Location

Cleveland State University and Bioneers Cleveland present Green Advantage: Sustainability and Vision

The full-day conference will include opportunities to view exciting national Bioneers speakers via DVD and to hear innovative leaders from CSU and Northeast Ohio who are making the region more sustainable. The whole community is invited to join CSU students in a day filled with learning and fun. National speakers: Gloria Steinem, Philippe Cousteau, Anim Steele, Natalie Greene and Dayna Baumeister. Local keynote by CSU alum Erin Huber of Drink Local, Drink Tap.

www.bioneerscleveland.org

Location

The annual noncompetitive bicycle ride, Ride for Miles, raises funds for the John Carroll University Biology Department's Miles Coburn Environmental Symposium. This project continues Miles’ work of educating students and the community about the urgency of environmental activism.

Event Schedule:
Check in and pick up shirts 9:00 a.m.- 9:45 a.m. at John Carroll University
Group picture 10:00 a.m.
Start of ride 10:10 a.m.
After-ride celebration 11:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m.

Register here.

Location

Register at http://energystar.webex.com

Session Information: Team Up with ENERGY STAR to Save Energy, Save
Money, and Protect the Environment

Session date:  Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Starting time:  1:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time
Duration:  1 hour 45 minutes
Presenters:  Lauren Senchack

Description:  This webinar will introduce you to the ENERGY STAR program
and how it can help stadiums and arenas. Become a leader in energy
efficiency by discovering all the free ENERGY STAR tools that you can
use to measure, assess, and improve your energy performance. Find out
where to go for technical know-how, to calculate the financial value of
energy efficiency improvements and to estimate their impact on profit
margins.

Establish a green reputation by leveraging the ENERGY STAR brand,
recognized and trusted by 80% of your fans. You'll learn all this and
more, and be ready to start tracking your own venue's energy use and
discovering opportunities for savings.

Location

A workshop to build local and regional climate planning capacity in the Great Lakes Who Should Attend: Planners and other professionals addressing land use, public health, stormwater, emergency preparedness, and natural resource management issues

Workshop includes:

*Climate change impacts in the Great Lakes region
*Economic benefits of climate planning
*Planning processes and strategies
*Tools, data, and resources
*Regional examples of climate planning
*Stakeholder engagement strategies
*Strategies for incorporating resilience into current planning initiatives

Climate change is already impacting the US Midwest with higher average temperatures, more frequent heavy downpours, decreased Great Lakes ice cover, and more frequent heat waves. The Great Lakes region will likely face the greatest adaptation challenges along coasts and waterways, as this is where many significant economic and ecological impacts will occur as a result of a changing climate. By factoring a changing climate into planning decisions today, communities and agencies can avoid future costs.

This workshop was originally developed by the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) System through its Coastal Training Program with funding from the NOAA Coastal Service Center. The Ohio Coastal Training Program at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve have collaborated with other regional partners to customize this workshop curriculum to address Great Lakes issues and the needs of planners and other professionals addressing land use, public health, stormwater, emergency preparedness, and natural resource management issues across the region.

To learn more or to register, please visit http://nerrs.noaa.gov/CTPIndex.aspx?ID=663.

Northeast Ohio’s first passive house, the PNC SmartHome, opened today. Built to respond to the concerns in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s upcoming “Climate Change” exhibit, the 2,500 square foot, 3-bedroom, 2 ½ bath home assembles some of the world’s greenest technological advancements and packages it in a super-insulated shell.

More than the sum of its parts, the SmartHome represents decades of green building wisdom passed down through generations and honed in the craft of builders like Jim LaRue and architects Bill Doty and Chuck Miller, the latter intimately involved piecing together the SmartHome's systems, but also reaching back to the 1970s passive solar homes which offered simple design lessons like orientation to maximize the sun’s energy.

It’s an impressive milestone for the region, surpassing even the wildest dreams of the visionaries who started exploring ‘green’ homes here 30 years ago, says LaRue of Shaker Heights who is widely considered the ‘godfather’ of green building.

“Biophilic design” leader and Yale professor Stephen Kellert previewed his Explorer Series presentation tonight at the Natural History Museum. He explains biophilia as the accumulated experience of mankind that we often unknowingly express when we make choices. We all have characteristics of an inherent oneness with nature, and it can be enhanced—particularly in children—even though we have many distractions in our technological age, Kellert said.

“Kids today spend less than forty minutes a week outdoors. The generation before spent four hours a week. But, the more we engage with the world beyond us, the more it shapes us to appreciate it.”

Like Richard Louv who coined the phrase ‘nature deficit disorder’, Kellert explains that we cannot escape our “biologicial tendencies, even if they are weak, to make connections” to the natural world. Even if we don’t all immediately start working and living outdoors (or discount the rainiest spring on record) there are numerous ways we can remind ourselves of the power of those connections. To illustrate how biophilia bubbles up, Kellert ran his hand over the smooth wood table in the museum’s conference room, stating, “this is close to nature. The wood grains remind us that it responded to different micro conditions. Or it's in buildings that use forms more reminiscent of natural systems,” he adds, pointing across campus at the Frank Gehry-designed Weatherhead building.

Location

A documentary about making green by being green -even if you don't believe in climate change.

A special screening of Carbon Nation, a climate change solutions movie, is being sponsored by the Boler School of Business at John Carroll University. This event is free and open to the public. Carbon Nation is in theaters February, 2011, join the MBA's at the Boler School of Business for the only showing in the area.

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE:
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198978156784196

MOVIE TRAILER AND MORE INFO:
http://www.carbonnationmovie.com

Location

Park Synagogue & AJC Cleveland present
OHIO'S GREEN ENERGY FUTURE

Coffee at 6:45 pm
Panel Discussion 7:00-9:00 pm

While Ohio is more dependent on fossil fuels than most other parts of the world, there are a variety of exciting initiatives underway to develop alternative sources of energy---not only for supplying our needs without so many negative side-effects, but also to serve as a new engine for economic growth and industrial activity.

Come hear what our region's leading experts have to say about the future of Ohio's use of wind, sun, biomass, and other sources of green energy.

Moderator:
Richard Stuebi, Fellow for Energy & Environmental Advancement, The Cleveland Foundation

Panelists:
Stephen Kiel, CEO, Ohio Cooperative Solar
Jon Ratner, Vice President of Sustainability, Forest City Enterprises
Dr. Lorry Wagner, President, Lake Eric Energy Development Co. (LEEDCO)

Free and open to the community.

RSVP's requested to Ellen Petler at epetler@parksyn.org or 216-371-2244 ext. 122.

This Go Green in February program is co-sponsored by Park Synagogue's Social Action Committee and the American Jewish Committee, Cleveland.