Green city on a blue lake: A magical phrase

GreenCityBlueLake started as a magical phrase—a phrase that excited people's imaginations with the possibilities of creating green cities on a blue lake in Northeast Ohio. With the launch of this website, it's become a new kind of community workspace—an online presence where the people and organizations advancing sustainability in the region can tell their stories, learn from each other, and develop strategies to accelerate the progress. You are invited to participate!

The organization behind the site 

This website is maintained as a community service by the GreenCityBlueLake Institute, the sustainability center of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The Institute was formed out of the 2007 merger of the Museum and EcoCity Cleveland. During its 15-year history, EcoCity Cleveland was one of Northeast Ohio’s leading environmental organizations, with major accomplishments including:

• Creating an EcoVillage to demonstrate green building and transit-oriented development.
• Educating the region about the problems of urban sprawl and creating a statewide campaign for smarter growth.
• Winning national recognition by nominations for “Best of the Alternative Press Awards.”
• Changing local transportation planning to include bicycles and pedestrians.
• Publishing influential bioregional plans.
• Helping the City of Cleveland hire a sustainability program manager.
• Serving on numerous planning task forces and advisory committees as the environmental voice in the room.
• Promoting the vision of Cleveland as a “green city on a blue lake.”
• Providing leadership in many other ways that paved the way for the success of other organizations working on sustainability issues today.

When the Boards of the Museum and EcoCity Cleveland voted to merge organizations and create a new center for sustainability as part of the Museum, the goal was to join forces and create an even stronger platform to engage the public about the design of ecological cities and how humans can live sustainably on Earth in the 21st century. This was viewed as a fantastic opportunity to align the resources of two strong organizations and accelerate the transformation of a greener Northeast Ohio.

The new GreenCityBlueLake Institute is carrying on the work of EcoCity Cleveland while creating new initiatives that leverage the scientific expertise and educational resources of the Museum. It is making the Museum a hub of sustainability information and activity — a place where the public will come to create new visions of a sustainable future.

Essential information about this GCBL website

• Our vision of "sustainability" — Northeast Ohio as part of the global movement that is defining the future.
• Objectives of GreenCityBlueLake — The objectives of a community knowledge network for sustainability.
• Sponsors — Who is supporting this initiative, and how your organization can benefit from an association with the cool work to make our region more sustainable.
• Rules for participation — Go here to learn more about how to be an effective and appropriate user who contributes to the civic dialogue.
• Tips for using the site— Basic tips for understanding how this works.
• Contact us — Reach the people who are responsible for this site, and send them your questions and comments.

What GCBL can do for you

This site is designed to help you:

• Share your ideas about how to make Northeast Ohio a better place.
• Learn about all the amazing things going on and how you can get involved.
• Save time by providing a concise package of essential information edited by the experts at the GreenCityBlueLake Institute (formerly EcoCity Cleveland).
• Understand the important issues shaping the future of the region.
• Promote the good work of your organization or business.

Why "practice areas"?

The main sections of this site — energy, land, water, and so on — are the main areas people are working on to advance sustainability in the region. These are areas of "practice," which, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, means "to do or perform habitually or customarily" or "to exercise or perform repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill" or "to work at, especially as a profession." Thus, we seek to make the practice of sustainability the default habit and skill of Northeast Ohio.