Source: NKY Tribune

Green Umbrella to become one of nation’s largest climate collaboratives — on 25th anniversary

Green Umbrella has announced their expansion to become one of the largest Climate Collaboratives in the United States.

The announcement was made at their Annual Meeting at the University of Cincinnati’s Digital Futures building as part of Green Umbrella’s 25th anniversary celebration.

Formerly a Regional Sustainability Alliance, this transition into a Regional Climate Collaborative will allow Green Umbrella to expand their reach and increase benefits exclusive to members. While their mission will continue to reflect the sustainability and resilience work they have done in the community over the past 25 years, this launch will help Green Umbrella increase the impact of this work across the region.

A Regional Climate Collaborative is a network of businesses, organizations, and governments working across jurisdictional boundaries to take decisive action in the face of climate change. Examples include the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact, and Greenest Region Compact.

What this means for Green Umbrella:

Expanding Reach: Over 300,000 people in Greater Cincinnati are currently covered by a climate plan. Transition to the Climate Collaborative model will allow Green Umbrella to expand that coverage to the 2.2 million people across the region.

Hiring 6 New Staff Members: To facilitate this expansion, Green Umbrella has hired 6 new staff members in the last 3 months, filling roles including Regional Climate Collaborative Manager, Director of Development & Marketing, and Greenspace Alliance Manager.

Expanding Member Benefits: As part of the launch, Green Umbrella is adding considerable new member benefits and resources, including capacity-building workshops and collaboration on significant funding opportunities.

Launching Updated Membership Portal: Local governments, schools, businesses, and nonprofits will benefit from access to an updated membership portal that includes an improved membership directory to increase collaboration opportunities, an easy-to-navigate member events calendar, and the ever popular Green Jobs Board.

Benefits to the region:

• Attract and maximize federal funding opportunities
• Improved cross-sector collaboration and capacity building
• Ongoing funding and technical assistance tracking
• Improved access to climate preparedness resources

Green Umbrella

Source: WVXU

Green Umbrella is expanding to become a Regional Climate Collaborative

Green Umbrella is expanding its services and the number of people and communities it reaches through its efforts to address climate change.

The organization launched a regional climate collaborative last year as a singular program. Now, the group is making it the overall structure.

“We’ve realized since then — through starting to provide some of the programming and recruiting members — that it had the potential to be much more than just one program of Green Umbrella,” says Ryan Mooney-Bullock, executive director. “It made more sense as an overarching structure for the entire organization. Through this shift, we are connecting all of the programs that we have within Green Umbrella, which cover a wide variety of issues, into the regional climate collaborative.”

RELATED: New Green Umbrella collaborative seeks to bring the Tri-State together on climate solutions

That means, she explains, members have access to everything Green Umbrella provides such as climate action work, food policy and food equity efforts, buildings and energy resources, public orcharding, green school yards and more.

Green Umbrella says the expansion makes it one of the largest regional climate collaboratives in the country.

The group serves a 10-county area — Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties in Ohio; Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties in Kentucky; and Dearborn and Franklin counties in Indiana — but will also now offer its Sustainability Playbook for Greater Cincinnati to an additional five counties: Brown County in Ohio; Bracken, Gallatin and Pendleton counties in Kentucky; and Ohio County in Indiana.

RELATED: Climate change planners often leave communities of color out of conversations. A Cincinnati group is changing that

That playbook has funding from the U.S. EPA which uses the 15-county metropolitan statistical area.

“The EPA region is 15 counties, which covers about 3 million people. Green Umbrella’s historic service area is 10 counties within that, which is about 2.2 million people,” Mooney-Bullock explains. “So we will provide additional support and capacity building and lots of other things within that 10 county region, but the plan itself covers that larger area.”

The Sustainability Playbook is described as “a recommended strategy to mitigate climate impacts, increase resilience, and improve the health and equity of 15 regional counties.”

Source: WCPO 9

Winton Woods encourages campers to compost

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP — Good stewards of the outdoors know that what you pack in — you need to pack out. This season, Winton Woods wants visitors to take that tenet to the next level, encouraging campers to compost.

“Campers, you know, you’re cooking breakfast, you’ve got egg shells. I’ve seen pineapple,” said Stephanie Bacher, sustainability coordinator for Great Parks of Hamilton County. “We’re happy to be able to collect that stuff for compost now. One of our main goals and values here is to be a conservation leader in the area.”

This season, Bacher brought-in a local food scrap collection service to keep organic material from ending up in the trash.

Julia Marchese is the co-founder of Queen City Commons.

“We’ve already got a dumpster over here and recycling over here. It only made sense to add the composting as an option,” she said.

Marchese says just about everything she knows about composting is from the ground up.

“Everything I’ve learned about composting and environmental studies and food policy and food systems and agriculture has all just been learning by doing,” she said.

Composting is a natural process, happening all around us.

“If you imagine leaves falling from the trees, and those are decomposing into the grass and adding nutrients into the ground. It’s essentially leaving organic matter out of the landfill and feeding it back to the earth,” she said.

The process at Winton Woods is simple and begins with a bucket.

“It’s small. It’s just a couple gallons. Folks can opt-in to get a compost bucket when they arrive at the campground,” she said.

Once a week, Queen City Commons collects the contents from the campground, partnering with several farms around the city.

“We provide them with food scraps, they then have the material to create their own compost to amend their soils and grow high quality produce,” she said.

A full circle process that’s both sustainable and satisfying.

“It’s extremely satisfying. I think that people are wanting to make the world a better place,” she said.

Source: Newswise

Ohio’s droughts are worse than often recognized, study finds

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new type of analysis suggests that droughts in Ohio were more severe from 2000 to 2019 than standard measurements have suggested.

Researchers at The Ohio State University developed impacts-based thresholds for drought in Ohio, looking specifically at how corn yield and streamflow were affected by various drought indicators, such as notable changes in soil moisture, crops, and even livestock losses in the state.

