This year's summit will be held in Columbus on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008. Details about the event will be released shortly.

For more information, contact All Aboard Ohio director Andrew Bremer.

Meeting to continue the dialogue concerning how to become the first region nationally to embrace the application of biomimicry in the design of our products, buildings, organizations and communities.

More information about biomimicry and the collaborative.

The event is to encourage Northeast Ohio’s collaboration in attracting and retaining a culturally diverse mix of entrepreneurs to our region. How do we transform NEO into a global powerhouse?

Special guests Pete Engardia, Senior international news editor for Business Week and Vivek Wadhwa, Founder, chairman, and CEO of Relativity Technologies, named one of the 25 “coolest” companies in the world by Fortune Magazine for its vision in helping businesses recycle legacy systems.

Fee. For reservations, email reservations@ccwa.org or call 216-781-3730 x102 or you may
register online at www.ccwa.org. 

Save money, water, & energy with green building guru, Jim LaRue. This 7-week series will teach you practical ways to adapt your home to be more healthy for you and the environment. Program is FREE. Registration is required. Series runs from Jan. 10 - Feb. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.

This week's topic is, "Green day: daylighting & roofs."

This series is Sold Out! Please follow the series online here.

Cleveland Peace Action and Trinity Cathedral present a town meeting on Iran with former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and former chief of mission in Iraq Edward Peck as speakers at Trinity Cathedral, January 24, 7:30 pm. They will be reporting from their fact-finding mission to Iran, where they are now. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

Suggested donation: $10 general, $5 students.

Trinity Cathedral is at 2230 Euclid Ave., across from CSU. Free parking is available in the Trinity Cathedral lot: entrance on Prospect Ave at E. 22nd.

When two east coast college buddies move to Iowa to grow an acre of corn, they learn firsthand about industrial food production, the plight of family-owned farms, government subsidies, genetically modified seed, herbicides and fertilizers, and other insidious truths about our fast-food nation. This is a rare nonfiction film that sounds the alarm without sacrificing humor and human interest. “A lively introduction to the corn industrial complex.” –Entertainment Weekly. Cleveland premiere. 35mm. 88 min. www.kingcorn.net

For more information please call (216) 421-7450 or log onto www.cia.edu/cinematheque
 

The North Central Ohio Wildlife Conference for the Private Landowner is intended to provide resource material to landowners interested in managing wildlife and woodlands in North Central Ohio. The conference will be held at BGSU Firelands Cedar Point Center. Pre-registration is required. The registration fee of $20 includes morning refreshments, handouts and lunch. Due to limited space, registrations will be limited to the first 100 participants on a first come, first served basis. Registration is due by January 18th, 2008.

Registration form.

For questions contact the Erie Soil and Water Conservation District office at 419-626-5211 or the OSU Extension office, 419-627-7631.

Great Lakes Bioneers Cleveland had a great start last October, and people are already beginning the planning for Bioneers 2008, which will take place October 17-19 at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

The first planning meeting will Jan. 26. Help is needed with program planning, marketing and outreach, fundraising, volunteer management, web design, graphics, writing, youth and leadership development, arts planning, greening events, and other niches. Feel free to invite others you think might be interested in helping, even if they didn’t attend last October.

Please RSVP via e-mail to Nancy King Smith with your name and contact details, as well as which session you can attend: bioneers@roadrunner.com. Questions to the same e-mail or 216-496-3543.

The grand opening of the West side's first organic lifestyle store representing local and organic products from twenty vendors, including Green Clean, Good Nature Lawn Care, A Piece of Cleveland (tables, candlesticks, frames made from wood reclaimed from Cleveland homes), Nicole McGee (who makes jewelry and cards from re-used paper, wire, cable, glass, metal, stones, re-used pieces of other people's jewelry), Esperanza Threads and more locally made, quality goods.

Book signing party for "Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall Of Community Organizing In Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985" by Randy Cunningham.

For more information, call 216-631-3337 or go here.

When two east coast college buddies move to Iowa to grow an acre of corn, they learn firsthand about industrial food production, the plight of family-owned farms, government subsidies, genetically modified seed, herbicides and fertilizers, and other insidious truths about our fast-food nation. This is a rare nonfiction film that sounds the alarm without sacrificing humor and human interest. “A lively introduction to the corn industrial complex.” –Entertainment Weekly. Cleveland premiere. 35mm. 88 min. www.kingcorn.net

For more information please call (216) 421-7450 or log onto www.cia.edu/cinematheque

"Notes from Nature: A Concert for the Natural Areas" to benefit the Natural Areas Program of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

More information.

