If you doubt that Greater Cleveland needs a mental makeover, peruse the comments on Cleveland.com’s coverage of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit, the second annual gathering of 600 leaders from business, health and environmental groups, school kids, black, white, young and old. Better yet, don’t (have you ever wondered why such a small set of Bozos with such ugly thoughts when any optimism or new idea is expressed get to represent Cleveland?)

I attended both days of the 2010 summit this week and witnessed a movement to reshape the fortunes as some of “a million small actions” (in the words of GreenCityBlueLake’s David Beach) were on display. We heard thousands of concrete examples of cleaner, healthier more productive social, economic and environmental capital building—thanks to the organizing principles of sustainability.

“The city is incorporating sustainability in every decision it makes,” Mayor Jackson said.

The city of Cleveland—with so many people living outside its borders taking pot shots— leads the region in sustainability. Maybe it’s because the city has so much to gain. No doubt the cynics will say we have little left to lose.

Regardless, Cleveland’s Chief of Sustainability highlighted some of the progress in the last year at the city alone: The Lake Erie Wind Farm is moving toward development. Curbside recycling is coming back stronger than ever with automated collectors that can tell if citizens are participating. A dead big box store in Collinwood is being recycled as a LEED-Gold recreation center. The city is offering incentives to local and sustainable companies in its project bids. All of the city’s streetlights will be replaced with LEDs—saving millions of dollars and reduce its carbon footprint by tons—as soon as the city can attract the right manufacturer or deal.

More than just a litany of projects, though, sustainability is synonymous with creativity and exploration. As Mark Twain famously wrote, travel (or exploring) is fatal to prejudice and small mindedness.

Trinity Cathedral Dean Tracey Lind struck on a similar theme, invoking our better angels: “All of us are called to create a better world and when we fail, it’s because we didn’t use our imagination. We have obstacles, but also extraordinary resources. We have everything it takes to build a just, sustainable, beautiful green city on a clean blue lake.”

No doubt there’s room for improvement. As Beach said at the Summit’s closing remarks yesterday, “things could happen much faster…I’d like to see the mayor select three to five of the best ideas that emerge from the thousands of good ideas here and say, “we’re going to get these done in the next year.”” There’s also a little problem with our self image; not only with the disconnected and disaffected. But, when those polled within the sustainability movement were asked what animal best represents the city, they didn’t say a soaring eagle or a phoenix rising from the ashes, but a loyal old dog. When we were asked what clothing item symbolized the region, we said a worn out shoe.

Sustainability is about creating a culture that accepts change, Phil Nabors, founder of Mustard Seed Market told me. “It will give courage to that guy, maybe a CEO, in ways large and small.” Nabors is a serious pragmatist. He thinks too much talk about sustainability is cheap. To see real change, he concludes, we need more business start ups. Case President Barb Snyder also urged the summit to be strategic.

“Imagine the progress we could make if we all focused on one common goal,” she said, referring to the “Year of…” idea that emerged calling for collective action around one area of sustainability. In 2011, Energy Efficiency will be teed up.

The Year of “celebration points” is detailed in The 2019 Action and Resource Guide that the city-hired consultant ETG produced just before the summit. It offers some priorities and goals based on what will position us to compete in a global economy.

Cleveland Clinic Sustainability Director Christina Ayers says she’s already using the guide when looking at “ways to amplify what we’re doing with the community” and to its 40,000 employees.

Mayor Jackson will consider the 2019 initiative successful when it makes the local economy more “resilient”, able to rebound from the body blows of home foreclosures, recessions and slow turnarounds.

Some aspects of the Guide and the purpose of the summit were perplexing to corporate leaders. One observer noted to me that he scratched his head when summit leaders pronounced, “we’re not here to make recommendations to the mayor.”

Tom Morley, president of LubeStop and an active, enthusiastic member of the formation committee for 2019, echoed the sentiments of the business representatives sitting at my table when he said: “We need real clear metrics. We’re not there yet with the Guide. I would like to be able to explain what (2019) is doing. With the right clarity and organization, we’ll get there.”

More advice came in report outs from the table discussions. Be practical and be purposeful. In order to be sustainable, efforts need to be sustained. For example, reusing brownfields as gardens took many years to accept, but now it’s the hottest idea in urban revitalization. Learning networks and learning organizations are key.

Several announcements were made at the summit. The 2019 Green Building: Retrofit group submitted a report to build a local economy around energy retrofits and set a target of 25% of Cleveland’s buildings by 2019. Their members, which include Neighborhood Progress Inc., Key Bank, Enterprise Foundation and many more have formed The Energy Alliance. Their plan would tap into some of the $4 million in federal Energy Efficiency Block Grants to “move energy efficiency to scale,” said Key Bank’s Paul Ettorre. The 2019 Green Building group spent the year since the 2009 summit researching best practices, setting goals, and drafting a plan. That impressed Cleveland Foundation officer Lillian Kuri, who called the Alliance, “very exciting.”

Also announced, the Sustainable Transportation Action Team has formed a task force with Cleveland City Council members to explore a Complete Streets law. The Collaborative Campus group has an exhibit of its charrette to remake the area between Cleveland State and Tri-C Metro on display at Cleveland Institute of Art. Local food campaign Growhio will celebrate its kick off during Local Food Week, Oct. 2-8. The 2019 Business Incubator Group helped with the grand opening of a new green resource center at the Galleria (as part of the Gardens Under Glass). The city will have a report on which vacant land is suitable for growing food, slowing stormwater and producing renewable energy by year’s end.

How can the corporate community help?

To accelerate the reuse of vacant land, an “adopt a property” model like Parkworks created for pocket parks, might drum up corporate sponsorships, said Cleveland city planning director Bob Brown.

The 2019 Council also announced action items for the coming year. “We came up with 200 action items for businesses to commit to,” said Positively Cleveland’s Joe Roman. They include: Commitments to buy power from the Lake Erie Wind Farm. An online dashboard to track 2019 initiatives designed for the business community. Bike racks, lockers and changing areas, charging stations for electric vehicles, local food sourcing, a database of local sustainable businesses. Setting zero waste goals. Setting renewable energy purchase goals (these last two Wal-Mart is committing to we learned from a company executive).

Green guru David Orr had an answer to the cynics. “We can be as dumb as we want to be. We can be as smart. We’re learning a whole new language. We’re learning the skills of cooperating, which isn’t easy these days. Let’s take the anger of the Tea Party and rebuild our cities. Let’s do something constructive with that anger. Whatever we build has got to be beautiful. We have to create a world in which we want to live."