The results suggest this impacts-based approach could give Ohio farmers earlier and more accurate notice when drought conditions are approaching, said Steven Quiring, co-author of the study and a professor of geography at Ohio State.

“We want to better understand what steps should be taken so that Ohio can better prepare for and also monitor the onset of drought conditions because a lot of the best ways to respond to drought is taking action early,” said Quiring. Moreover, with a more precise early warning system, agriculture producers might be able to save time and money by implementing water restrictions, or by switching to different or more drought-resistant crops. 

The study was published in the Journal of Hydrometeorology. 

The Ohio State researchers compared how their method performed at predicting droughts with data from the U.S Drought Monitor (USDM). 

The problem with the USDM is that it uses fixed drought thresholds, or guidelines that use the same parameters to measure changes in all seasons and climate regions of the country. Unfortunately, this one-size-fits-all approach can cause monitoring plans to inaccurately gauge local weather conditions and how they impact those in certain communities, Quiring said.

By analyzing data from four drought indices commonly used in previous studies to monitor drought intensity across the United States, researchers were able to show that fixed thresholds tend to indicate milder drought conditions in Ohio than are indicated by the impacts-based thresholds identified in their study. 

It’s why Quiring and his team want to use the impacts-based method to revamp those thresholds to better reflect drought conditions in Ohio, a move that starts by updating The Ohio Emergency Management Agency’s state drought plan. 

To accomplish their goal, the researchers investigated how data from the four indices impacted streamflow, or how much water discharges over a designated point in a fixed period of time, and Ohio’s total corn yield, mainly because the crop covers an extensive area within the state, and nearly every county grows it. 

Identifying agricultural drought thresholds that are specific to Ohio is important, said Quiring. Because the impacts of drought can vary from region to region, using the same drought thresholds in California as in Ohio is absurd, he said. Additionally, the types of drought that occur can differ. Ohio, for example, in particular is prone to “flash droughts” — shortages caused by warm weather that can happen quickly over a few days or weeks. 

“These rapid-onset droughts can be particularly challenging for the agricultural community because they arrive quickly and conditions can rapidly go from normal to drier than normal,” said Quiring. “All of a sudden soil moisture is depleted, the crops are stressed and yield losses and impacts on the ecosystem occur.”  

The last time severe drought caused major losses in the United States was in 2012 when a record-breaking heat wave resulted in $34.2 billion in economic losses, 123 direct deaths and a 26% decrease in total corn crop yield across the country. 

As large areas of the country dried out, Ohio’s corn yield dropped from about 160 bushels per acre to 120 bushels per acre within a year. While such considerable losses have not happened since, according to the State Climate Office of Ohio, some areas of the state have experienced abnormally dry drought conditions this year.  

What’s more, the researchers’ impacts-based method of drought monitoring also takes into account how climate change can worsen flash drought events.

“One of the impacts that we found to be counterintuitive in Ohio is that with climate change, we do expect more rainfall overall, but we also expect to see more droughts because there are longer periods of time where no rain occurs,” said Quiring. 

The results of this study suggest that following guidelines that aren’t specific to a region’s issues can end up either systematically underestimating the impacts of severe drought conditions in some locations or overestimating them in others, Quiring said. 

While it’ll be some time before Quiring’s team can get their research incorporated into the next edition of the state drought plan, the study emphasizes that its methods could easily be applied to other regions beyond Ohio where long-term streamflow and crop yield data are readily available. Optimistically, it could help to improve drought monitoring worldwide and provide useful information to future agriculture producers and decision-makers, said Quiring. 

“This work is actually timely because it will provide a basis for decision-making in Ohio, rather than using research that’s been done in other parts of the country,” said Quiring. “Hopefully we can give better guidance to those who are making decisions on the ground.”

This study was supported by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). Co-authors were Ning Zhang and Zhiying Li, who were both at Ohio State when the study was conducted. Zhang is now at the University of California, Davis and Li is at Indiana University.

Source: Cincinnati Public Schools

Education Blossoms at Bond Hill Academy’s Outdoor Classroom Debut

If you imagine a farmer in overalls using hoes and tractors to tend to their crops, think again! Groups of students donned lab coats and rulers to tend to their new gardens for the grand opening of Bond Hill Academy’s outdoor classroom Friday, September 8.

“There’s a lot more to it than just learning how to dig in the soil,” said Bond Hill STEM teacher, Leslie Lyles. “I was trying to make sure they realized the mathematics involved in growing and the importance of botany. Being able to come out to analyze and observe the growth of these plants in a mathematical and scientific way is an amazing resource for our students to have.”

CPS and Green Umbrella unveiled eight garden beds where students got their hands dirty planting spinach, carrots and strawberries. The innovative project, spearheaded by Green Umbrella’s CPS Outside program and the Cincinnati Green Schoolyards Action Network, transformed a small area next to the school’s basketball court into an innovative learning environment complete with whiteboards, sitting spaces and fruits and vegetables.

The green oasis will serve as a dynamic hub for garden-based teaching and learning, living up to the school’s new motto of “plant what you can in the space that you have.”

Green Umbrella’s Green Schoolyards program manager, Cynthia Walters, explained how safe and accessible green spaces in school communities like Bond Hill are the future of learning for students, “We are looking at curriculum integration and support for teachers in not only getting students outside but having educators feel comfortable with teaching outdoors as well.” Walters continued, “We’re working on starting green career pathways early on rather than at the high school level. The students and teachers are already engaged. They’ve already got their hands in the soil. They’re already planting. They are ahead of the game because of this strong school team.”

Walters went on the explain that the gardens on display are not only an educational opportunity for the students, but an open invitation for collaboration in the community. Students are able to take the crops they harvest home along with the knowledge they learned for cultivating the vegetation.

