat down on day 3, we seemed to know what to do. We built a prototype. It came together. We thought, this is a great idea. It needs to be done. Let’s do it. I have heard of things like this happening. Great minds come together and a deal is struck, or an idea formulated, or a company formed…all over coffee or a lunch. 
The idea for this summit was to get the juices flowing, to help form public policy, to help figure out how to help fuel this economic engine with renewable resources. How can we get the advanced energy center going? How can we attract the people who assemble wind turbines into the city? Where can we find the capital to get these ideas rolling? Cheer leading and appreciation is not to be discounted, but words mean little without the action. I challenged everyone in the room to figure out how to continue this work, to take their ideas to the next step. Since moving here in 2000, there has always been a lot of talk, but a lot less action. If we want to make big changes, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We need to stop asking the government to bail us out and create our own future. This city is behind us, but the city can’t do it all. Without the true efforts of the business community, then how can we recreate a vibrant economy? It is business that creates jobs, careers, opportunities. This event was about Cleveland’s Green Economy. Don’t get me wrong, the environmental crisis is real. But this summit was not about the feel-good, save the planet. It was about rethinking Cleveland and making a change that can have economic impact as well as an environmental one.
We are still waiting for more comments for the giveaway for a framed print. Go 