Please join the Ohio Environmental Council and Biodiversity Project for this half-day workshop and lunch.

The Great Lakes, one of the natural wonders of the world, are an economic engine for our state, and the heart of an ecosystem that 42 million people rely on for life. In December 2005, the bi-partisan governors and premiers of the U.S. states and Canadian provinces that share the lakes released a cooperative agreement for the future protection of our waters. The agreement, know as the Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact, encourages the sound management of our water, not for a single interest, but for our families, wildlife, and our children’s future.

Learn more about the agreement, its importance for business and tourism interests, and how you can get involved in protecting Ohio’s most precious resource – our water. Melinda Huntley from Lake Erie Coastal Ohio will provide insights from the tourism and business industries, the Ohio Environmental Council will provide issue updates for Ohio and the Wisconsin-based Biodiversity Project will share public opinion research and marketing recommendations for the positive promotion of Great Lakes protection.

Registration form.

The Cleveland Section of the Ohio Planning Conference is offering a distance learning series to OPC members and guests free of charge. This session:

Learn how the complete streets movement provides safe and convenient user access and more choice in transportation modes, and how it has become a major tool for planning to improve communities.

Please RSVP to Ann Klavora at ann.klavora@shakeronline.com or 216-491-1436.

Cuyahoga County lead the state in urbanized area drilling permits with 72 last year. Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District will present the impact for communities in the Rocky River watershed. Topics to be discussed include:

• General overview of oil and gas drilling regulations
• Considerations for local governments and landowners
• Role of your local Soil & Water Conservation District
• Rocky River Watershed program updates

Please RSVP by January 25th to Jared Bartley (jbartley@cuyahogaswcd.org or 216-524-6580 x14).

Great Lakes Bioneers Cleveland had a great start last October, and people are already beginning the planning for Bioneers 2008, which will take place October 17-19 at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

Help is needed with program planning, marketing and outreach, fundraising, volunteer management, web design, graphics, writing, youth and leadership development, arts planning, greening events, and other niches. Feel free to invite others you think might be interested in helping, even if they didn’t attend last October.

Please RSVP via e-mail to Nancy King Smith with your name and contact details, as well as which session you can attend: bioneers@roadrunner.com. Questions to the same e-mail or (216) 496-3543.

This month's topic is electric cars. Join Green Energy Ohio in Akron for its first network meeting of 2008. Snack on delicious food from Mustard Seed while hearing from Dana Myers, President of Myers Motors. Located in Tallmadge, Myers Moters is dedicated to provide creative, innovative, functional, responsible and fun alternative forms of transportation (www.myersmotors.com).

Learn more on upcoming environmental events, and network with professionals and others dedicated to creating a sustainable energy economy in Ohio.

The event is free and open to the public. RSVP to Athan at Athan@GreenEnergyOhio.org or call (216) 526-5545.

Board of Trustees elections will be held at this meeting, and Harry Stark, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, will present the accomplishments of the Rocky River 319 implementation grant.

For more information, go here, or contact Jared Bartley, Rocky River Watershed Coordinator, at 216-524-6580 x14.  

Save money, water, & energy with green building guru, Jim LaRue. This 7-week series will teach you practical ways to adapt your home to be more healthy for you and the environment. Program is FREE. Registration is required. Series runs from Jan. 10 - Feb. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.

This week's topic is, "Greening heating and cooling."

This series is Sold Out! Please follow the series online here.

Linking Land to Lake: Landscaping in Celebration of Water 

Cleveland Botanical Garden and the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes will present their third annual sustainability symposium, this year focusing on the impact of gardening and landscape design on the Lake Erie Watershed and other water systems in Northeast Ohio. As stewards of one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water and 95 percent of the U.S. supply, people living near the Great Lakes' watershed have a particular responsibility to support and inform about the importance of water and conservation. 

Registration information.

Groundhog Day Bicycle Ride

Meet (at the bike co-op) after 10am, ride leaves around 11am. Supper*
served (back at the bike co-op) beginning at 1pm

Ride (6 to 40 miles, flat terrain) to Clark Field sledding hill (3
miles); stay for sledding, or continue to the new Ohio Erie Canal
Reservation Mountain Bike Trail (7 miles); ride the trail (if it's not
wet) and/or continue south on the Towpath Trail into the Cuyahoga
Valley National Park. Return on the same route**.