Ceriana Portis, a grade 6 student at Bond Hill, said she’ll be taking what she learns here back home to her family’s extensive garden. “Our garden at home is in its first year of tending, so I can take the plants we get, home and tell them what I learned and how to do it for next year,” said Portis. “I’m excited about it happening because I’m excited to tell everybody what we’re doing and probably inspire more people to be able to grow.”

Bond Hill Academy’s outdoor classroom will continue to grow throughout the school year with students in all grades having part in tending to the garden.

Source: WYSO

EPA climate grant will inventory Miami Valley’s greenhouse gas emissions

The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC)received a climate action planning grant from the US EPA last month.

Commission officials said the one million dollar grant will be used to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in the region that are fueling climate change.

The planning commission will use the money to help jurisdictions in the area develop plans for how to best inventory greenhouse gas emissions, set goals to cut them, and select strategies to meet those goals.

Matt Lindsay, Manager of Environmental Planning with MVRPC, said getting that inventory of local emissions is an important first step in the climate action planning process.

“You asked me about how we are doing in this region in terms of greenhouse gas emissions,” Lindsay said. “The answer is: we don’t know.”

Lindsay said that in about two years his organization hopes to have a complete regional climate action plan in place. He said once they have that plan, they will be eligible to apply for more federal EPA grant funding to execute it.

“There has not been, to our knowledge, a comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions inventory performed for our region in the past.” He said, “So that’s one of the things we are required to achieve under the terms of this grant.”

Source: WLWT 5

University of Cincinnati team leading research in green energy battery technology

CINCINNATI — Dr. Jimmy Jiang is an associate professor in chemistry at the University of Cincinnati and is working alongside students to push the boundaries of battery performance through their research of a new kind of battery. Their hope is that not only will this improve energy storage for green energy, but it could one day be used in homes and electric vehicles.

According to Jiang, while current technology used for solar and wind farms isn’t necessarily flawed, it does have limits to its capabilities. One way that energy produced is used is by feeding directly to electric companies that implement it into their electrical grids or distributing it to other areas. When energy is being stored to be used at another time, Jiang says wind and solar farms typically have to use on-site special batteries or mechanical systems for storage.

“As more renewable energy is required for our daily use, we have to sort out energy storage devices to store that energy,” Jiang said.

With the growing energy demand, that’s where Jiang and his teams’ research comes into play by developing a new kind of what’s known as a flow battery. Flow batteries were first developed by NASA and have been used in different applications for years. However, most flow batteries use a membrane inside them to separate the positive and negatively charged solvents that store energy. These can often decrease the efficiency of the battery, but Jiang is developing a new type of flow battery that eliminates the membrane altogether.

“What we have been doing is to look for two different types of solvents so that even though there is no membrane in between, they still do not mix with each other,” Jiang said.

By using two different types of solvents stacked one on top of the other, Jiang explains that this will help solve the issue of the oppositely charged solvents mixing. This, in turn, will keep performance high and also help bring down the overall cost.

“The cost of the membrane can go up to thirty percent to forty percent of the overall cost, so it’s really a big part in terms of cost,” Jiang said.

Through initial cost estimates, the new flow battery is nearly the same as the current technology on the market. However, the team expects the cost to decrease as they get further in development when they are able to scale up larger. Along with the performance and expected cost improvements, Jiang explains that the biggest advantage of this new technology will be scalability to fit with nearly any energy storage and usage demand needed.

“You can easily scale up or scale down the batter to meet the requirement of that specific solar farm or wind turbine. So for solution-based systems, we can easily change the size of the tank to change the capacity of the batteries,” Jiang said.

Jiang and his team are still in the fundamental stages of this new technology and expect it to still be several years before it’s implemented in the real world. However, the team has submitted a provisional patent application on the promising research they’ve conducted so far.

Source: WVXU

Port of Cleveland action plan aims for net zero emissions by 2050

The Port of Cleveland board of directors unanimously approved its 2024-2028 strategic plan, along with its first climate action plan, Thursday in an effort to expand the city’s shipping economy and advance sustainable practices.

The Port of Cleveland is the first port in the Great Lakes Region to adopt a climate action plan; its goal is to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The goal aligns with reduction targets set by the city of Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and the Biden administration.

“We’re out in front and leading in terms of how do we decarbonize our port, how do we get to a point where we can run everything off electricity, not off of fossil fuels, and do our part not only for climate change, but also lessen impacts on our neighbors as well,” Port of Cleveland President and CEO Will Friedman said.

Our strategic plan, which we update every five years, is really a set of policies, goals, actions and then measurements that are the direction from the board to the staff in terms of what we’re going to implement, what we’re going to try to get done for the port over the next five years.

Will Friedman, The Port of Cleveland President and CEO

The port’s biggest goal will be to “electrify everything we can control by 2050,” Friedman said. This will primarily include Port of Cleveland’s own equipment, which he said should be the most achievable, and where the port is getting its power.

“We’re working with Cleveland Public Power right now to potentially maybe use solar energy on the rooftops of our buildings down at the port as one source of energy,” Friedman said, “and then maybe use what are called power purchase agreements through CPP to buy renewable energy so we’re not sourcing from coal burning plants or plants that are not renewable.”

The third focus area includes business partners like trucking and cargo ship companies and is the largest carbon emitter in the port contributing to about 80% of emissions according to Senior Manager of Planning, Environment and Information Systems Carly Beck.

“We have committed ourselves to working directly with our terminal operator Logistec to provide whatever they need for charging infrastructure, for example, to reduce their … emissions.”

The port began tracking its air quality impacts in 2016, according to the news release, which includes calculations of pollution emitted from equipment, vehicles and vessels.

While the Port of Cleveland cannot directly control its business partners, it plans to provide incentives, like charging stations, grant funding and rebate programs, to encourage carbon emission reduction.

