We're partnering with the Green Champions Podcast to capture and tell stories at the 2025 Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit – and we want to hear your personal story! Excerpts from the stories will be selected to be featured and showcased at this year's conference in an interactive art installation.

Share a time you felt really connected to nature or an experience that helped shape your relationship with nature. You can share your story by text or by audio recording.

This past Thursday morning was the first in our Greater Cincinnati 2030 District Sustainability Breakfast Series, featuring coffee from Deeper Roots and breakfast from Juniper Seed. Green Umbrella members Sustainergy presented on solar energy for home and commercial use, discussing the practicalities of cost, energy management, installation, and longevity of solar panels. Stay tuned for news of the next Sustainability Breakfast!

Everyone wants to support their favorite causes as much as they can. No matter what you’re able to donate, your gift matters – especially if you’re able to sign up for a recurring gift. Not everyone can give $50 at once, but most can give $5 a month, and that $5 recurring donation adds up to an even bigger impact over the year.

Green Umbrella relies on donations to keep our programs and services running, and keeping services consistent is easier when funding is consistent. That’s why monthly recurring donations have such an impact – it’s not just the amount that helps the organization, it’s the consistent stream of revenue.

Make your recurring monthly gift here. Thank you for helping us make Greater Cincinnati a more resilient, equitable, and thriving region!

Ohio's May 6 ballot will feature a statewide question: whether to renew a nearly 40-year-old initiative that allows the state to issue bonds to pay for local infrastructure projects.

Every ten years since 1987, Ohio voters are asked to approve putting the state’s full faith and credit on the line to help cities, counties, villages and townships repair and build infrastructure. Amendments need a simple majority to pass, and voters have approved this public works program overwhelmingly three times.

Ohio University’s facility is the largest in-vessel composting system at any college in the country, processing more than five tons of food waste each day. With over 20,000 students on campus in Athens, that’s no small feat. All of the food waste that goes through the compost facility is turned into nutrient-dense soil, which then goes back to the university.

“It’s in our DNA, it’s in the university’s DNA to constantly be very environmentally conscious about the things that we are doing,” Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said. “The composting program is a big piece of that.”

Amy Townsend-Small, an environmental studies professor in UC’s newly formed School of Environment and Sustainability, is leading a new project researching the impact of Cincinnati’s historic gaslights. The city of Cincinnati has 1,126 gaslights, the last remnants of a once-sprawling system, running 24-hours a day on natural gas. Townsend-Small is measuring the methane output of the gaslights to determine how efficient they are - and what potential damage the historic charm is costing the city.

Hang out with the Artists, Designers, and Story Shares who helped to create the Cincinnati’s Foodshed: An Art Atlas. This exhibition celebrates the creatives behind the project. The Atlas is a visually stunning and thought-provoking exploration through the past, present, and future of the Cincinnati Tristate region’s food economy. This collection blends artistic storymaps, historical insights, and community-driven research to celebrate the people, innovations, and businesses that have shaped the local food movement. For more information about the project, visit cincinnatifoodatlas.com. See the event and register in advance on the Green Umbrella Events Calendar.

Click here for the full Events Calendar. Members can submit events in the Green Umbrella online portal here.

Cincinnati Nature Center is a host site and partner with Ohio State University Extension for the Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Course, a 40-hour educational course that encompasses the topics of Ohio’s watersheds, aquatic life, geology, soils, plants, forests, insects, and animals. This is a combination of online and in-person experiences. 

You’ll enjoy live online lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays over long lunch breaks, and the required field sessions in late May-early June will delight you with exploring fields, forests, ponds, and streams. Learn more about this opportunity and register here.

Green Umbrella is hiring for a new position to manage daily operations at Camp Washington Perennial Farm. This position will oversee the development and maintenance of a half-acre perennial production field, hoop house operations, composting program, demonstration orchard, and integrated animal systems while supporting community engagement initiatives.

To learn more about this position, visit our Careers page.

Have an event, volunteer opportunity, or job posting to share? Green Umbrella members can submit them via the online Membership Portal. To learn more about the benefits of becoming a member, click here.