• Part-time farmer and head of Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, Bruce Boyd writes about the economic impact of developing a system for local food, which is lacking in most Midwest farming states. Ohio can learn from Illinois which recently passed a Food, Farms, and Jobs Act, which provides a framework for developing infrastructure for processing, storing, and distributing locally grown foods; preserving farmland, especially on the urban fringe; retraining farmers to meet the growing demand for organic food; and establishing farmers’ markets in Chicago neighborhoods to bring healthier food choices to these communities.

  Read Boyd’s suggestions for creating a local food system.

• The first certified "green" restaurant in Ohio—the GreenHouse Tavern—is looking for artwork made of recycled/reused material by local artists. They will be opening in the winter of 2008 on East 4th street, in downtown Cleveland. For more information, contact Everest Curley at everestcurley@gmail.com
• Is eating less beef the best thing you do for the environment? According to a 2006 UN report, globally, greenhouse gas emissions from all livestock operations account for 18% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, exceeding those from the transportation sector.
• Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has called for restoring passenger train service along the 3-C Corridor (Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati). The Ohio Environmental Council wants you to let Governor Strickland and your Representative and Senators in Washington D.C. know here that you support restoration of train service along Ohio's 3-C Corridor.

Biking can play a role in reducing our carbon footprint and improve our health, but safe roads are very much on our mind this week. Tragically, Miles Coburn, an experienced cyclist who taught biology at John Carroll, was struck and killed by an SUV while riding his bike in Newbury Township on Saturday.

Coburn's brother, Chris, said their 86-year-old father had biked to work and turned his sons into cyclists and environmentalists.

It gave the Coburn brothers the opportunity to reflect and see the environment from a different perspective, Chris Coburn said. "It's a family vocation for all of us."

Miles Coburn, of Cleveland Heights, is survived by his wife, Peggy Spaeth, who is the Heights Arts executive director, and two children, a son, Kevin, at Ohio State University, and a daughter, Rosey, at home.

We mourn for this loss and are reminded of the words of Eleanor McMahon whose husband was killed by a recklessly operated car while riding his bicycle. McMahon opened the 2008 Cleveland Bike Week with a presentation about the importance of enforcing safety laws in her native Ontario, Canada in order to cut down on fatal accidents on the road.

McMahon quoted Gregg Easterbrook of the Brookings Institute who famously said, “Why are we so worried about terrorism when the real concern is the 245,000 Americans who have died because of one specific threat (traffic accidents) since 9/11, and no one seems to care...”

Society has grown complacent and accepted that level of collisions and fatalities, McMahon said.

What should Cleveland do to make its 3,300 acres of vacant land more desirable?

The Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and Neighborhood Progress, Inc. are engaged in an innovative planning process to help the city answer that question. They are finding a course of action that could turn former heavily urbanized areas of the city into farms, gardens or natural areas that one day might supply local food, absorb rain water, produce renewable energy and employ city residents.

Ultimately, they hope to figure out where and how to best restore ecological function and create new value in land that was long ago written off as damaged beyond repair.

Read more.

• More than 150 manufacturers met at last week’s Great Lakes Institute for Energy Innovation at Case to learn about new business opportunities in the expanding wind supply chain market in Ohio. At this first of five regional wind supply chain workshops, WIRE-Net's Great Lakes Wind Network explained global trends driving market demand for key components in an already sold-out supply chain.

  In 2008 WIRE-Net and the Ohio Department of Development began working on a $1.3 million project to create a comprehensive plan to identify, expand, and promote Ohio's robust wind energy supply chain.

  To learn more about this effort and upcoming wind supply chain workshops, click here.

• In a recent survey by national transportation reform groups (designed by Collective Strength and conducted by Harris Interactive), Americans clearly indicated that we should be spending more transportation dollars on active transportation facilities.

  Help Ohio set a reform agenda on its priorities for transportation and land-use in order to build a more sustainable society.

  
  

We know that one-third of the carbon emissions in the U.S. come from the end of a car, SUV or truck tailpipe. We know that any plan to reduce our carbon footprint must include a shift from using personal vehicles to alternatives like bus, train, biking and walking. One of the tasks of the GreenCityBlueLake Institute Climate Change project is figuring Northeast Ohio’s carbon reduction goals and how much change in our transportation habits we need to make to contribute to that goal.

When we think of a healthier balance of transportation, we often look to Europe with its dense, walkable cities, web of rail lines and families biking everywhere together. But, a comparison of Europe vs. America’s 'mode splits' between cars and cleaner forms of transportation may surprise and even serve to modify our expectations of how many car trips we need to reduce to be among the world's leaders.

From 1996 to 2006, passenger car trips grew at a much faster clip than trips by rail, bus or motorbike in 27 European Union nations, according to a report (418 KB pdf) from the European Commission. In Germany, 83.9% of trips are made by car, 6.4% by bus and 1.5% by urban rail (France is 83.9% car, 5.2% bus and 1.5% metro/urban rail).

