For the second year in a row, the Cincinnati metro area is ranked as the most sustainable metro area in the nation by Site Selection magazine.
The magazine examined corporate sustainability practices, characteristics of the commercial building stock, and community efforts that positively affect the environment and residents, a news release said.
Green Umbrella, a locally-based sustainability alliance, said in a news release that it wants to see Cincinnati maintain the top rating for years to come. The organization is leading the development of the Cincinnati 2030 District.
2030 Districts - a national model for urban sustainability - are made up of property owners who make a collective commitment to reduce their building’s energy use, water consumption, and transportation emissions by 50 percent by the year 2030.
The Cincinnati 2030 District will be a high-performance building district in downtown Cincinnati that aims to dramatically reduce environmental impacts of building construction and operations through education and collaboration across every sector of the built environment. The City of Cincinnati’s Green Cincinnati Plan ranks the creation of a 2030 District as one of the largest opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city’s built environment.
“The Cincinnati metro region is taking its national leadership role very seriously by creating a fourth category of 2030 goals centered on health and wellness in the built environment. Once created, we encourage all the remaining twenty 2030 Districts to include their own region-specific health related goal,” said Chad Edwards, founding member of the 2030 Working Group and architect at emersion DESIGN. “These shared goals of energy, water, transportation and health will help attract and retain top talent, advance us toward achieving shared goals and help each member save money in the process. It is a triple bottom line - people, planet, profit - win.”
There are 20 active 2030 Districts in the US, with Cincinnati seeking to become the 21st. The next step in forming the Cincinnati 2030 District is getting commitments from founding members who are ready to use their property to advance bold sustainability goals.
“The Cincinnati 2030 District is an opportunity for the region’s corporations to translate their impressive social responsibility initiatives into the way they design and use their buildings,” says Ryan Mooney-Bullock, executive director of Green Umbrella. “By working collectively, we continue to build the case that Cincinnati is a place where talented professionals want to work and innovative companies want to locate.”
Filmmakers from Newsy are documenting the process of getting the Cincinnati 2030 District off the ground. You can view the trailer online.
-Staff report
