Fellows present countywide sustainability plan framework, ask Hamilton County commissioners to endorse steering committee

Source: Citizen Portal

Refer to the video of the meeting here.

Two climate-action fellows placed with Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services and Green Umbrella presented a 10-week progress report to the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 12, 2025, asking the commission to “champion the development and the adoption of the sustainability plan and to formally endorse the steering committee” that will carry the project forward.

The fellows said their summer fellowship (June 2–Aug. 8, with a May 28–30 training) produced a set of deliverables intended to seed a countywide sustainability plan for Hamilton County covering all 49 jurisdictions. They showed a county-specific greenhouse‑gas inventory (using Thrive Together regional data narrowed to the county), a peer-review of other U.S. sustainability plans, an engagement strategy, stakeholder contact lists and draft chapter templates. The fellows said industrial and transportation sectors are the county’s largest sources of emissions and that the plan aims to align existing local and regional efforts rather than replace them.

Brad Johnson, a staff member who introduced the fellows to the commission, said the county earlier asked staff to begin exploring a comprehensive sustainability plan and that the fellowship provided an outside review to help identify strengths, gaps and opportunities. Eva Heffernan, one of the fellows and an undergraduate at Ohio State, described the fellowship’s peer-plan review and greenhouse‑gas work. A second fellow, Shoba (graduate student, University of Cincinnati), described the fellows’ community‑engagement approach and said the team reached out to roughly 80–90 contacts and that every stakeholder they asked agreed to collaborate.

Major projects the fellows reported completing or initiating included:
– A climate‑budgeting pilot modeled after Oslo’s approach, intended to treat greenhouse‑gas emissions like financial expenditures and to identify climate‑forward spending in county budget documents for Planning & Development and the Metropolitan Sewer District.
– Community‑wealth‑building outreach in Amberly Village and Arlington Heights, including a social media plan to promote a community garden and publicity for a green workforce education program working with WeThrive at Hamilton County Public Health.
– A sustainable procurement review recommending low‑carbon procurement practices for local government projects.
– A countywide sustainability plan outline with chapter templates, a proposed timeline extending into 2026, surveys (internal, interdepartmental and public) and monitoring procedures.

The fellows said the external public survey has not yet been released; they plan to publish results after coordinating with Green Umbrella and the county communications team. They also left the county a Google Drive of materials, a master next‑steps list with month-by-month action items and a suggested steering‑committee roster of roughly eight people, including nonprofit, government and community representatives. The students said they discussed including youth representatives on the steering committee.

Commissioners asked for more detail on the proposed steering committee and on the public‑survey timing. Commissioner Denise Treehouse called the presentation “very well done” and asked about fellows’ longer‑term interest in green planning. Commissioner Dumas asked that staff return with a formal steering‑committee membership list and more updates; Brad Johnson and county staff said they would continue to work with Assistant Administrator Chrisman and Administrator Jeff Alito and provide future briefings.

No formal vote or formal endorsement of a plan or steering committee was recorded at the meeting; the fellows requested the commission’s leadership to carry the project forward and to facilitate interdepartmental coordination.