Last week we reported that dozens of temporary green collar jobs were created for Cleveland’s Summer Youth Program. Now we discover that the city built a pipeline for green collar jobs.

In 2003, the Water Department started a training program for unemployed city residents to convert paper maps of its extensive water delivery system into digital format. Cleveland Resident Workforce provided 50 paid trainees on Geographic Information System (GIS), a mapping software program, to create maps and a searchable database of 500,000 water connections, 5,200 miles of water mains, and 270 electric feeders and electrical substations.

Four of the trainees stayed on as permanent hires, and the GIS work continues to improve operations at the city. Analyzing routes with GIS has allowed truck rerouting and led to a 15 to 22 percent savings for mileage and drive time, according to a study done by the Division of Waste Collection and Disposal. The city used this savings to reinstate a recycling program that had been cut for lack of funds. It bought new recycling containers and trucks to start a pilot recycling program.

ESRI, the company that makes GIS software, recognized Cleveland’s use of GIS with its 2007 Special Achievement Award. Read more at American Planning Association’s Planning magazine.

Those cross-country cyclists working to raise attention for climate change and the need to address an issue of national and international impact are at it again, organizing a ride from New York to Washington, DC. They are asking concerned citizens and riders to plan on joining them in September for a five to Washington D.C.

The ride is to promote renewable energy and solutions to global warming: www.climateride.org and they will have cyclists from all over the country joining them, and they say it would be great to have representatives from Cleveland join us and ride to Washington. Here’s the release:

Join Brita Climate Ride 2008
September 20th - 24th
New York to D.C.
www.ClimateRide.org

Join Brita Climate Ride 2008 for the first multi-day supported bicycle tour where you pedal to promote renewable energy and solutions to global warming. Climate Riders will cycle 320 miles in five days from New York to Washington D.C., following scenic country roads and finishing on the steps of our nation's capitol, where we will make a statement about our country's need for action.

Along the way, expert speakers will educate and inspire Climate Riders and local communities about the science, the policies and the solutions to global warming. Our riders and the communities we pass through will learn how our government, businesses, and all Americans will benefit from a cleaner, healthier climate. This is a unique event--a fundraiser and climate conference on wheels, and an opportunity to meet people who are engaged in making a difference.

Each rider will be responsible for raising $2,250. Proceeds from the ride benefit Clean Air - Cool Planet and Focus the Nation, two organizations that lead the way in expanding climate change education, encouraging renewable energy policies, and promoting solutions to global warming.

Location(s)

Learn more about innovative Clevelanders on this walking tour of Riverside Cemetary in the Brooklyn Centre Historic District. Notable residents include Martin Ruetenik, greenhouse gardening pioneer and Claude Foster, whose shocks technology is still applied in nuclear reactors.

Enjoy costumed narrators, musical entertainment and refreshments.

Continuous walking tours throughout the afternoon. Fee.

To reserve tickets, call 216/351-0254 or email gloria.ferris@gmail.com

The Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina clearly sees the value of bikes and local infrastructure, taking steps to add more cycling access on area bridges. Earlier, the South Carolina state transportation officials added bike access to a federally funded bridge, a step ODOT refused to consider. The federally funded bridge has proven to be so popular, they have even hosted wedding groups. Building on the success, the Mayor announced more plans for bikes on bridges.

Here's the information:

Win for Charleston, SC: Old Bridge to Be Retrofitted: According to the Charleston Moves E-News, "Mayor Joseph Riley has announced the city's plan to add a cantilevered 10-ft wide bicycle and pedestrian lane to the southernmost of the two Ashley River bridges." The bridge is the primary conduit for travel between the downtown Charleston and West Ashley, but has been a roadblock to cyclists and pedestrians. Charleston Moves has actively championed access for cyclists and pedestrians to this important bridge. They report that the City of Charleston is now seeking funding for construction.

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/may/14/create_better_bridge_links40740/

Kevin Cronin
ClevelandBikes : When ClevelandBikes, Cleveland Benefits!
www.clevelandbikes.org