The port may look into implementing mandates in the future to meet emission reduction goals depending on the market, Friedman said.

“We can’t go out and give a mandate to a customer and then they go to another port that would … sort of be self-defeating,” he said. “So, we’re going to try to balance all that out and drive toward our overall goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.”

Though Cleveland’s manufacturing history might create different perspectives on the relationship between manufacturing and sustainability, it is possible to do both, Board Chair J. Stefan Holmes said.

“The port has been traditionally a leader not only in in economic development but also in bringing about ecological understanding and bringing it to a really a forefront for the entire community on how important it is to have our lake and river clean,” he said. “Commerce as well as the environmental considerations go hand in hand and you can do both. You can be leaders in both, and so I’m just pleased that we’ve come to recognize that fact.”

The decision to implement a climate action plan largely came from a push from Port of Cleveland customers, Friedman said.

“If we were to say, ‘oh no, we’re not going to take this seriously,’ I’ve already heard from some of our major customers who have said there would be a big problem for us,” he said. “Our board, as you can see, voted unanimously. We’re moving ahead and we’re excited to get this work done.”

The approval of the climate action plan will also allow the Port of Cleveland to compete for federal Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality Improvements grant funding to support its Advanced Cargo Processing & Fiber Connectivity Project and the Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities grant program, the news release stated.

In addition to the climate action plan, the strategic plan also includes new opportunities for shipping Ohio’s agriculture and manufactured products to Europe and expand its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“How do we, how do people get to a point where they’re qualified, where they have the right credentials, where they sort of checked all the boxes and they can come in and compete successfully for business?” Friedman said. “We have to do some work on our part to help them … get ready in that in that arena.”

The port will provide historically disadvantaged businesses with resources and guidance, while continue its community investments in its Community Impact Fund to support additional workforce development programs, according to the news release.

Source: The Reader

Climate Action… Now? After Years of Neglect, Omaha Officials Promise This Time Will Be Different

This story is part of The Reader’s Climate Beacon Newsroom initiative with Solutions Journalism Network.

The sun ascended into a vacant late-summer sky as the concrete baked below. Later that day, Omaha’s heat index would reach 109 degrees. But even at 8 a.m., it was too hot for Mike McMeekin, who retreated into an air-conditioned coffee shop.

McMeekin, an engineer and longtime political player in Omaha, was, in a way, there to talk about the weather — specifically storms, droughts, snow, floods and heat waves, which are getting worse in Nebraska as a result of human-influenced climate change. State research suggests Nebraska’s average temperatures could climb up to 9 degrees by the end of the century, generating more extreme weather, scorching days and threatening public health. Omaha hopes to help curb, or at least withstand, these changes with the help of its Climate Action and Resilience Plan slated to unveil November 2024.

Currently, the plan, which will identify strategies to reduce Omaha’s vulnerabilities — and contributions to — climate change, is being researched. A contractor is tallying Omaha’s greenhouse gas emissions while the city looks to hire a full-time staff member to oversee the plan. A website to track progress will soon be available along with an online survey for people to share ideas. In-person forums will start by the end of the year.

For some, this movement represents an optimistic shift for Omaha. Others are getting déjà vu.

“I feel like we already have [a plan],” McMeekin said.

In 2010, Omaha’s City Council approved its Master Plan’s Environment Element — a 152-page document developed by volunteers and partially steered by McMeekin. It included hundreds of proposed strategies and more than 30 goals, ranging from reducing greenhouse gasses and increasing renewable energy resources to updating building codes and creating denser development.

Years later, the city has failed to meet most of its goals, costing the metro at least $1.39 billion in energy savings and a 23% reduction in energy consumption, according to projected figures in a 2011 city report.

City officials argue the 2010 plan proposed too much without setting priorities or suggesting how Omaha would secure the funding or manpower needed to realize its vision. They also say the city’s Master Plan is not policy. Rather, it’s a visionary document to steer decisions.

Others say it comes down to politics. The plan was conceived, and began implementation, under Mayor Jim Suttle, a Democrat. It fell apart under Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican, who took office in 2013 and has instead prioritized public safety and trimming budgets. Indeed, a decade’s worth of city emails obtained by The Reader shows officials in city government rarely discussed climate change or the Environment Element.

Now, many Omahans feel like the city is back to square one.

“If you look at the things that we decided about, it’s what we’re still talking about today,” said David Corbin, a longtime environmentalist and local Sierra Club leader in Omaha. “Energy efficiency, climate change, greenhouse gasses. We made recommendations and they still didn’t happen.”

Omaha is now one of the few large American cities without a climate plan, being outpaced by others such as Minneapolis, Des Moines and Chicago. Lincoln, which has a Democrat-controlled city council and mayor, passed its plan in March 2021. Nebraska’s Legislature, officially nonpartisan but ultimately majority-Republican, rejected 2020 calls to develop a plan for the state.

Some cities, such as Cincinnati, can offer insight into how to make a plan not only sound good but also work — something that eludes most major cities, which aren’t meeting their climate goals, according to research from the Brookings Institution.

“We don’t want a plan on a shelf,” said Marco Floreani, a deputy chief of staff for the mayor who is leading her climate plan effort. “We really want a plan that can be implemented.”

But the initiative has faced setbacks and delays. The mayor first called on city, business and nonprofit leaders to lead the plan in February 2021. It became public in November, but it wouldn’t be until August 2023 that the city officially hired a contractor.

“The track record for the city is abysmal,” said David Holtzclaw, an environmental engineer whose company, Transduction Technologies, consults on energy efficiency. “I can’t point to a single success or a single reason to have hope. It’s a plan that will sit on a shelf, much like the [Environment Element] … What has come of that? Nothing.”

As for McMeekin, he isn’t bitter. He just doesn’t want to see the city fall further behind.