Helmets are required (loaners available), and mountain bikes are
recommended (a limited number are available for rent, or for loan to
members who clean and tune them up afterwards). Bring any sleds, skis
or snowboards you can carry (some loaners will be provided, and
transported). We'll break out the ski-bikes, and perhaps a sleigh-bike
if we get it built. Our new, gas-powered (!?) bike-washing equipment
will be available (and the shop for drying and re-lubing) after the
ride.

East Cleveland Theater presents August Wilson's play "Fences", a story of a former star of the Negro Baseball League who is working as a garbage man in 1957.

The performance and special reception will benefit the Windermere Renaissance Corporation (WR) was chartered as an Ohio non-profit corporation on August 20, 2004. It is sponsored by the Windermere Taskforce/East Cleveland Initiative.

This parent Taskforce had been organized in 2000 by Methodist and civic leadership in order to (1) repair and refurbish Windermere United Methodist Church for religious and community service, (2) to initiate professional family service programs and other services from the church facilities, and (3) to stimulate the physical and social redevelopment of the Windermere neighborhood in East Cleveland.

The Taskforce has raised and spent more than $3,000,000 for physical repairs to the church building and new child-care and family service programs from the church. Rev. Donald Lefelar, who served as Windermere Church pastor from 1974 to 1980, is the chairman of the taskforce. While church refurbishing and program development continue, the Windermere Taskforce decided last summer that it was ready to explore the development of new housing and other facilities in the neighborhood. It organized an independent corporation for this purpose.

You're Invited

Ohio's elected officials need to hear from you.

Please join Environment Ohio staff and many others as we meet with Ohio's legislators to express support for strong renewable energy policies.

Who: Environment Ohio members, renewable energy businesses, academics, landowners, local leaders and concerned citizens who support renewable energy development.

What: Briefing and training on renewable energy policy basics followed by in-person meetings with Ohio legislators.

Why: Ohio's elected leaders are currently making decisions about future energy policies and they need to hear from constituents about the benefits of renewable energy. That's why we are inviting you to join us in Columbus to share your story with Ohio's leaders.

How: Sign-up for Environment Ohio's lobby day at: www.environmentohio.org/action/energy/rsvp?id4=ES

Or, contact Amy Gomberg at 614-460-8732 or agomberg@environmentohio.org

If you are interested in going to this event and live in Cleveland, contact Stefanie Spear to carpool at 216-387-1609 or spear@earthwatchohio.org.

Learn about the Thunderhead Alliance, a North American coalition of state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations working in unison to break down the barriers to safe bicycling and walking in our cities and suburbs. Interim director Dominic Liberatore will talk about the group's Complete the Streets campaign. Part of the environmental town hall brown bag lunch series.

Engage with young leaders in Northeast Ohio including Chris Ronayne and Jose Feliciano on the “State of your 10,000 Little (micro) ideas” and then help create a three-part strategic plan to keep moving the idea initiatives into action.

For more information and to register.

You're Invited

Ohio's elected officials need to hear from you.

Please join Environment Ohio staff and many others as we meet with Ohio's legislators to express support for strong renewable energy policies.

Who: Environment Ohio members, renewable energy businesses, academics, landowners, local leaders and concerned citizens who support renewable energy development.

What: Briefing and training on renewable energy policy basics followed by in-person meetings with Ohio legislators.

Why: Ohio's elected leaders are currently making decisions about future energy policies and they need to hear from constituents about the benefits of renewable energy. That's why we are inviting you to join us in Columbus to share your story with Ohio's leaders.

On Wednesday, join us for Governor Strickland's State of the State Address at noon in the statehouse.

How: Sign-up for Environment Ohio's lobby day at: www.environmentohio.org/action/energy/rsvp?id4=ES

Or, contact Amy Gomberg at 614-460-8732 or agomberg@environmentohio.org

Quarterly meeting of the Greater Cleveland Asthma Coalition Education Committee.

For more information, call Lisa Camardo of the American Lung Association of Ohio at 216-524-5864, ext. 306.

By growing a native garden, Steve and Beth Cagan have turned their Cleveland Heights yard into an explosion of color and diversity. At this month’s Planet Chat, Steve, a professional photographer, will share his native wildflower photographs.

Planet Chat is a Cleveland Museum of Natural History Store program held the first Wednesday of each month to discuss topics concerning conservation, citizen science and the world around us. Stop by between 5 and 7:30 pm. Free with Museum admission.

For more information, please contact Terri Martincic at (216) 231-4600, ext. 3291, or tmartinc@cmnh.org.

