A prominent Cleveland philan-thropist has proposed a series of major grants to The Generation

Foundation that would match dollar-for-dollar all sizeable new contributions up to a total of $10 million. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime oppor-tunity to grow the Foundation into a $20 million organization that will make a major impact in funding regional nonprofits that focus on sustainable economic development,” said President Glenn R. Brown. Since its inception in 1997, initiated by a $1 million grant from the Cleveland Foundation funded by the P. K. Ranney Donor Advised Fund, The Generation Foundation has made more than $1.7 million in grants. Sixteen other funders have joined in supporting the Foundation’s 87 grants. Follow-on grants from other sources to organizations for which The Generation Foundation was an initial donor have exceeded $44 million. “The donor’s motive

is to stimulate col-laboration among the region’s founda-tions, corporations and concerned citi-zens who recognize

that sustainable economic development, conservation of resources and the devel-opment of alternative sources of energy is key to continuing our region’s economic recovery,” said William R. Seelbach, a Foundation Trustee and executive at The Riverside Company. “This will create new jobs replacing those lost in the manufacturing sector and raise the overall quality of life.”

“In 2001 at a City Club conference, we proposed that the Cleveland phil-anthropic community should pool its resources and collaborate in grant making to technology-based initiativeswith the ability to work catalytically in economic development,” said Founding Trustee Peter K. Ranney. As this idea caught on, one consortium of funders, the Fund for Our Economic Fu-ture, has awarded more than $62 million in grants since 2004 to accelerate business growth in the region.

“What makes The Generation Founda-tion unique, besides the huge leverage it has achieved, is our Advisory Board – 22 community leaders representing the cor-porate, academic, political and scientific sectors,” said Board member Steven W. Percy, retired CEO of BP America. “This group helps identify worthy grantees and evaluates their proposals so that Trustees have in-depth critiques before deciding on grant proposals.” Groups chosen for funding by the Foundation are typically entrepreneurial nonprofit start-ups that have actionable ideas in some area of sustainabilty. Many of these groups are almost invisible to the larger funding community or may have not yet applied for any foundation funding. “The Generation Foundation makes a lot of what you might call seed-capital grants, much like an early-stage inves-tor capitalist might do,” said Founding Trustee Nancy McCann, President of the John P. Murphy and Kulas Foundations.“The grantee might use our funds to pre-pare a business plan or launch a demon-stration project which would give it both more credibility and a chance for other funding by major donors.” All Board members, including Heather B. Moore, Owner of Heather Moore Jewelry; Thomas M. Morley, President of Lube Stop; and Tim Ryan, Trustee, Fred A. Lennon Charitable Trust; together with Executive Director Robert Miller and donor-volunteer Jeanette Grasselli Brown, are meeting with individuals and foundations who support the Foundation’s mission and might like to double their grant or gift, or join the Foundation in an advisory or leadership role.

News about Northeast Ohio’s Emerging Sustainable Economy from The Generation Foundation

$10M Challenge Grant Proposed for Generation Foundation

A $50,000 grant from The Generation Foun-dation funded a business plan for the start-up of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Wind Network (GLWN). Here, workers climb a 200’ wind turbine blade.

“This is aonce-in-a-lifetimeopportunity”

Notable Generation Foundation GrantsResearch and feasibility studies to form community consensus to launch BioEnterprise: $162,500

Study by Battelle to help NASA Glenn spin off and license new technologies: $75,000

Start-up funding for Cleveland Clinic Innovations to form spin-off companies: $100,000

Start-up grant for Fund for Our Economic Future collaborative regional economic development: $110,000

Extension of OneCommunity broadband and computing services on a regional basis: $70,000

Initial support for Corporate Sustainability Network and Sustainable Cleveland 2019: $77,000

Funding for Northeast Ohio Energy Efficiency Alliance to improve commercial building energy efficiency: $35,000

Green Plus program with COSE to promote sustainable practices for small businesses: $20,000

Feasibility planning for development of Great Lakes Science Center fresh water issues: $100,000

Enable RET3 to distribute free reconditioned computers to schools and underserved families: $25,000

Spring2012

Define a big, audacious goal; add passion, determi-nation and a whole lot of elbow grease, a little bit of luck – or perhaps divine intervention? – and