“I just feel strongly like, ‘Hey, if we had implemented [the Environment Element], we would essentially have had a climate action plan,” McMeekin said. “We’d be years ahead on things that we’re kind of starting over on now.”

‘The Forgotten Plan’

When it comes to environmentalism in Omaha, Corbin has learned to measure success in small steps. The Earth Day crowds listening to him perform Neil Young songs have gotten bigger. More people believe in climate change — 68% of people in the Omaha metro area believe global warming is happening and 55% say local officials need to do something about it, according to 2021 Yale research.

The Environment Element wasn’t a small step.

“It was very ambitious,” said Corbin, a retired public health educator who served on the plan’s community health committee. “I think people really felt that it could make a difference. And that we weren’t wasting our time — that something would come of it.”

The plan started in November 2008, part of a larger push by city, nonprofit and business leaders to reinvent Omaha into a lively metro rather than the suburban sprawl it had become by the mid-2000s. It defined the city’s natural environment, construction patterns, natural resources and urban design. It took two years to develop.

More than a decade later, McMeekin refers to it as the “forgotten plan.”

One reason is that the plan lacked direction among its 681 recommended actions, said Derek Miller, head of long-range and mobility planning for the city and whose office oversees the Environment Element.

“It’s not actionable,” said Miller, who served on the plan’s urban form and transportation committee. “It doesn’t say, ‘If you do this every year for the next 10 years, then you can reach your goals.’”

Some point to the 2013 election of Stothert, who through a spokesperson referred all questions about climate work to Floreani, as a turning point.

From 2009 to 2013, the city had an Office of Sustainable Development, a four-person team funded by about $14 million in federal grants. It carried out the Environment Element through projects such as updating 1,360 homes and 43 commercial buildings to be more energy efficient, saving their owners a combined nearly $800,000 in energy costs. Stothert cut the office after its grant expired. Since 2017, the city has updated about 127 homes through a similar program, according to Wyatt Tuell, a city planner who oversees the program.

Some of the work started by the sustainability office has continued, said former staff member Eric Williams who is now chair of the Omaha Public Power District Board of Directors.

In 2011, the Office of Sustainable Development changed most of the city’s traffic signals to LED bulbs. Williams said streetlights were to be the next step before the office disbanded. In 2018, OPPD picked up the work. From 2020 to 2023, it changed thousands of streetlights to LED bulbs. That coincided with a $2.5 million reduction in the city’s annual electricity bill.

Remembering these missed opportunities makes it hard for Williams to take the city seriously when it promises this time will be different.

“I’m sure you’ll find a bunch of people who have grown weary of completing a plan that highlights benefits for the community, that then does not translate into any specific action,” Williams said.

City emails obtained by The Reader seem to reflect a lack of commitment. From 2013 until the city pursued a new climate plan in 2021, officials in the mayor’s office and members of the Omaha City Council rarely discussed climate change. More often, they would respond to (or ignore) constituents concerned about city decisions, such as a mayoral veto of a plastic bag ban in 2019 or passing a waste collection contract that scaled back composting the same year. The city now composts about a sixth of what it did in 2005, though recycling is up about 35%, according to city estimates.

Dozens of Omahans emailed the mayor in 2017 when President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, an international commitment reached two years earlier to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As more than 400 U.S. mayors reaffirmed their support for climate action, Stothert sent constituents an email cataloging the city’s recent environmental work. She did not mention climate change or the reaction from other mayors.

Still, the city has made strides.

It’s spending $2 billion to update its sewers to discharge cleaner water into the Missouri River — part of a federal mandate. It will also soon be able to sell natural gas harnessed from methane captured at its primary wastewater treatment plant. Waste collection trucks contracted by the city run on natural gas, and there are 70 free electric vehicle charging stations in the city, according to ChargeHub.

In 2020 the regional transit authority introduced its first rapid-transit bus line. The city is working on a $306 million streetcar, projected to open in 2026, which the city hopes will generate $3 billion in investment in its urban core, attract a younger workforce and take cars off the road as people utilize multi-model transit.

The city also adopted policies such as Complete Streets, which prioritizes multi-modal transit, and Vision Zero, which aims to make streets safer. And while the city didn’t meet many of its 2010 goals, it has made progress. With a formal plan, it can go even further, Miller said.

“Like most communities, we’re more reactive than proactive. And that’s always been an issue of mine. So we need to become more proactive with [climate change],” Miller said. So I’m excited for this climate action plan. And I think using the experience that we went through with the Environment Element, we can figure out what went well, what didn’t go well and what we need to do differently.”

Not Rocket Science

Pete Festersen, a longtime Omaha City Council member and current president, represents midtown Omaha, including his own neighborhood in Dundee, where many bike, install solar panels and fill gardens with flowers and produce. He served on the Environment Element’s core committee in the late 2000’s — and like many others has watched climate action sputter here.

Chief among his complaints is the city has no employee whose sole focus is climate action. That should change soon as the city announced in late August it would hire a full-time staff member to oversee the plan.

“That’s best practice everywhere this has been done,” Festersen said, “and I think that’s part of the challenge we’re experiencing right now with some of these delays and clunky timelines.”

After Stothert launched the city’s climate plan in February 2021, the plan spent more than a year lingering inside Metro Smart Cities, a combination of civic, business and nonprofit leaders, tasked with leading the plan. In September 2022, Festersen tried to fold the plan into the city’s budget, a resolution that the mayor vetoed.

In March 2023, Omaha selected Minnesota-based contractor paleBLUEdot to lead climate planning and local consulting firm HDR to lead community engagement. However, the $376,000 contract wouldn’t be signed until August due to a change in funding.

Floreani said despite the delays the city is headed in the right direction.

“Young people have said that this is an important issue and they want to be in a community that’s focused on adaption and being proactive,” Floreani said. “From a business perspective, too, companies are thinking about risk. They want to be in a community, or they want to grow in a community, that is serious about future risks. A lot of risk can be associated with climate change resiliency issues.”