• Cameron Sinclair told last night’s MOCA Cleveland Talalay Series that he launched Architecture for Humanity to be a virtual, viral network responding to natural disaster around the world with thoughtful housing solutions. With only five full-time staff, Sinclair relies on an army of 5,000 volunteers—architects who organize local chapters around the globe and then move nimbly into the field whilst forming relationships with local residents before they design and build homes, community centers, soccer fields— whatever is most needed to restore the community—from Zimbabwe to Biloxi. Whenever possible they use existing plans, local materials and off-the-grid technology. Their AFH Rangoon chapter has already raised $30,000 and is gearing up to face the aftermath of the Myanmar typhoon. Their motto is ‘design like you give a damn’.
• The city of Toledo is investing in green energy. Its new Bay View cogeneration plant will burn methane piped in from a sanitary landfill to provide power to the city’s waste water treatment plant. The biogas, which is currently being flared into the atmosphere, will provide 4.5 mega watts for water treatment and provide electricity to the landfill and the new Veteran’s Skyline Memorial Bridge lighting. Read more.
• They grow up so fast. This season’s peregrine falcon chicks are leaving their nestbox and walking around the ledge on the 13th floor of Terminal Tower. Falcons are cliff-dwellers and are adapted to high places, so the chicks instinctively know how to avoid falling over the edge. Pretty soon they’ll be fledging, that is, learning to fly.
  
  

Location(s)

Come see what could be the greenhouse of the future as the Cleveland Botanical Garden and Kent State University embark on a collaborative partnership exploring the potential of liquid crystal technology for creating more sustainable, energy-efficient greenhouses.

Two greenhouses located in front of the Garden on Wade Oval will be used to begin the experiment. One contains the liquid crystal panels, and the other (a control) has plain glass. A demonstration will reveal how the panes "switch" to manage the amount of sunlight that enters the greenhouse.

Join the Garden and Kent State as they unveil this pioneering research project.

“This is an exciting time for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Our region is about to realize a huge untapped energy resource—the strong winds that blow across the lake,” Sarah Taylor writes in EarthWatch Ohio about Cuyahoga County exploring a wind farm on Lake Erie.

In fact, our wind boom has sparked an international race, Taylor adds. Canada has caught wind and renewed their program, vowing to be first with wind turbines on fresh water.

Heading up the local effort is the Great Lakes Institute for Energy Innovation whose director Iwan Alexander will moderate a conversation this Thursday about the plans underway. He’ll be joined by Richard Zachariason, Chief Operating Officer of juwi Wind US Corp., the German-based firm hired by the county's task force to conduct a study of the feasibility of an offshore wind energy demonstration project up to 20 megawatts in Lake Erie near downtown Cleveland and an affiliated research center for utility-scale wind technology.

Also on the panel: Richard T. Stuebi, BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement, The Cleveland Foundation; David H. Matthiesen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University and Louis L. McMahon, Partner, Environmental Law, Thompson Hine LLP.

What I took from last Saturday’s screening and discussion of the film, "Bauhaus in America" is a new set of questions, beginning with, what is architecture’s role in creating a sustainable world? The event reminded me of what local architect Ted Sande said at the Cleveland Goes Modern exhibit (which, incidentally, closes this Saturday), when he asked, “What is the architecture for our age?”

It’s a most important question, because, as author Tom Wolfe says in the film, “Ideas become fashion, but the results, in the case of architecture, are so permanent.”

The film does a nice job of exploring the development of the Bauhaus movement, from groundbreaking furniture design and art to buildings that sought a new paradigm through clean lines and forms and modern materials. It also doesn’t shy away from the pitfalls of the Bauhaus, especially as it moved to America and fought for its soul as Gropius and Breuer built houses that brought together natural materials and Modern design. On the other hand, they and Mies van der Rohe designed commercial buildings that reflected our corporate ideals of anonymity and linear management style. (To read a review in the Cleveland Jewish News, go here).

This specialized 3-day course is designed for professionals in various design fields including architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, interior design, and industrial design interested in applying biomimicry to sustainable architecture and design.

For additional details and pricing please click here.

On September 25th more than 400 attendees packed The Cleveland Institute of Art to hear Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, introduce a new source of design inspiration.

This was the kick-off event for a year long focus by E4S and its latest regional sustainability effort—Cleveland+ Biomimicry Design Collaborative—to seed Biomimicry into the regional design DNA and create what might be the first regional effort to put these revolutionary ideas to work to rebuild our economy.

Janine actually packed-in five events in 24 hours, interacted with many businesses on the sustainability path and toured the Cuyahoga River Valley. She left us with many idea seeds for new businesses, designs and fresh nature inspired viewpoints on our current assets, E4S writes in its latest email.

Jim Hartzfeld, InterfaceRAISE introduced Janine to the E4S Network. While in Cleveland he shared the knowledge and tools to transform technology and culture with several local companies who want to implement sustainability. His work on sustainability at Interface for over 12 years makes him a global leader. We hope both Jim and Janine will return to visit the E4S Network over the next year.

If you’re interested, check out this upcoming E4S networking event and this October 9th event to lay out the vision of the Biomimicry Design Collaborative. And mark down this Cleveland Biomimicry Workshop in January, 2008.