stir in a small group of committed volunteers and you’ll get what Community Greenhouse Partners (CGP) board president Jon Eckerle calls a “transformative oasis in the middle of a food desert.” CGP is a sustainable urban farm located between the St. Clair-Superior and Hough neighborhoods of the East Side of Cleveland. Using almost three acres of land and buildings obtained from the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, CGP is currently building hoop houses and growing food year-round in order to meet the neighborhood demand for fresh produce. They also teach earth science and sus-tainability to students of all ages and provide economic opportunities to residents in the urban core. “Our plan is to transform the church grounds into a local food hub that will feature aquaponic greenhouses, a vermicomposting center, a fruit orchard, a community food processing kitchen, classrooms, offices and retail space,” said CGP Executive Director Timothy Smith. “We have assembled a group of local experts in the many dis-ciplines of urban agriculture to assist in the development of the program and have formed a diverse board of trustees dedicated to the mission of the organization,” he said. Thanks to a $10,000 grant from The Generation Foundation, partnered with an additional $5,000 grant from Hawken School, CGP is adding two new hoop houses built by Tunnel Vision Hoops, a Cleveland-based greenhouse manufacturer. In order to keep growing during winter months, when the demand for fresh vegetables becomes harder to fill, thermal coils – sustain-ably powered by solar panels on the roof of the church – will be placed under the growing beds, which will heat the soil, keeping the roots warm and the plants happy even during the coldest of winter. The warmth will then rise off the soil into the hoop house, where specially treated plastic walls will help retain some of the heat, keeping the interior temperature at a steady 45-50° despite temperatures approaching 0° outside. The new hoops are nearing completion, thanks to more than 30 volunteers at a daylong workshop taught by Tunnel Vision Hoops partners Carlton Jackson and Todd Alexander. The group learned how to build a hoop designed to withstand Ohio winters, while exploring the science behind year-round vegetable growth in a wintry climate. The volunteers included local residents, members of Theta Chi Fraternity at CWRU and members of Ohio Fracktion, a statewide environmental group. “The volunteers that helped us build illustrate our vision of how a community can come together to bring positive change to a neighborhood,” Smith said. The hoops will be used to grow various salad greens, kale, tomatoes and microgreens, some of which will be used at Hawken’s new University Circle campus. The rest will be sold at area farmers markets including the Coit Road Market in East Cleveland on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, and the Gateway/105 Market at East 105th Street and Asbury Road just north of the new VA Hospital on Friday afternoons. Vegetables will also be available for sale daily from 10 AM to 6 PM at the farm, located on the corner of East 67th and Superior Avenue. For more information about Community Greenhouse Partners, contact Executive Director Timothy Smith at 216-926-4806.

Grant Funds Urban Farm for Community Greenhouse Partners

Volunteers Steve Whiting and Jenny Jones identify plants with Dezmon Spive as others work on constructing a hoop house at Community Greenhouse Partners. Solar panels on the adjacent church roof will power thermal coils to warm the earth and greenhouses in cold weather. Photo: Dan Morgan / Straight Shooter

NEO Launches, Funds RegionalPlanning Effort with 110 PartnersIn today’s economic climate of stretched resources and reduced funding, connecting Northeast Ohio’s communities more effec-tively could hold the key to long-term sustainable development. Initially funded by The Fund for Our Economic Future, The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium (NEOSCC) is an effort to move the region toward sustain-ability. It looks at how we use land and infrastructure across the 12-county region and how our choices impact sustainability. According to Director Hunter Morrison,

a Generation Foundation Advisor, “Our aim is to create tools that help Northeast Ohioans build a vibrant, resilient, thriv-ing region. We have two main objectives: developing common ground to make Northeast Ohio sustainable, and building a regional capacity for collaborative ac-tion to ensure these things get done.”

NEOSCC has a small team of staff and consultants, along with a diverse group of 110 member organizations and commu-nity leaders. In the coming months, it will launch its Vibrant Northeast Ohio engagement initiative to help build a commu-nity of stakeholders that will put NEOSCC’s tools and plans to use in achieving a vibrant, sustainable Northeast Ohio. To find out more, visit NEOSCC.org; facebook.com/Vibrant-NEO; or follow on Twitter @vibrantneo.

is published with thegenerous support of CCF Innovations at

CCF Innovations: Bringing World Class Innovations to Market

Morrison

Cleveland Clinic

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Western Reserve Land Conservancy Tackles Housing Demolition Crisis

Cleveland has 10,000 vacant and abandoned homes. They cause property values to plummet, provide safe haven for criminals and increase the cost of municipal services.

And each will cost about $7,500 to tear down. All it takes is one abandoned house on a block to diminish the value of nearby homes. Most experts agree that reclaiming and revitalizing our urban neighborhoods can only take place if these derelict homes – residences that will never again be occupied – can be safely held in a land bank and then demolished. “Western Reserve Land Conservancy wanted to help address this problem and has talked to community leaders throughout Ohio to learn more about the crisis and to collaborate with those working on urban revitalization,” said Rich Cochran, President and CEO. Last March, the Land Conservancy launched Thriving Com-munities Institute and hired as its director former Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, a national expert on land banking and the foreclosure crisis. For the past year, Rokakis, who helped design Ohio’s land-bank legislation and established the state’s first county land bank in Cuyahoga County, has worked with dozens of organizations and government entities on a “Clean and Green” program to secure abandoned homes, earmark money for demolition and start the revitalization process. Demolition has proven that it can stabilize communities by removing the blight and increasing values. In Flint, Mich., the Geneseo County Land Bank strategically concentrated $3.5 mil-lion of demolition on the city’s north side. Within five years of these demolitions, the aggregate property valuation in the area had increased by more than $112 million, according to Michigan State University researchers. Thriving Communities has worked with Ohio Attorney Gen-eral Mike DeWine’s office to earmark $75 million for demoli-tion from the state-federal settlement with the nation’s largest mortgage servicers. In addition, Rokakis is working closely with U.S. Reps. Steve LaTourette and Marcia Fudge on a bill that would provide $4 bil-lion for states and land banks to issue 30-year tax credit demoli-tion bonds to demolish vacant, foreclosed and abandoned homes across the country to prevent “a tsunami of blight.”