The agreement the city signed with paleBLUEdot, which has completed climate action plans in cities such as La Crosse, Wisconsin; Bloomington, Indiana; and Hartford, Vermont, calls for research into environmental policy, community engagement and an inventory of the city’s greenhouse gas production. The final plan was slated to take 18 months and arrive in June 2024. That has since been pushed back to November 2024, said Ted Redmond, co-founder of paleBLUEdot.

Jesse Bell, a climate and health scientist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said this plan will be essential in answering many unknowns about Omaha’s climate vulnerabilities.

“We will see changes in heat waves, flooding, droughts, severe storms,” he said. “What does that potentially mean for Omaha? Where are susceptible populations? What are those issues within infrastructure? There’s still work that needs to be done.”

Some are digging deeper into those questions. UNMC research is examining urban heat islands: neighborhoods with fewer trees, green space and water which, in Omaha, can be nearly 10 degrees hotter than other areas. Children have higher rates of asthma in East Omaha, where more poor and communities of color live alongside industrial pollution, studies show. Temperature increases are also leading to longer allergy seasons as well as leading more virus-carrying ticks to Nebraska.

But to go any further, Bell said comprehensive research and prioritized strategies are needed.

That is the basic responsibility of a climate action plan, and so far Bell is optimistic the city will accomplish that. When the city was reviewing applications, Floreani called Bell and asked for his help.

“The fact that they even reached out to me, I felt like they were taking it seriously,” Bell said. “It wasn’t just we’re going to do this to do it. And when I talked to [Floreani] he seemed really invested in it. I was impressed.”

Redmond with paleBLUEdot isn’t worried that his firm will come up with an actionable plan. It’s sticking to it that’s challenging.

“Climate action is not for the timid,” Redmond said. “This is not rocket science. We know the things that we need to do. But it is really hard to get it to happen.”

Across the River

There are a lot of similarities between Omaha and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Both are Midwestern river towns. Omahans (affectionately or not) refer to Council Bluffs, Iowa — their neighbor across the Missouri River — as “Council-tucky.” Cincinnatians actually live across the Ohio River from Kentucky.

Both cities’ early prosperity thrived on meatpacking industries. Both spent the late 20th century slumping into urban decay.

In the 2000s both cities began rebuilding. And in the late 2000s both issued ambitious environmental plans. The only difference is Cincinnati stuck with theirs.

“At the end of the day, I think it’s about people’s commitment to making it happen and being able to find alternative approaches,” said Oliver Kroner, sustainability director for the City of Cincinnati. “I think it’s easy to say ‘These are the five things you need to do.’ But at any given moment, you can’t make progress on those five things. So having a broader, scattershot approach is effective.”

Since 1991, more than 600 local governments across the U.S. have passed climate action plans. But just passing a plan isn’t enough. A 2020 study from the Brookings Institution found two-thirds of the largest cities that made commitments to lower greenhouse gas emissions were lagging on their targets. A primary reason? The goals aren’t adopted into policy.

Cincinnati hasn’t had that problem.

Since passing its Green Cincinnati Plan in 2008, the city has reduced carbon emissions by 36.6% and aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The city has also contracted what’s being called the largest municipal solar farm in the nation — a site the size of 680 football fields with 310,000 solar panels — part of its plan to use 100% renewable energy for city operations by 2035.

In 2023 the city updated its plan for the fourth time. Over six months, the city’s sustainability office gathered suggestions from 3,766 residents through in-person and virtual meetings as well as surveys, one of the most extensive engagement processes the city has ever done, according to the report. The city’s online climate dashboard now includes 130 recommended policies or commitments.

For Kroner, time and consistency have been the keys to success. Because politicians are more aware of climate issues, it makes integrating recommendations into policy easier. And because the city’s built trusting relationships in the community, citywide buy-in comes naturally.

“For a city whose driving for carbon neutrality like we are, that really means engaging community partners that are not municipal operators,” Kroner said. “We’re doing everything we can to eliminate our 3.5% of the carbon pie, but there’s much more focus on bringing partners into the fold and understanding where we can build relationships that can help us go further faster.”

The need for leadership became clear when President Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, Kroner said. Suddenly Cincinnati, which has primarily had Democratic mayors since the early 1970s, had to come up with its own answers.

The energy required to power buildings accounts for 39% of global emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, although that number is typically higher in cities. To lower emissions, Cincinnati has built networks through its 2030 District — an initiative in 24 U.S. cities that calls on businesses to reduce energy consumption, water usage and transportation emissions to zero by 2040. Cincinnati’s partners include Fortune 500 companies such as Procter & Gamble and Kroger as well as museums, breweries and cafes. In total, they represent 28.2 million square feet of commercial space.

Other cities are on similar tracks.

Last year, Des Moines had the second-most buildings of any mid-sized city certified as Energy Star, a standard for extremely efficient buildings. Des Moines’ 49 buildings collectively saved $1.8 million in energy bills and averted 10,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to data from the federal government. By comparison, Omaha had nine buildings certified last year. Lincoln had 12, nine of which are Lincoln Public Schools buildings.

Homes account for about 20% of the United States’ greenhouse gasses, according to the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That includes low-income homes where people typically live in less-efficient buildings and are overburdened by utility bills. While Omaha and Nebraska have programs to retrofit these homes at no cost to the homeowner, they’re outpaced by cities such as Minneapolis, which has upgraded close to 3,000 low-income homes as part of its Green Cost Share program.

Holtzclaw has been hard at work pitching energy-efficiency upgrades to businesses around the country — especially since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal bill that has created significant tax incentives for such work. Ironically, Nebraska is where he’s had the least luck, he said.

