Energy efficiency means using less energy to provide the same level of energy service. The need to improve energy efficiency is not simply an environmental issue, but also an enabling factor and basic premise of a competitive and sustainable economy.
Energy efficiency offers a two-fold opportunity for Cleveland’s economy.

First, new business opportunities for Cleveland are born out of the need for an environmentally sustainable economy, allowing Cleveland both to retain jobs and create new employment opportunities in traditional sectors such as construction, building and manufacturing. Second, energy efficiency can decrease input and operating costs for the City and Cleveland businesses, while allowing individuals to reduce their expenditures on a household level. This provides an opportunity to increase businesses’ profit margin, free up money for reducing deficit while retaining the government’s public spending allowance, and increase wealth in Cleveland communities. 

Local food is the production, process, distribution and consumption of food within a specific region, usually 100 miles from farm to fork. A focus on local food is essential for a sustainable economy in Cleveland because of its environmental benefits and because it is an economic driver.

Local Food:

• Creates Jobs that cannot be outsourced
• Provides business opportunties for value-added product
• Improves air and soil quality
• Reduces the city’s carbon footprint
• Grows Community Health and Wealth
• Crosses cultural and Class Barriers
• Grows Communities
• Produces Healthier Families
• Encourages Healthier Living
• Supports Local Businesses
• Improves Relationships

This animated video illustrates the vision for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio’ sustainable local food system and how you can contribute.

Advanced and Renewable Energy Works in Northeast Ohio. Energy use and production is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions in the U.S., as well as one of the most costly expenses for businesses and households. Ohio’s extremely high carbon footprint – the fourth highest in the country – is due to its history of heavy manufacturing and high level of dependence on regional coal and foreign fossil fuel production.

The region’s manufacturing base is well suited for the production of wind turbine and solar components, among other energy devices. National studies have found that Ohio is one of the states best positioned to gain “green” jobs from the growth of energy efficiency and renewable power. Importantly, money spent on renewable energy installation tends to remain in the community, creating jobs and fueling local economics.

Renewable energy sources are clean and inexhaustible. Types of renewable energy resources include moving water (hydro, tidal and wave power), thermal gradients in ocean water, biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy and wind energy Cogeneration (i.e. combined heat & power) and municipal solid waste (MSW) to energy are considered types of advanced energy generation

Check out the Advanced and Renewable Energy Primer to learn more.

While the term “waste” generally has a negative connotation, this focus area represents diverse economic and environmental opportunities for Cleveland. By reducing the amount of waste the city produces and sends to landfills, Cleveland can improve human health through the elimination of hazardous waste, protect and increase property values and quality of place, as well as save business, government, organizations and the community money.

Innovative ways of dealing with waste can create new business and employment opportunities through the re-use and recycling of products or the creative design of innovative products or processes that allow for “waste-to-profit”.

Learn about the residential curbside recycling program in Cleveland by watching the One Simple Act video:

Check out the Zero Waste Events Primer to learn more about how to host zero waste events and meeting.

Fresh water resources represent an invaluable local asset that has shaped Cleveland’s identity, both in the way that the city has perceived itself and how it has been recognized outside the region. While Cleveland’s location on Lake Erie – the 12th largest body of fresh water in the world – provides Cleveland with a distinct comparative advantage, the city’s reputation has also been blemished by the historic Cuyahoga River fire in 1969 that resulted from excessive levels of pollution caused by heavy manufacturing and industrial contamination.

Cleveland has the responsibility to protect the 128 trillion gallons of fresh water directly off its shores in order to maintain the city’s water supply and ensure that its residents will have clean and readily available water resources for generations to come, but it also has the opportunity to leverage this invaluable asset as a driver of sustainable economic growth and prosperity for the local economy.

We created 6 videos to highlight actions At Home, At Work and In Your Community to keep our water clean.

