Facilitating transformational change 

During the past two years, the staff and board of EcoCity Cleveland have undertaken an intensive study of how the organization can build on past successes and do even more to help lead the transformation of Northeast Ohio to a sustainable future. We did this not only because we always strive for continuous improvement, but mostly because we believe that Northeast Ohio is suffering and is in great need of transformational change.

We began our study with the following observations:

• Global forces – Increasingly, the forces acting upon Northeast Ohio are global in scale, including global economic forces, changing energy markets, and environmental problems like climate change. These forces are — and will continue to be — highly disruptive.
• Sustainability as the organizing principle – In response to new global challenges, sustainability is becoming the organizing principle for leading nations, cities, and businesses. The new realization is that industrial society must be redesigned in fundamental ways if it is to meet the needs of the world’s population yet exist in harmony with the earth’s biosphere over the long term. Northeast Ohio must participate in this global conversation if it is to adapt and succeed in the 21st century.
• Regionalism – The key actors on the global stage are metropolitan regions, not cities or states. In order to compete more effectively, Northeast Ohio needs to overcome the fragmentation (political, social, racial, etc.) that divides it and makes it difficult to mobilize the region’s assets. 
• Networks – The scale and complexity of today’s problems mean that no one person or organization has all the answers. Solutions require creative collaborations and flexible means of developing knowledge. Open networks are the best way to do this because they have the unique capacity to scale up rapidly, involve diverse partners, and mobilize talent (an example is open source software development where distributed, self-organizing networks of volunteers collaborate to create software, such as Linux, that rivals the products of large corporations).

Northeast Ohio is just starting to respond to these new circumstances. People are becoming aware of the global forces and the changes required to make the region more sustainable. They are starting to talk about how to think and act as a region. And they are starting to break down the closed structures of civic leadership and embrace more open styles of decision making.

We believe, however, that these responses must occur faster and with much greater strategic focus. We need a bold sustainability agenda that inspires us to move into the future in innovative ways. This agenda must be regional in scale. And it must be created by a broad network that transcends regional divisions and leverages the activities of many partners.

GreenCityBlueLake is intended to be a home for this network. It will be a new kind of initiative that will facilitate community discussions and strategic planning and action for sustainability in Northeast Ohio.

The specific objectives will be to:

• Organize a broad-based, regional network of people and organizations who are advancing sustainability in 11 areas of practice – water, energy, economy and sustainable business, regional food systems, land and conservation, transportation, green building and neighborhood development, health, arts, education, and spirit. This network will ultimately involve thousands of people and hundreds of organizations and businesses — all of whom will gain power, awareness, and coordination by being part of a larger context. The network will have members, advisors, and financial sponsors.
• Create an online home to facilitate the work of this network at www.greencitybluelake.org. In addition to allowing users to post calendar items, job listings, and alerts, the site will facilitate online conversations, group agenda setting, and collaborative content creation about the practice areas of sustainability. It won’t be anything like a static, old-fashioned Web site. It will be a true home for civic participation – the kind of site people will visit daily to see what’s going on. GreenCityBlueLake will be a national model for the use of this cutting-edge technology for civic engagement.
• Facilitate the development of regional agendas in the main areas of sustainability. This initiative is about bringing people together to rethink the region. In water, energy, and the other areas of sustainability, we will push the community to think through what needs to happen to move Northeast Ohio into the future. For instance, what will be our energy agenda if we need to reduce carbon emissions? How can we use the disruptive force of climate change to drive innovation and greater efficiency? We will be able to pose such questions, collect the community’s best ideas, and move the conversation forward in productive ways.
• Leverage the activity of major institutions in the region that have the most resources (e.g., big companies, governments and public agencies, universities, health care systems). The real power of this initiative will come from managing the network strategically to influence key decision makers and persuade them to change their practices. The network will help us reach the key people with the right information at the right time. (Go here for more on the theory of managing knowledge networks for sustainable development.)
• Provide the best information and analysis on community planning projects. The GreenCityBlueLake site will become the online guide to important planning processes such as the Innerbelt, Euclid Corridor, casinos, and regional biodiversity. It will provide citizens with what they need to know (explanations, project documents, pictures, timelines, schedule of events, independent research on alternatives, etc.) in order to participate effectively and articulate a sustainability perspective.
• Promote a positive GreenCityBlueLake identity for Cleveland and the region — a new image that will make the outside world see us differently and will make us break out of our tired, Rust-Belt mindsets and imagine new futures.
• Tell the story of Cleveland’s emergence as a cool place that is engaged with the rest of the world. A lot of sustainability-related activities are happening, but currently no one is covering it all and telling the complete story. GreenCityBlueLake is where it will all come together so people will appreciate the magnitude of the transformation.

We believe that this is an opportune time for creating a strong network for sustainability in Northeast Ohio. Throughout the region there is growing dissatisfaction with the status quo. And there are calls for new leadership, new ways of working together, and new ideas for moving the region into the future.

It’s also an opportune time because Northeast Ohio now has a critical mass of people and organizations actually doing the work of sustainability in various areas of practice – energy, water, food, health, land and transportation, building, business, education, and the arts. Indeed, sustainability is bigger than we think. If all of the individual efforts could be seen as part of a larger context, they would have greater impact. The GreenCityBlueLake Network can be that context.

In short, the region needs a transformative vision like GreenCityBlueLake, and now is the time to advance it. The challenges of the 21st century are rushing upon us. This work can drive innovation, attract talent, and make Greater Cleveland a greener, healthier, and more prosperous place for all.