Why Local Governments Love Green Umbrella

Local governments across the region are benefiting from working with Green Umbrella to help them boost their capacity, secure funding, build community engagement, and implement key projects to make their communities more resilient, equitable, and thriving. 

With the abundance of ways to take action on sustainability, making decisions that create meaningful changes can be overwhelming and confusing. Green Umbrella is here to help local governments navigate what can feel like a maze of opportunities and take decisive action.

Here are just a few examples of this important work:

Kickstarting Sustainability Planning in City of Fairfield

In 2022, City of Fairfield began development of their first comprehensive, local, climate action plan. Green Umbrella helped the City translate their goals and resource needs into their contractor procurement process. Their forthcoming plan will address five topics: air quality and climate change; community health and safety; energy conservation and efficiency; going green; and water quality.

Engaging Residents in City of Norwood

Working closely with Norwood community leaders, the Climate Safe Neighborhoods Partnership (led by Green Umbrella and Groundwork Ohio River Valley) created a Climate Advisory Group to equitably engage underserved communities. The Group, composed of Norwood residents, works closely with city government staff and elected officials to ensure that community voice is translated to decision making opportunities. This type of equitable engagement can directly support the informing, design, and implementation of adaptation and mitigation projects, policies, and plans led by local governments.

As a partner in this work, Green Umbrella secured planning and design resources to help create the street tree plan and supported the strategy development for the local government’s solar investment. The new solar panels are expected to generate 29% of the electricity used at the Colerain Community Center, resulting in an estimated savings of $104,000 over the life of the panels. 

Acceleration in Colerain Township

Green Umbrella supported Colerain Township in the design and launch of a cross-sector community group called Team Up to Green Up – Colerain. Since launching, the group has worked collaboratively to create a community-wide waste pick-up program, engage with the Township’s street tree plan, and rally support for solar in Colerain. 

As a partner in this work, Green Umbrella secured planning and design resources to help create the street tree plan and supported the strategy development for the local government’s solar investment. The new solar panels are expected to generate 29% of the electricity used at the Colerain Community Center, resulting in an estimated savings of $104,000 over the life of the panels. 

Planning for the Future in Cincinnati

Green Umbrella has supported the City of Cincinnati on developing and implementing the Green Cincinnati Plan for nearly a decade, including sitting on the Plan’s steering committee, helping 20 schools start their green schoolyard journey, drawing down energy use in Cincinnati’s commercial buildings, updating the city’s urban agriculture zoning codes, and more.

These stories and many others are the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible when working with Green Umbrella. Just like we’ve done for Fairfield, Norwood, Colerain, and Cincinnati, we have experts that can help your community take whatever action is right for you – whether it’s the first or next step in your resilience journey.

Join us on Friday November 3, 2023 
Local Governments Member Benefits Webinar
You’ll have an opportunity to ask your most pressing questions and to hear what other local governments are doing to create more resilient, equitable, and thriving communities.