The City of Cleveland hosted a Local Food Fair in City Hall on Friday to launch 2012, The Year of Local Food. About 40 exhibitors representing farmers, farmers’ markets, CSAs, local food enterprises, restaurants, and organizations that connect residents to local food were in attendance. The event was well attended by the general public and City of Cleveland employees alike. A good portion of exhibitors were small enterprises and entrepreneurs—real businesses that provide local, affordable, nutritious food options for Cleveland residents. Cleveland’s leadership as a local foods hotspot is increasingly being recognized nationally and even internationally.  In fact, Cleveland got a mention in an article Salon published last week, Urban Gardens, the Future of Food.  

The premise of the article is that America needs to be taking urban agriculture seriously because it is our future. Cleveland’s  seriousness is evident in the more than 200 community gardens, dozens of for-profit farms and gardens, double digit farmers’ markets, and more than 60 acres under cultivation. All of this progress has been strengthened by the local food policy and programs implemented to date including: 

• Urban Agriculture Zoning Ordinance
• Residential Farmstands
• Affordable water rates for Summer Sprout Community Gardens and affordable unmetered water hydrant rates for gardening and greening project not part of a city-run program;
• Healthy Cleveland Initiative supports School Gardens
• Sustainable Street Food initiative
• Gardening for Greenbacks Grants to market farmers
• Reimagining Cleveland program to provide access to vacant land
• Urban Agriculture Innovation Zone
• Local and Sustainable Purchasing Ordinance

Because Cleveland is advanced in its urban agriculture policy and the movement toward a more localized food economy, the work left for us to do will require continued commitment, attention to equity, and fortitude for incremental progress. Here are a few opportunities for collective action (there are many more): 

• Participate in the newly formed chapter of Cleveland Slow Money or explore other ways to support start-up local food businesses
• Promote, track, and move the needle on import substitution of food
• Support neighborhood self-determination and equity in land access and use
• Increase institutional purchasing of local foods
• Support local food infrastructure investments
• Connect retailers with growers
• Move the needle on the culture change needed to shift to 25% local

Our way forward is complex, granular and experimental and it illustrates that Cleveland is advanced enough to have already “plucked” the low hanging fruit of re-localizing the food economy through legislation, policy, grant-making, education and a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Let’s Grow Cleveland.

A rendering of the Sustainable Cleveland Center

Last night we hosted a Sustainable Cleveland 2019 report-out for the working groups at the future home of the Sustainable Cleveland Center. Seventy people were in attendance representing working group members, summit participants and individuals simply interested in finding out what SC2019 is all about. A work-in-progress, the Sustainable Cleveland Center is space donated by Forest City as a physical home for Sustainable Cleveland 2019.

The meeting was a good opportunity to look back at 2011 and see what has been accomplished as well as to be inspired for the work ahead of us in 2012. Thirteen working groups reported out and here is a summary of their updates:

Menu for the Future

is a six-session discussion course book exploring the connection between food and sustainability.  “We are rolling” chair Nancy King Smith said. They have 12 groups going that include libraries, businesses, faith-based organizations and farmers that will be hosting these discussions. They will host a kick-off event on January 10^th.  

 Sustainable Design Materials and Manufacturing has created the DART Board (Diagram for Celebrating Regional Transformation in Manufacturing), the Matrix and the Brain (which integrates all parts of their process). Jud Kine reported that their next steps include integrating the brain with the DART Board and they are looking for tech savvy people to join in, funding and perspective companies that would like to pilot their tools.

Have you Met Cleveland? Sonya Pryor Jones reported out on her project to introduce youth to Appreciative Inquiry and at the same time, introduce them to Cleveland. She is partnering with youth organizations to train youth in Appreciative Inquiry, survey adults working in sustainability and to analyze their findings. She is looking for SC2019 participants interested in completing a survey or participating in an Appreciative Inquiry interview conducted by the youth.

Collective Upcycle: Nicole McGee explained how Collective Upcylce grew out of some previous SC2019 efforts from the first 3 summits and finally turned into Collective Upcycle, a pop up shop that ignites vacant spaces, generates local economy and demonstrates creative re-use. She encouraged people to buy local and buy used for the holidays http://collectiveupcycle.blogspot.com/

Sustainable Transportation Action Team: John McGovern reminded the room about STAT’s recent successes including successful advocacy that led to agreements for bike and pedestrian improvements on the Lorain Carnegie bridge, the adoption of Complete and Green Streets by the City of Cleveland and their current work advocating for multi-modal elements in the West Shoreway project. He invited anyone interested

Cleveland 2030 District: Dave Simons reported out for his working group which is spearheading Cleveland’s participation in the Architecture 2030 challenge. They are leading the work to make Cleveland the nation’s second 2030 District and are looking for people interested in green design, urban planning, radical resource efficiency, advanced and renewable energy, and architecture. For more information about the challenge visit http://architecture2030.org/ to attend their next meeting tomorrow at NOACA.

John Hay High School Environmental Club/Farm to School: Jim Thompson from the OSU Extension reported out on behalf of the school and the wider effort to connect schools with farms for nutritional and educational reasons. In 2011, the students created a community garden on the schools property with the goal of eventually serving the food in the cafeteria. They are working now to communicate with the administration that they would like to source their cafeteria food more locally. In other farm-to-school news, OSU Extension will be working statewide to implement programs in this area.