CSU Levin College of Urban Affairs Forum with keynote speaker Tom Hicks, Vice President of LEED, U.S. Green Building Council. Hicks joined the U.S. Green Building Council in November 2004 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He oversees the development and implementation of all LEED rating systems.

More Forum information.

As part of the 2008 Year of the Frog campaign, Biodiversity Alliance will present an evening with Panamanian herpetologist, Edgardo Griffith, Director for the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in El Valle de Anton.

For more information contact Cathi Lehn at (216) 707-2826 or clehn@cbgarden.org.

7th annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference on building safe, healthy and livable communities.

Registration information.

Visit Cleveland Public Art on February 7, 2008, from 5:30pm-8:00pm, to view the latest exhibit in our Storefront Installation Series.  Join us as Ryan Jaenke and Paul Rogers exhibit recent works inspired by the urban landscape.  They offer a fantastical tour of hand painted signage, train lines and bygone traditions and respite.  This event is free for all.  Refreshments will be provided.  

Don't miss this month's Midtown Brews event.

Topics will include:

• The proposed AMP-OH's 1,000-megawatt conventional pulverized coal-fired power plant to be built in Meigs County.
• How should CPP diversify its energy portfolio? What role should renewables and energy efficiency play in this make up?
• Is IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) a better technology?
• Is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) a viable solution?

Speakers will include:

• Councilman Matt Zone, City of Cleveland, Ward 17
• Richard Stuebi, BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation and is also the Founder and President of NextWave Energy, Inc.

Join us for lively dialogue and be a part of new networks changing the conversations in Northeast Ohio!

Save money, water, & energy with green building guru, Jim LaRue. This 7-week series will teach you practical ways to adapt your home to be more healthy for you and the environment. Program is FREE. Registration is required. Series runs from Jan. 10 - Feb. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.

This week's topic is, "Ventilation and interior surfaces."

This series is Sold Out! Please follow the series online here.

Help out this all-volunteer program for emergency response plans that will provide assistance, temporary housing, food and basic first aid for all animals during a man made or natural disaster. Volunteers needed for immediate training.

For more information, call 216-661-2292.  

Launch, the group of designers and activists that grew out of last year’s MOCA “Open” exhibit, will hold its inaugural film night. The first film is Orson Welles' F is for Fake. Free and open to the public. Go to www.launchcleveland.com for more.

7th annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference on building safe, healthy and livable communities.

Registration information.

Public forum for the Lake Erie lakewide management plan.

More information. Or contact the Ohio Environmental Council at 614-487-7506.

Monthly meeting of the NOACA Governing Board on regional transportation funding.

Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland’s 31st Annual Luncheon, with guest speakers Sandra Pianalto, president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank, and Kenneth D. Wade, president and CEO of NeighborWorks America.

Ticket information.

Oberlin Entrepreneurship Symposium: Inventing the Future will explore entrepreneurship within the fields of finance, the environment , the arts, and social enterprise, as well as the intersections among market , social, civic, and arts entrepreneurship. The symposium will feature keynote speakers and panelists, and provide opportunities for all participants to meet informally to share their own entrepreneurial ideas and ventures.

Speakers include Jerry GreenField, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, and Michael Alexin, vice president of product design and development for Target.

Free and open to the public.

Symposium schedule here.

Informal gathering of local planners and other placemakers organized by staff of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission.

7th annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference on building safe, healthy and livable communities.

Registration information.

Public forum for the Lake Erie lakewide management plan.

More information. Or contact the Ohio Environmental Council at 614-487-7506.

Oberlin Entrepreneurship Symposium: Inventing the Future will explore entrepreneurship within the fields of finance, the environment , the arts, and social enterprise, as well as the intersections among market , social, civic, and arts entrepreneurship. The symposium will feature keynote speakers and panelists, and provide opportunities for all participants to meet informally to share their own entrepreneurial ideas and ventures.

Speakers include Jerry GreenField, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, and Michael Alexin, vice president of product design and development for Target.

Free and open to the public.

Symposium schedule here.

Hans Clebsch, CMNH Volunteer & Cleveland Orchestra Member

Click here to view our announcement on our website

Potluck dinner and election of officers followed by guest speakers Kathleen Chandler, State Rep. 68th District and Tom Sawyer, State Senator, 28th District. The topic is the Great Lakes Compact and pending environmental legislation by the Ohio General Assembly.

