Communities in Cuyahoga County are recycling about 50 percent of their waste on average, Diane Bickett, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, told the audience at the recent Cleveland Composting and Recycling Forum.

Austin, Texas has an ambitious goal of reaching zero waste by 2040, which means reducing the amount of trash sent to landfills by 90 percent.

The question now becomes: How does our region advance those goals while encouraging... Read more >

Cleveland is nationally known as a brewing mecca. While established breweries like Great Lakes and Buckeye Brewing continue to expand, smaller startups are popping up in their shadows. Nourished by home-brewing clubs and finding strong models in Cleveland’s prize-winning breweries, many of these entrepreneurs started by brewing small batches in their basements or garages.

When the Broadway Farmers Market in Slavic Village piloted a new program to offer a dollar-for-dollar match to Ohio Direction Card customers who purchase produce, it experienced a 191-percent increase in Direction Card sales in one year.

By offering incentives, the Produce Perks program helps to ensure that fresh, locally grown produce gets into low-income households where it's needed most. Many city residents do not have a grocery store with fresh produce within walk... Read more >

Great Lakes Brewing Company is now the 18th largest craft brewery in the U.S. and the 27th largest overall. The company brews more than 110,000 barrels of handcrafted beer every year.

The brewing process takes place in a warehouse at Carroll Avenue and West 28th Street near the West Side Market. Visitors to Great Lakes Brewing Company's flagship bar and restaurant on Market Avenue often can catch a whiff of the beer brewing and fermenting as they walk in to grab a pin... Read more >

The Orlando Baking Company, which was founded in 1872 in Castel di Sangro, Italy and came to Cleveland in 1904, has received a $1.3 million Clean Ohio grant to clean up a brownfield adjacent to its facility at E. 79th and Woodland Avenue. Orlando plans to expand onto the property, retaining about 40 jobs and creating 15 new jobs. 

The funds will be used to demolish and remediate the former Van Dorn property at 2700 E. 79th Street. The City of Cleveland is a partner i... Read more >

As Yelp Cleveland community manager, native Northeast Ohioan Cara Lageson is a pro-Cleveland powerhouse. When she's not busy penning reviews -- she has logged in about 400 -- she connects "Yelpers" and local businesses by coordinating marketing outreach that extends well beyond the digital realm.

Last fall, when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing on the City of Cleveland's proposed waste-to-energy plant, hundreds of protesters turned out to decry the plans.

The gasification plant, which would turn trash into energy to be used by Cleveland Public Power, would result in unacceptable levels of pollution in urban neighborhoods, environmental groups said.

Since then, the city has terminated its agreement with its controversial consulta... Read more >

Next time that your favorite barista etches a flower in your foamy mug of latte, savor it for a moment before you take a sip. He or she may actually be practicing for For the Love of Latte Art, an educational event and latte art throwdown that is being hosted this weekend by Cleveland-area coffee companies.

The event, which is being hosted by a new coffee collective called CLE Brews, will include skill-building workshops for professional and amateur baristas who are inter... Read more >

This Friday night, Tremont is hosting the grand opening for a new business, Tremont Tails, as well as a Preview Night that will welcome eight new businesses that opened in the past year.

This diverse roster of new businesses is adding to the vibrancy of the neighborhood's growing retail mix, says Cory Riordon, Executive Director of Tremont West Development Corporation.

"We're creating new retail options so that residents don't have to travel outs... Read more >

Bad Girl Ventures has teamed up with Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream and Accion to host a Speed Coaching event on Monday, May 7 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the COSE offices. The event targets startups in the food and beverage industry.
 
“People in food and beverage have a really hard time getting funding,” explains Rachel Czernin, director of marketing and development for Bad Girl Ventures.

Small business owners spend 20 minutes at each statio... Read more >

Last December, Russ Mitchell left New York, his home of 16 years, to bring his considerable talents to Cleveland as lead anchor and managing editor for WKYC. His portfolio spans 30 years and includes work in local news at points across the country, not to mention 15 years anchoring CBS news programs like The Early Show and CBS Evening News. At the center of it all is a man who is not only approachable and personable, but one who already feels like one of our own.

Urban gardens can be adventurous affairs, not unlike archeological digs in terms of how they turn up trash and pieces of the past just beneath the surface of the soil. If this isn't your thing, there's always raised beds. But they take time, labor and materials to build.

Thanks to a recently unveiled partnership, 150 families in the Buckeye, Larchmere and Woodland Hills neighborhoods will receive GardenSoxx, which are mesh sleeves stuffed with organic soil that ca... Read more >

This week, a pair of Cleveland Heights residents and avid home brewers launched BottleHouse Brewery in a 6,200-square-foot storefront on Lee Road that had been sitting vacant for more than a decade. The new venue, which will feature craft beers, original brews and a brew-on-premise facility that will open this summer, celebrated its grand opening Tuesday after a year and a half of work.

"It all ties in with bringing craft beer to the community," says Brian Bench... Read more >

Very soon, the City of Cleveland Heights will amend its zoning code "To encourage sustainable practices in residential neighborhoods." This legislation makes the city one of the most sustainable in the United States. Changes will make it expressly lawful to install rain barrels, plant front-yard vegetable gardens, build compost bins and replace asphalt driveways with those featuring semi-pervious materials. But without question, the topic garnering the most buzz is backyard chickens.

Now that the urban farming movement is becoming steadily more mature, cities are looking beyond backyard hens and market gardens to longer-term agricultural land use policies. They can and should learn from what works in other places while also advocating for better public policy at every level.

These were the messages conveyed at a forum on urban agriculture that was held last week at Cleveland State University. Kimberly Hodgson, a planner and public health advocate from... Read more >

Recently, an artistically-minded student at Glenville High School was so inspired by his school's first-ever Sustainability Awareness Day that he painted a rain barrel with the school's signature "G" logo and displayed it at last week's inaugural event.

"It was kind of like a small-scale science fair," says Anthony Body, Community Organizer with the Famicos Foundation, a nonprofit community development organization that serves the neighborh... Read more >