Sustainable Water Council: Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells reported out for the Water Sustainability Council works on and supports efforts that promote the goals of clean water, responsible stewardship of our waterways, and sustainable lakefront development. The Council has had several meetings hosted at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. For more information visit: http://www.gcbl.org/2019/celebration-points/2015%E2%80%94sustainable-water

Growhio: Gwen Forte reported out that Growhio will be launching a Restaurant Award Program in 2012 for restaurants that source food locally. They have a meeting the 2^nd Wednesday of every month at 6:30 pm. They are also continuing their work with the Cleveland Farmers’ Market Guild through their grant from the Department of Agriculture. They also reported on the success of their first Local Food Guide released earlier this year. http://www.growhio.org/index.php

Local Food Recipe Blog: Darlene Kelbach reported on this newly formed working group that formed to reach Clevelanders through an online repository to educate about using local foods. They are forming a very visual website and are dividing up the many local food assets we have to cover and post about. If you would like to join them and blog about your favorite farmers market or recipes, they’d love for you to join them.

Vital Neighborhoods: I reported out on behalf of the Vital Neighborhoods working group. The group formed during Summit 2010 and launched their first project in September, the Green Your Block Energy Efficiency Challenge which resulted in approximately 100 residents representing 19 block clubs participating in 4 ways: signing up for a Good Cents energy audit, installing a programmable thermostat, switching to a low flow shower head and switching to CFLs. Prizes included Energy Star Appliance drawing and gift cards to Home Depot. Next the group will meet to plan how to engage residents in the Year of Local Food

Advanced Energy Generation: Linda Sekura sent an email update that was read during the meeting. There have been many side emails and activity behind the scenes. During the Summit, 22 individuals/organizations joined, bringing their total members to over 150.  The hydrogen station build is scheduled for Spring 2012 at RTA’s Hayden facility. They are Searching for methods to renewably generate vs using grid power. They are encouraging “pro-renewables” policies at the regional, state, and federal level and searching for best avenues. They are working on: How does the group install more small-scale solar and wind?  Working toward a “how-to” for home solar, and Do we create an outreach network in low income (or other) neighborhoods?  Your ideas are welcome.

For more than a decade, Cleveland has worked to improve the downtown to become more than just a 9 to 5 city. These efforts may have come too late to preserve the significant retail investments made in the late 80s and early 90s, but the work seems to be finally paying off. The article in Sunday’s Plain Dealer demonstrates that we are on the right path. With the alignment of a vision between the Mayor, City Council, and a consensus of civic leaders, I am confident that downtown will be alive well after 5. (To read full article, click here).

This brings me to the articles in Monday’s Plain Dealer. Three articles highlighted our acceleration towards creating a sustainable community. What impresses me is how rapidly we are making progress towards creating a local food economy and vibrant green spaces. In such a short time period we have recognized that our vacant and public land can be used for more than development. I believe that the alignment of the entrepreneurial energy to the greater public interest is driving this progress. From Oberlin to Cleveland we are defining a new path forward. At Zone Recreation Center we are supporting vibrant green space, in the Kinsman neighborhood we are growing local food, and in Oberlin we are turning food waste into healthy soil.

Tackling food waste and creating healthy soil are the next hurdles that we must overcome to create a vibrant and sustainable urban agricultural scene. Ambitious entrepreneurs, available vacant land and friendly public policies are helping to spawn an emerging agricultural community in Cleveland. This has awarded Cleveland with recognition as a national leader in urban agriculture. In order to maintain this progress we have to improve our processes of economically creating the healthy soils necessary to transform the vacant lots into productive urban farms.

I am confident we will identify the connections necessary to turn our challenges into success stories.  In order to do this though, we all need to listen to each other and be open to new ideas. Ten years ago, it would be an unlikely guess that there would be a 6-acre farm on west 25th street, but now there is, and we are proud of it.

• Oberlin College Composts
• Urban Farming in Kinsman
• Zone Recreation Re-Imagined into a Green Recreation Center

You have probably seen in the news or in the statement issued by Mayor Jackson on Thursday that I will be stepping down as the Chief of Sustainability for the City of Cleveland. I will be joining the sustainability and corporate responsibility firm, BrownFlynn, later this month. As a result of this announcement, it seemed important to reaffirm my commitment to Sustainable Cleveland 2019 (SC2019) in this forum that I contribute to often.

We are collectively part of a movement that is demonstrating the ability to transform not only our economy, but also our community to become more sustainable, transparent, connected and open. The work that we are collectively doing is creating new relationships between organizations, corporations and individuals in ways that is beginning to accelerate our independent work towards a common goal. There are many strengths of SC2019, but one that I am very proud of is the vision of an economy that supports instead of competes with a green city on a blue lake, and a commitment to realize this vision through collective action.

As some of you know, I came to the City about 6 ½ years ago from the private sector. As I see the sustainability movement grow, I see more and more businesses searching to identify the business value of sustainability. As you also are aware, Mayor Jackson is seeking to transform our regional economy into a sustainable economy by 2019. I seek to help the Mayor and our community to realize this goal by working more directly with the business community to achieve success both within their business and for the community at large.

Working for Mayor Jackson has been a great honor and leading the sustainability efforts on behalf of the City has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. Being a part of Sustainable Cleveland 2019 has and will continue to be a highlight of living here in Cleveland. It is one of the factors that makes me proud to be a Clevelander and happy to call this place home.

Though I will be leaving my position, I will not be leaving the mission. I will continue to work in the community with all sectors to use sustainability as a tool for economic, social and environmental success. I am looking forward to staying engaged with SC2019 in a new capacity that I hope demonstrates the ability for more people to take leadership roles in advancing this common vision that Mayor Jackson has given to all of us.

Let us keep up the momentum and demonstrate to the world that Cleveland is no longer a rust belt city, but a thriving, bright green city.