Led by Dr. David Cooperrider and Dr. Ronald Fry, the co-creators of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a proven approach to engaging multiple stakeholders to achieve rapid, dramatic and holistic transformation.

Learn how to incorporate sustainability into your core strategy using AI.

For more information and to register, call 216/368-2030

Led by Dr. David Cooperrider and Dr. Ronald Fry, the co-creators of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a proven approach to engaging multiple stakeholders to achieve rapid, dramatic and holistic transformation.

Learn how to incorporate sustainability into your core strategy using AI.

For more information and to register, call 216/368-2030

Meeting of people interested in developing a more sustainable, local food system in Cuyahoga County.

Location TBA.

RSVP: Morgan Taggart at taggart.32@osu.edu or 216-429-8238.

Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, the controversial authors of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility.

More information and reservations.

The Cleveland Section of the Ohio Planning Conference is offering a distance learning series to OPC members and guests free of charge. This session covers:

Demonstrate how to achieve density through design, as well as how to understand the economics of density. Learn how density works with transportation and ultimately affects sustainability. Examine density’s effects and benefits. Gain ideas on how to present the concept of density to achieve critical buy-in.

Please RSVP to Ann Klavora at ann.klavora@shakeronline.com or 216-491-1436.

An evening with Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals. His primary responsibilities include setting NAE's policy direction on issues before Congress, the White House, and Supreme Court, as well as serving as a national spokesman on issues of concern to evangelicals. He is the author of more than one hundred published articles and editorials, author and editor of The High Cost of Indifference (Regal Books), a contributor to On Christian Freedom (University Press of America), the Dictionary of Christianity in America (Inter-Varsity Press), and the landmark document "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Engagement."

Cizik has led the evangelical Christian movement to recognize the Gospel call to issues of creation care and justice. In a recent statement, Cizik said of his role, "Why? Because they are God's concerns. Thus, I will continue to sound a clear trumpet about the threats to God's creation posed by climate change, habitat destruction, species extinction, pollution and the spread of human infectious diseases. And, I will also continue to speak out about global hunger and climate change, genocide, and all denials of human dignity, such as posed by torture."

Meeting to discuss the reauthorization of the Clean Ohio Fund.

For questions, please contact Bill DeMora of the Ohio League of Conservation Voters at 614-481-0512 or bdemora@ohiolcv.org.

Save money, water, & energy with green building guru, Jim LaRue. This 7-week series will teach you practical ways to adapt your home to be more healthy for you and the environment. Program is FREE. Registration is required. Series runs from Jan. 10 - Feb. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.

This week's topic is, "Electrical service and water usage."

This series is Sold Out! Please follow the series online here.

Explorer Series lecture at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, with Case astonomy professor George Collins on the science of climate change. This will be a very good introduction to the topic -- summarizing the science and debunking the myths.

Ticket information.

29th annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association, the state's largest conference on sustainable food and organic farming.

Registration information.

29th annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association, the state's largest conference on sustainable food and organic farming.

Registration information.

In 2006, vacant and abandoned properties in just eight cities cost Ohio more than $60 million in municipal services and lost tax revenues. But our state and local governments can do more to spur productive use of these blighted properties.

Please join us for a media/policy forum on the release of a groundbreaking new report, "$60 Million and Counting: The Cost of Vacant and Abandoned Properties to Eight Ohio Cities."

Speakers will include experts from ReBuild Ohio and Community Research Partners, state officials, and some of the local leaders from the eight communities in the study:

• Cleveland (Detroit Shoreway, Mount Pleasant and Slavic Village neighborhoods)
• Columbus (Franklinton, Livingston-Driving Park and North Linden neighborhoods)
• Dayton
• Ironton
• Lima
• Springfield
• Toledo
• Zanesville

RSVP to John Williams at Greater Ohio at jwilliams@greaterohio.org or 614-258-6200.

Monthly sustainable business networking night of Entrepreneurs for Sustainability. This month's topic: Emerging urban farming opportunities.

The 2008 Annual Meeting of Cleveland Peace Action and the Cleveland Peace Action Education Fund, including a 50th Anniversary Celebration of Peace Action.

Potluck dinner at 6 p.m. and the annual meeting convenes at 7 p.m.

Keynote speaker is Joan Southgate.

Cleveland Peace Action/Education Fund members will be electing board members for both organizations. They will also be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Peace Action (nee SANE and Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign), including the recognition of many dedicated Cleveland peace activists.

