Working Groups

Every year leading up to 2019, Cleveland will focus on one of the key areas fundamental to a sustainable economy. The SC2019 Celebration Points are designed to be accessible to all members of the community- households, neighborhoods, businesses, and institutions can all participate, either collaboratively or independently. Listed below are the various celebration points and their associated working groups. Additional information regarding SC2019 celebration points and working groups, can be found here.

Celebration Points and Associated Working Groups:

2011- Energy Efficiency -more
2012- Local Food -more
2013- Advanced Energy and Renewable Resources -more
2014- Zero Waste -more
2015- Sustainable Water -more
2016- Sustainable Transportation -more
2017- Clean Green Spaces -more
2018- Vital Neighborhoods -more
Cross-Cutting Groups -more

SC2019 2011: Energy Efficiency

Energy Efficiency Celebration Committee
Mission: By starting with collaboration, our focus is to create a common energy efficiency vision that is regional, using communication to educate and engage individuals, firms and institutions about what is at stake around the energy efficiency challenge.

Green Building
Mission: Promote green building through stringent energy codes and benchmarks, education and awareness, incentives and retrofitting thereby creating new jobs.

Green Dots
Mission: Inspire, empower and train citizens on how to save money and how to make money in energy efficiency. 
 
Sustainable Design, Materials and Manufacturing
Mission: We aspire to be sustainable manufacturing in motion. Northeast Ohio will be the leading global source and model for sustainable design, products, energy efficiency, processes, production and organization.

SC2019 2012: Local Food

John Hay High School- Fresh Food In School
Mission: John Hay High Schools E-Club and supporters have a community garden that provides food and puts it in the school cafeteria. We educate our peers on the benefits of local healthy food. We support this initiative through education, our community garden and local partnerships.

Local Foods (consisting of Growhio, Community Kitchen Incubator Project and 10,000 Farmers sub groups)
Mission: Urban Agriculture/Local Food can help Northeastern Ohio eliminate food deserts and malnutrition and improve the quality of life. The cities of Cleveland and Youngstown are each sitting on 3,300 acres of vacant land that could be producing over $600* million in fruits and vegetables per year by 2019 while creating as many as 25 to 30 thousand* meaningful jobs in an urban environment.

Long-term Agriculture
Mission: The City’s master plan incorporates agricultural uses and targets areas for these uses. Vacant land is inventoried to test for contamination and feasibility. A land trust is established to take title and oversee access for generations of farmers.

Sustainable Micro-Enterprise
Mission: We will establish model sustainable agriculture microenterprise applicable to urban, suburban, and rural sites that can be replicated across Northeast Ohio.

Year-round Local Food
Mission: By 2019, there will be five million square feet of new controlled environment agriculture in Northeast Ohio using sustainable best practices for food production.

SC2019 2013: Advanced Energy and Renewable Resources

Advanced Energy Generation
Mission: We are focusing on the best that Cleveland has to offer in order to develop a Center of Excellence for Clean Energy Production and Research.

Laboratories for Advance Energy Commercialization
Mission: With the Laboratories for Advanced Energy Commercialization, we are providing a “one-stop shop” for information on advanced energy commercialization efforts in Northeast Ohio. This online gateway includes information on activities among industry, academia & government, as well as incubator/business start-up entities, to foster NEO’s position as a global leader in advanced energy technology commercialization.

Net Zero Energy Buildings
Mission: Our aspiration is that Net Zero Energy buildings flourish in Northeast Ohio. Building owners take on the challenge to build net zero spaces to demonstrate that it is affordable and achievable in NEOhio. A repeatable design template for net energy buildings is created. Excess energy from the buildings is shared with neighbors to eliminate energy waste.

Zero Emissions Energy Initiative
Mission: Generate 119MW of zero emission energy from existing or new industrial plants in Northeast Ohio by 2019.

SC2019 2014: Zero Waste

Art Mart
Mission: “ArtMart” is a community-based destination where all Clevelanders can come together to craft and have fun while being creative. We repurpose materials that have been diverted from landfills. Come to ArtMart to create art, attend classes, connect with friendly educators, buy amazing art and earn a certificate in Arts and Trashology.

Cleveland Composters
Mission: Use social media networking to build an enthusiastic community of residential composters in order to transform yard and kitchen waste into fertile soil.

Construction and Demolition
Mission: An infrastructure developed to support an economically viable recycling and reuse market for construction and demolition materials for the building industry.