• Clean Water and Reducing Plastic Pollution
• Clean Water and Green Infrastructure
• Drinkable, Fishable, Swimmable
• Clean Water and the Performing Arts
• Clean Water, Efficiency and Manufacturing
• Clean Water and Sustainable Landscaping

There are many actions Clevelanders can take at home, at work and in the community to help grow sustainable transportation. Actions include biking, walking, taking transit, carpooling, car sharing and much more! Not only do these actions reduce roadway congestion and carbon emissions, they also provide health benefits and improved air quality.

Bike Share

Bike Share is coming to Cleveland in 2016. Bike Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the City of Cleveland and other partners are collaborating to bring Cycle Hop to Downtown and University Circle for the first phase of Bike Share.

Bikeway Implementation Plan

We are more than halfway to our goal of 70 miles of additional bike lanes and trails, as laid out in the Bikeway Implementation Plan.

The diverse environmental, economic and social benefits of Cleveland’s green space underpin the sustainable development of the city. The expansion of parks and natural areas, community gardens, urban farms, green roofs, landscaped boulevards, bike paths, trails, schoolyards, recreational areas, and other public open green space in Cleveland can help to establish a broad swath of green space and build on the city’s surrounding Emerald Necklace. Cleveland has the only national park in an urban setting in the United States and it is the sixth most visited national park in the country.

Green space improves the quality of place and quality of life for its residents, a main driver in economic prosperity and a crucial factor in retaining and attracting residents to a city plagued with depopulation.

In addition, stewardship of green spaces, such as parks and natural areas, enhance the city’s potential to attract tourism and to increase its profile as a green-tourist destination. Green space also lowers the city’s footprint, improves air quality, preserves natural habitat and biodiversity, as well as strengthens the resilience of neighborhoods and increases property values. It provides the opportunity for the utilization of ecosystem services, saving the city and Cleveland businesses money on operating costs and environmental remediation and improving productivity and competitiveness.

The Cleveland Tree Plan
In 2015, The City of Cleveland, Western Reserve Land Conservancy’s Thriving Communities Institute, LAND Studio, Holden Arboretum and Cleveland Neighborhood Progress created the Cleveland Tree Plan. The Cleveland Tree Plan which has the vision for residents from every neighborhood in Cleveland to experience the many benefits of our urban forest that increase resilience, health, prosperity and overall quality of life. Cleveland is in the midst of a revitalization to improve the quality of life for all citizens and tree canopy is an important element of all these efforts.

Executive Summary
Cleveland Tree Plan
Appendices
Action Sheets

Neighborhoods are the building blocks of a great urban area. They are the real places of daily life — places where people interact face to face, where transactions are made, and where a sense of identity and history is created. They are also the places where most people can live decent lives with the least environmental impact. By bringing opportunities together in close proximity, neighborhoods reduce the need for transportation.

By fostering the development of a vibrant public realm for all to share (great streets, meeting places, parks, libraries, public transit, etc.), neighborhoods can make affordable, low-consumption lifestyles more convenient and attractive. In many ways, dense, mixed-use, urban neighborhoods are the foundation for future sustainability on Earth.

Learn more by using our Neighborhood Climate Action Toolkit to engage your community in sustainability. 

Sustainable Cleveland’s motto, “Together, we’re building a thriving green city on a blue lake”, emphasizes empowerment, cooperation, action, quality of life, and abundance. People, not programs, are the answer to true and lasting climate action in Cleveland. This means that a whole system, citizen-centered approach will be needed to align climate action with the assets, capacity and priorities of Cleveland residents and business owners. Whole system change is the transformation of an entire organization at one time.

The Sustainable Cleveland "system" includes residents from every Cleveland neighborhood, business owners, and stakeholders from many organizations and corporations.  In order for Cleveland residents to care about and to act upon climate change, it must connect to their everyday lives; they need to recognize climate change and climate action in their own backyards. By building upon what most people care about—safety, health, youth, education, jobs—there is potential to engage Cleveland’s residents and to be led in more creative directions as become a Green City on a Blue Lake.

One way we are engaging people is through the Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity Initiative, which is a bottom-up, resident-led approach to climate action.