Land-banking expert Jim Rokakis visits one of Cleveland’s 10,000 aban-doned houses. As head of the Thriving Communities Institute, he advo-cates “clean and green” demolition efforts which create a healthy envi-ronment and help revitalize blighted neighborhoods.

Andrew Watterson and Beau Daane Join Foundation Advisory Board

Watterson Daane

Two Cleveland sustainability experts – Andrew Watterson, Senior Consultant at BrownFlynn; and Beau Daane, Man-ager at the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at Case

Weatherhead, have joined the 22-member Generation Founda-tion Advisory Board. Prior to joining BrownFlynn, Watterson served in the Office of Sustainability for the City of Cleveland for six years, most recently as the City’s first Chief of Sustainability. As Chief, he advised the City on policies related to energy, buildings, fleet, and purchasing, and oversaw the Office of Sustainability. Here, he coordinating the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 initiative, an action plan established by the City to create an economic engine to empower a green city on a blue lake. He has a Masters of Positive Organization Development from Case Western Reserve University, his B.A. in Environmental Policy and Economics from Bates College, and is a LEED-Accredited Professional in the U.S. Green Building Council. From 2007 to 2011, Daane worked as the Business Recycling Specialist for the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. A long-time advocate of land conservation, he is a trustee of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and is co-chair of Bratenahl Sustainability Action Team. Daane graduated cum laude from Duke University and earned a master’s degree from Cleveland State University. He just completed an MBA at the Weather-head School of Management.

Cleveland’s Trash-to-Energy Project Moves Ahead… Slowly

Cleveland sends about 230,000 tons of waste to landfill each year, costing some $7 million. This refuse generates more than 14,000 tons of methane gas. Trucks that carry the trash to the landfill generate 602 metric tons of CO2. What to do about this unsustainable practice has been under study four years. Early this month, Council authorized hiring a consultant to review the proposed Cleveland Recycling and Energy Genera-tion Center and responses to the related Request for Informa-tion. A series of amendments would expand the scope of work to include additional technologies and waste management processes like increasing recycling and gasifying a portion of the waste stream to generate electricity. Efforts are also underway to significantly increase recycling in Cleveland households, which will reduce the amount of money the City pays in landfill tipping fees, generate additional revenue from the sale of recyclables on the open market and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. City officials note that more recycling may be only part of the solution to the waste manage-ment challenge, and that new ways to improve its handling of municipal solid waste must be found.

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Surprisingly…Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States have

dropped 14% compared to levels in 2000, thanks in part to a decrease in the carbon intensity of fuels used to gener-ate electricity. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2011 report.)

Renewables (wind, solar/PV, biomass and hydroelec-tric) now provide 8.3% of total U. S. energy needs–

more than the 7.5% coming from nuclear. (U.S. Energy Information Administration Energy Review February 2012.)

The Tennessee Valley Authority will retire 18 old coal-fired gen-

eration units by 2020. Emissions of sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain, will drop by 97 percent from 1977 levels. (TVA announcement.)

However… The “cryosphere” – that part of the Earth’s surface

that is seasonally or perennially frozen – in Greenland and Antarctica is melting much faster than expected. At its current rate, sea levels will rise three to five feet by 2100. (SWIPA 2011 report.) The United States fell to third place in clean-energy

investment last year as the lack of a national energy policy hurt purchases in wind, solar power and other technologies. China is first; Germany second. (“Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race?” by the Pew Charitable Trusts.)

Federal land in Wyoming holding 750 million tons of coal will be leased to

mining companies that plan to export much of it to Asia. (U. S. Interior Department.)

The Generation Foundation is a grantmaking public charity working cooperatively to build a sustainable regional economy. 3375 Hollister Rd., Cleveland, OH 44118; (216) 371-0289; Fax (216) 321-1431; www.generationfoundation.org. Glenn R. Brown, President; Nancy McCann, Heather B. Moore, Steven W. Percy, Peter K. Ranney, Tim Ryan and William R. Seelbach, Vice Presidents; and Thomas M. Morley, Secretary. Robert Miller, Executive Director and Treasurer.

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