Rally to encourage Cleveland City Council to reconsider the
AMP-OH Contract concerning the proposed 960-megawatt
conventional pulverized coal-fired power plant that would
be built in Meigs County near the Ohio River.

Come meet Elisa Young, founder of Meigs CAN (Citizen Action
Now) and resident of Meigs County and hear the community
perspective regarding this proposed coal plant.

For more information on this event contact Stefanie Spear at 216-387-1609 or spear@earthwatchohio.org. Visit www.earthwatchohio.org to click on a link to our
petition site or visit the Ohio Citizen Action website at www.ohiocitizen.org for additional information on the AMP-OH contract issue.

For updated and ongoing information concerning Meigs County, contact Elisa Young at 740-416-2694 or elisa1@yahoo.co

Save money, water, & energy with green building guru, Jim LaRue. This 7-week series will teach you practical ways to adapt your home to be more healthy for you and the environment. Program is FREE. Registration is required. Series runs from Jan. 10 - Feb. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.

This week's topic is, "Residential maintenance."

This series is Sold Out! Please follow the series online here.

• Why does Cleveland Heights need an increase in the City Income Tax (from 2.0% to 2.4%) which it's placing on the March 4, 2008 ballot?
• Why is the library asking for a new levy?

Come get answers and share your thoughts with members of Cleveland Heights City Council and the Library officials.

Bring your questions. Bring your neighbors and friends.

Co-sponsored by the Heights League Of Women Voters and FutureHeights.

Do you have a question you would like to pose to the City about the levy? What information do you need to cast an informed vote on this issue? Submit your questions (Elected officials are providing answers to the need to raise the income tax here.)

Cleveland City Council will hear testimony about Cleveland Public Power's agreement with AMP-OH to buy power from a proposed coal-fired power plant in southwestern Ohio. It is estimated the plant will emit 7.3 million tons of carbon annually.

Kenneth Reardon, Ph.D., Associate Professor in City and Regional Planning at Cornell University discusses a successful model for participatory planning and rebuilding in New Orleans' 9th Ward that resulted in the allocation of $145 million in available federal funds.

Free and open to the public, bring your own lunch!

To register, call 216-523-7330 or online at Rebuilding New Orleans.

Weekend Permaculture Design Course
in Columbus, Ohio

“Help green the city and prepare for climate change. Build networks of support and empower yourself with the skills of ecological design as we search for the roots of permanent culture”

Dates: February 22-24, Feb. 29-March 2, March 14-16, 28-30, April 11-13, 2008

Location: Columbus, OH

Description: Over five weekends on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, we will present the permaculture design curriculum with special emphasis on urban applications, strategies for changing climate and building local networks of support. The class will implement at least one of the design projects by rehabilitating an old orchard as a forest garden on the 40-acre campus of the United Methodist Children’s Home in Worthington; helping to move this historic institution back to its agricultural roots and forward to a second century of sustainability. The course is co-sponsored by Simply Living Columbus, and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, and UMCH. Some work-trade scholarships will be available.

Instructors: Peter Bane, Rhonda Baird and guests.

Cost: $895 including weekend lunches and course materials, $150 deposit required.

Contact: Peter Bane
812-335-0383
Association for Regenerative Culture
P O Box 5516
Bloomington, IN 47407
pcactivist@mindspring.com

What is Permaculture?
Consciously designed landscapes, which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fiber, and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings, and the way in which they organize themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture has evolved to one of permanent culture.

For more information on permaculture: www.permacultureactivist.net

The green party of the year!

"eMerge: A celebration" will remember 15 years of EcoCity Cleveland's efforts to make Cleveland a green city on a blue lake, celebrate the merger of EcoCity Cleveland with The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and help launch the new Center for Regional Sustainability at the Museum.  Everyone in the sustainability community will be there!

The party will include heavy hors d’oeuvres made with organic and locally sourced ingredients, cash bar featuring organic wine selections, a Great Lakes Brewing Company beer-tasting and live entertainment by Abby Normal, a very cool local band. You will also be able to learn more about the Museum's exciting vision for telling the story of life on earth and how humanity can respond to the challenges of the 21st century.

Tickets: $35 for Museum/EcoCity members, $45 nonmembers. Party plus private reception at 7 p.m. with EcoCity's David Beach and the Museum's Executive Director Dr. Bruce Latimer: $100.

See the invitation here. To reserve tickets online go here, or call 216-231-1177.

All proceeds benefit the Museum's Center for Regional Sustainability, which will carry on the work of EcoCity Cleveland.

Event sponsored by Ohio's Tomorrow