Zero Waste
Mission: We have thousands of zero waste organizations by 2019. Residencies and businesses divert more than 65% of their waste from the landfill; businesses inspire other companies to shift their cultures so that zero waste is incorporated into business plans; what gets measured is managed and so incorporated into the business plans, gold self-rating system for companies to improve and grow in their journey to zero waste.

SC 2019 2015: Sustainable Water

Sustainable Water
Mission: Reconnect communities with local drinking water and the Great Lakes. We will:

• Update the public on the “state of the water” report, marking progress from 2010-2015.
• Educate the public via an asset map of the region’s waterways, access and uses
• Evaluate water quality via monitoring data center and assessment tools
• Celebrate cleanup of targeted areas (Euclid Beach, removed dams) one big overall Stream Day, 1 big beach party, and yearlong programs and campaigns
• Showcase businesses built around water conservation, harvesting, quality and stewardship showing that fresh water restoration and protection can be an economic development engine.
• Bottle-free conventions and businesses, constant cleanups, water themes across arts and culture institutions, marketing and merchandizing

2016- Sustainable Transportation

Sustainable Transportation Action Team (STAT)
Mission: To inspire and galvanize community support and investment in actions that create a sustainable transportation system.

SC2019 2017- Clean Green Spaces

Living Classroom
Mission:  We promote environmental stewardship, increased knowledge of the arts and sciences and develop community involvement by transforming vacant lots near schools and libraries into living classrooms where people can experience functioning natural ecosystems.

Vacant Land Reutilization
Mission: The goal of this group is to envision sustainable land-use on a city and regional scale. The group will assist Re-Imagining Cleveland moves into implementation. It may address ways to connect vacant land that moves beyond isolated or parcel-by-parcel solutions. Outcomes might include a better balance between open space and the built environment.

SC2019 2018: Vital Neighborhoods

Collaborative Campus
Mission: To develop a plan for green schools as community centers.

Sustainable Entrepreneurship Creating Urban Revitalization (SECUR)
Mission: To develop SECUR (Social Entrepreneurship Creating Urban Revitalization), an online platform connecting citizens interested in investing in Cleveland to opportunities to invest in socially and environmentally responsible Cleveland businesses.

Vital Neighborhoods
Mission:  We cultivate our sustainable neighborhoods like gardens deeply rooted in our heritage, where people grow up healthy and they get what they need to be happy, well educated and fully employed. Our beautiful neighborhood environments are desirable places to live, play, shop, worship, have fun, access culture, attend local schools, do business and meet formally and informally.

This is a result of leadership opportunities that were cultivated from neighborhood centers and institutions by establishing connections that leverage existing assets. Our streets are safe, walkable, bikable and inviting. Neighborhood residents are engaged, empowered, enlightened, resilient and self-reliant. We have full-life-cycle, vibrant neighborhoods of choice that welcome and celebrate diversity of all kinds.

Cross-Cutting Groups

Communications Resource Group
Mission: SC2019 Communications Resource Group captures and distills the sustainability narrative of the Northeast Ohio region. We have created the tools and the environment to promote compelling stories that inspire action and urgency among a diverse population.

Engage 1.6 Million
Mission: Create a campaign that engages the entire region (individuals, families, schools, businesses and others) in creating a green city on a blue lake, through common messaging, one-on-one interactions, social networking, the education system and community organizing.

Healthy Connections
Mission: Greater Cleveland is a place that all citizens can thrive. Health is central to all the work in Sustainable Cleveland 2019 and should be addressed by all the work we do. Clean air, safe, vibrant communities, economic vitality, health access, health literacy, successful school systems all support the 70% of health determinants that are upstream of the healthcare provider system.

Institutional Partnerships
Mission: Have established partnerships with a broad range of institutions in and beyond Cleveland proper, who are enthusiastically participating in Sustainable Cleveland 2019.

Public Compact
Mission: To draft "The Cleveland Commitment: A Promise for Our Region’s Sustainable Future". This pledge can be read and signed by individuals, businesses and groups.

Social Compact
Mission: Foster formal and informal connections built on trust, open-mindedness and transparent communications to create continuous (as opposed to episodic) community engagement on SC2019 and other issues that matter to our region; and to establish a framework for personal sustainability.

Sustainable Businesses and Business Incubation
Mission: To support, educate and foster the growth of sustainable businesses by leveraging existing assets and adding new values.

Youth/Next Generation
Mission: Youth are emerging as the next generation of sustainability