In Europe, 4.602 billion passenger kilometer miles by car were logged in 2005 compared to 7.253 billion in the United States. More than half a billion passenger miles (or 9% of all trips) came by bus in Europe vs. a quarter of a billion miles by bus in the U.S.

• Cleveland’s green jobs potential
  The movement to make American cities more sustainable, efficient and livable may be the greatest new engine for urban economic growth, innovation and job creation in many decades, Leo Russo, director of Tri-C’s Green Academy, writes in the current EarthWatch Ohio. Cleveland stands to realize the promise with a “green jobs” project at the Green Academy and Center for Sustainability at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C).” Read more.
• Art museum deserves time to pause and consider
  Now that Cleveland Museum of Art is almost midway through its major renovation, it’s time for the museum to pause and reexamine if its original intentions from 1999 still sit with the realities of 2008, historic preservation professional Steve McQuillin writes in CoolCleveland. For example, the proposed glass atrium not only “preempts…one of University Circle’s finest spots”—the summer courtyard with its mature trees and café tables—but it “might not be the most responsible solution in an age of renewed concern for energy conservation.” Read more.
• Massachusetts Governor Patrick’s ZNEB Task Force is moving at full force
  
  

RTA is holding hearings this week on how to address its budget crisis. The transit agency is considering cutting routes—including all of its community circulators—and raising rates ($1-2 on daily passes; $3 on five-ride passes; and $20 for monthly passes). They explain the causes and what you can do to help:

At a time when more and more commuters in Northeast Ohio are turning to transit for shelter from high gas prices, these same high fuel prices are also causing RTA to face a budget crisis of its own. Over the last five years, RTA’s fuel costs are up 400 percent, while state funding for transit is down by 63 percent. Between 2007 and 2008 alone, the cost of diesel fuel for RTA buses will nearly double. And while ridership has steadily increased, the fares paid by riders cover only 20 percent of RTA’s total expenses.

RTA is not alone in this battle with surging oil prices. Transit authorities across the country are being forced to make tough decisions, with many forced to make drastic service cuts. In Ohio alone, service was cut by 50% in Youngstown, 32% in Akron, and 17% in Dayton, with possibly more cuts to come.

If you value public transportation, your voice is needed. Let the Governor, your state representative, and your state senator know that you believe the State of Ohio should provide more financial support for public transportation. Also, contact your U.S. congressional representative and Senators and ask them to support additional funding for public transportation. The goal is to keep transit affordable for all and minimize further service cuts.

Go to www.jointheride.com to help save your ride.

Go here to see the dates and times of RTA’s hearings.

European countries excel at bicycling thanks to strong policies, lots of investment, and a real commitment to replace cars with bikes, John Pucher and Ralph Bueler of Rutgers University explain in a new report.

Berlin alone has built up a huge bike network with hundreds of miles of bike lanes, paths and even shortcuts tailored exclusively to cyclists.

How does Cleveland compare to the world’s best bicycling cities?

Find out here.

GCBL just completed a major overhaul of our section covering University Initiatives. In addition to a comprehensive climate neutrality toolkit and a best practices list, nearly every university in our seven-county region has a page summarizing their campus sustainability initiatives.

The vast majority of campuses in the area are increasing efficiency of buildings in order to save money on heating and cooling while decreasing their carbon footprint. Public colleges in particular are being required to lower building energy consumption by 20% by 2014 because of House Bill 251 signed by Governor Ted Strickland in January of 2007.

We have also found that the campuses with the strongest programs are those that solicit input from students, faculty, and staff, usually in the form of an Environmental Committee. The people that live and work on campus every day know a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of their institution and are in an important position to contribute ideas to make their campus more sustainable.

• With Americans driving less for the seventh straight month, less gas tax (18.3-cents on every gallon purchased) for highway building is flowing in. Transportation secretary, Mary E. Peters, thinks the short-term solution would be for the Highway Trust Fund’s highway account to borrow money from the fund’s (2.86 cents per gallon) mass transit account.

  The expectation is more transit riders will bring the account in balance, at the same time funds to attract new transit riders are being gutted. Isn't it about time we considered a sustainable transportation plan?

• Because of the wild success of the Velib’ bike-sharing program in Paris (it inspired Washington, D.C. to launch a bike share program and Montreal is considering one as well), the City of Light is now planning a car sharing service that would operate 4,000 electric cars.

  (Thanks to locally-owned company called CityWheels—Cleveland and Oberlin have had car sharing service since February 2006).

• The Cleveland Public Library is featuring Cleveland rail history on its web site today. It includes tidbits like how many men worked on the various rail systems in the city in 1915 (4,465). Also, learn about famous Clevelander Amasa Stone’s connection to rail. If you look closely, you can see a picture of the B&O rail terminal– the yellow brick building still in the Flats just below the new Federal Courthouse—before fire destroyed its clock tower and mansard roof.