“I will make the same pitch to somebody in Des Moines or Minneapolis and they’ll be like, ‘Where do I sign?’” Holtzclaw said. “Here, it’s the same pitch. They’re making the same amount of money, I do the same work. I follow up like three or four times and never hear back.”

It’s not true to say Omahans don’t care about sustainability or climate change, according to 17-year-old climate activist Kiera Ginn.

While the City of Omaha does not have a climate plan, other institutions in the city do. They include: the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, OPPD, Metropolitan Utilities District, Union Pacific, Kiewit and Werner Enterprises.

But Ginn and others in the citywide group Students for Sustainability have questions. Is everyone working together? Is addressing climate change really a priority? Are we moving fast enough? And where are we heading?

Earlier this year, they offered to help the city with its climate action plan. They had a meeting, but that was months ago. They haven’t heard much since.

So, like many others, they’re hoping for the best. But growing up here, they’ve also learned to measure their expectations.

“In a sense, it’s discouraging,” Ginn said, “but it’s also expected from Omaha.”

Ready to Start

McMeekin shares those mixed feelings. The city is making promises, but he’s heard those before.

Earlier this year, the world’s top scientists released a hulking assessment on everything we know about climate change. The outlook has only gotten more grim.

“This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in March 2023. “Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.”

Omaha may have missed its chance to launch into climate action in 2010. But it’s not too late, McMeekin said. And the city doesn’t need to solve the world’s climate problems. It doesn’t even need to fix all of its own right now.

It just needs to find somewhere to start.

contact the writer at chris@thereader.com

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

Reds’ Food Rescue: What Happens to All the Hot Dogs That Fans Don’t Eat?

Mark Lawrence learned about Last Mile from a TV feature and thought, “Hey, I’m retired. I’ve got a truck.”

So early this year, the former utilities manager signed on as a Last Mile “hero” – one of 800-plus volunteers who pick up and drop off donated food.

At the end of the Reds-Rockies homestand, Lawrence pulled his black pickup into Dock 3 under the Reds’ stadium a little before lunchtime.

Minutes later, he pulled away, his truck bed loaded with unsold but still edible leftovers from Delaware North, the stadium’s long-time concessions operator. No hot dogs and beer. But plenty of lettuce, mushrooms, peppers, celery and onions, along with bags of popped and packaged popcorn.

And a few minutes after that, he left the load in an Avondale parking lot, where a crowd soon began filling their bags with the produce and popcorn, plus frozen ground beef, bagels and even bouquets of flowers from other donors.

Shaunte Miller of Bond Hill was in the Avondale line, picking up food for herself and three elderly neighbors. They’d come for the fresh produce themselves, she said, if they weren’t using walkers or wheelchairs, Miller said.

When she first delivered Last Mile bags, she said, “They couldn’t believe the food. It’s so different than a (food) pantry.”

Avondale volunteer Jennifer Foster said she hears that all the time. “People are so shocked they can get the good quality food they can,” she said. “We load them up and make them happy.”

Once happy, they sometimes reach out for other help – where to find housing or clothes, where to look for a job.

Foster stations herself at the front of the food line to greet each person and answer the questions she can. “I’m the resource hub,” she said.

5.7 million pounds of food diverted from landfills

Julie Shifman and Tom Fernandez started rescuing food from restaurants, hotels, food stores and food distributors in November 2020, about a year after creating Last Mile Food Rescue.

They’ve since collected about 5.7 million pounds of perishable food – keeping it out of landfills and getting it to people in need.

TQL Stadium, home of FC Cincinnati, signed on early. The concessions team there has donated more than 20,000 pounds of food in three years. The University of Cincinnati just joined, with its concessions operator donating food from a dining hall in July and agreeing to turn over extras from Nippert Stadium this fall.

Delaware North, which has been feeding Reds’ fans since 1936, has been donating since the beginning. Leftovers from Great American Ball Park, at 32,000 pounds, have provided about 24,000 meals.

“For us, it’s a no-brainer,” said Ari Rubin, a Delaware North assistant manager, noting that six kitchens, 50-plus suites and 90-plus concession locations throughout the ballpark produce a lot of uneaten food.

“We know the extras will be going to the community,” added Gary Davis, the concessionaire’s executive chef.

Paycor Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals, is not participating – yet. “We’d certainly love to have them join our other stadium partners,” Last Mile Marketing Manager Beth Voorhees said. Representatives of Aramark, which handles concessions at Paycor Stadium, did not return a voicemail and two emails.

Part of solicitation manager Hyden’s job: Convincing stadiums “there’s a safe, reliable solution” to their food waste. “We can place all kinds of food.”

Reds, FC enjoy Last Mile ‘bump’

On the day that “hero” driver Mark Lawrence rescued food from the Reds’ stadium, he’d already picked up 25 trays of prepared food from Downtown’s Duke Energy Convention Center and delivered them to Shelterhouse, a facility for homeless men in Queensgate.

He was happy to grab two jobs off the Last Mile app and zip over from his nearby Covedale home for the runs. “I didn’t know there was that big of a need,” he said.

Hyden did not know much about food rescue, either, despite a 25-year career as a Cincinnati restaurant chef.

When he stepped out of that business and found a new career with Last Mile last year, he quickly learned about local food insecurity.

Thanks to his restaurant years, he can now easily identify food sources. One example: He knows restaurants with Thanksgiving and Christmas menus will have leftovers. His challenge is to find recipients ready for delivery.

As longtime donors, TQL and Great American Ball Park concession operators don’t need any coaching on how Last Mile works. Now, their home teams, both enjoying winning seasons, are being rewarded for their loyalty, Hyden joked. “They all got the Last Mile bump.”

How to join the food rescue movement

Last Mile Food Rescue explains how to volunteer, donate food or request food donations on its “You Can Help” page.

Hamilton County R3Source’s “Wasted Food Stops With Us” site includes ideas on where to donate perishables.

The Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council’s site offers information about the local food ecosystem.

The Green Umbrella Regional Sustainability Alliance site explains food waste and how to reduce it.

Source: Daily Advocate

Brown introduces additional ag bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced the introduction of several food and agriculture bills he is working to include in the 2023 Farm Bill that will support Ohio famers and producers. Brown is helping to write the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill and has talked with farmers and other agriculture representatives at roundtables around the state over the last year as a part of the 2023 Farm Bill planning process.

Brown’s legislative package includes the following bills:

The Converting Our Waste Sustainably (COWS) Act: Brown, along with Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would establish a new manure management conservation program to improve water quality, cut costs, and help farmers increase profits while taking steps to minimize ag runoff – which contributes to harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie and Grand Lake St. Marys.

This legislation is endorsed by the National Milk Producers Federation, Danone North America, the Environmental Working Group, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

“Family farms, livestock and dairy operations are the backbone of Ohio’s agricultural economy,” said Sen. Brown. “Our bill is a commonsense way to provide new tools in the 2023 Farm Bill for Ohio’s livestock and dairy operations to cut costs and boost profits while reducing pollution and protecting our lakes, rivers, and streams.”

“The US dairy industry is working on a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, and having support to upgrade on-farm manure management systems would be a valuable resource for farmers in the journey towards carbon neutrality,” said Luke VanTilburg, co-owner of MVP Dairy, Celina.

“Danone North America is proud to support Sen. Brown and his efforts with the COWS Act. Dairy yogurt is an essential nutritional option for many families and we know that by partnering with dairy farms we can work together with practical on-farm solutions that can significantly reduce GHG emissions such as methane, protect our waters and increase profitability for farms. The COWS Act will bring more financeable opportunities for dairies of all sizes across the country,” said Chris Adamo, VP Public Affairs and Regenerative Ag Policy, Danone North America.

Supporting Urban and Innovative Farmers Act: Brown, along with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), introduced legislation to support the growth of urban and suburban farmers through increased programmatic and research funding. The bill would make programmatic reforms to the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) to improve the content and delivery of technical assistance to urban and innovative producers, enable cooperative agreements with community experts, increases direct access to grant funds for farmers, and scales up composting and food waste initiatives.

Endorsers of the legislation include the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, CEA Alliance, Fair Food Network, Food Trust, PASA Sustainable Agriculture, ReImagine Appalachia, RAFI-USA, Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, Chicago Food Policy Action Council, Produce Perks Midwest, Farm to Table NM, Local Matters, Ohio Association of Foodbanks, and the Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council.

“Urban farmers create jobs and opportunity in Ohio cities, and help feed our communities – yet too often they haven’t had the support they need to compete,” said Sen. Brown. “This bill will provide new tools and resources to support urban agriculture, from research to technical assistance and direct investment.”

“Emerging challenges to producing the world’s food, fuel, and fiber will require new technologies and approaches like those outlined in the Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act,” said Cathann Kress, Vice President of Agricultural Administration and Dean of The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. “Our college’s recent investments, including the Controlled Environment Agricultural Research Complex (CEARC), aim to keep Ohio at the forefront of innovation.”

The Enabling Farmers to Benefit from Processing Nutrition Programs Act: Brown, along with Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced bicameral legislation to make it easier for families to use nutrition assistance benefits at farmers markets by helping farmers participate in federal nutrition programs. This would also make it easier for farmers to participate as authorized vendors under various nutrition programs.

The bill would require the Department of Agriculture to:

Streamline the application process for farmers and ranchers to participate as authorized vendors under the various nutrition programs.

Streamline the equipment/technology systems needed by farmers to process the benefits under the various nutrition programs.

Provide free wireless or mobile processing equipment and systems for farmers markets.

Endorsers of the legislation include the Farmers’ Market Coalition, National Young Farmers Coalition and Rural Coalition.

Source: NKY Tribune

Interact for Health awards over $3.7 million to nonprofits working to improve health outcomes

Interact for Health has awarded over $3.7M in grant funding to non-profits working to improve health outcomes and close gaps in the Greater Cincinnati region.

Interact for Health is focusing on mental health, investments in policy and systems change, and building community power.

In this initial round of grant funding, the partners below have been awarded grants based on their dedication to these areas and a commitment to addressing the health disparities that have led to a gap of lifespans up to 26 years between neighborhoods in our region.

As part of the $3.7M investment, $1.3M will go to support partners working in mental health to increase the cultural competence of their workforce and programs.

Mental Health Equity partners include:

Beech Acres Parenting Center
Bracken County Health Department
Center for Healing the Hurt
Central Clinic Behavioral Health
Cradle Cincinnati and Queens Village
Covington Partners
Forever Kings
From Fatherless to Fearless
GLAD House
Lighthouse Youth Services
Love N Action CDC
Mental Health America of Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio
Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission
Our Tribe
Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses

Nearly $2M has been awarded to partners working on policy and systems change, community power building or narrative change.

Advancing Health Justice partners include:

A Picture’s Worth
Brighton Properties
Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati
Cradle Cincinnati and Queens Village
City of Forest Park
Communities United for Action
Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless
Green Umbrella
Groundwork Ohio River Valley
One Community One Family
Price Hill Will
Safety Council of Southwestern Ohio
School Board School
Seven Hills Neighborhood House
The Center for Great Neighborhoods
The Women’s Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation
Working in Neighborhoods
YWCA of Greater Cincinnati

Over $500,000 in grants to amplify youth voice in developing solutions to address the youth mental health crisis.

Amplifying Youth Voice partners include:

Activities Beyond the Classroom
American Youth Foundation
Center for Healing the Hurt
Cincinnati Black Theatre Company
Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services (NKCES)
Northern Kentucky University
Talawanda School District
The DAD Initiative
WordPlay
Youth at the Center

Interact for Health