Rosetta, an interactive marketing firm, boasts 1,500 team members spread across nine offices in places like New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, among others. But thanks to 450 staffers locally, Cleveland is now Rosetta's largest. That the firm has chosen 2012 to set-up shop in a downtown Cleveland landmark is pure poetry.

What's the cumulative impact of Cleveland's 200-plus community gardens, 20-plus farmers markets and 60-odd acres of urban land that have been tilled and planted for a future harvest?

That's an as yet unanswered question, says the City of Cleveland's new Sustainability Chief, but one she hopes to glean serious answers to in the coming year. Billed "The Year of Local Food" by Sustainable Cleveland 2019, a grassroots, city-led movement to employ sus... Read more >

SparkBase, a leading loyalty program and gift card processor, launched a new way for merchants to reach their customers through smart phones. Paycloud allows customers to sign up for loyalty programs on their phones, eliminating the need for plastic cards and key tags to take advantage of special offers.
 
“One of the things we heard repeatedly is the cost of cards -- it’s expensive -- and the time it takes to sign up for a loyalty card,” explains Do... Read more >

ArcelorMittal, a leading steel manufacturer, announced last week that it will re-open part of its west side Cleveland mill. A portion of the facility was idled in 2008 because of slow market conditions.
 
The re-opening means ArcelorMittal will add 150 salaried and hourly employees to the current staff of 1,700. The current staff is performing maintenance work in preparation for the restart. The new hires will mainly be skilled crafts persons and entry-level operators... Read more >

Ian Wong, a medical student at CWRU, found through his studies that there was a real need for access to fresh, quality food in Cleveland’s high-density areas. His theory: If people have fresh produce, nutrition is second nature. So he and co-founder Max Wilberding started Freshbag, a grocery delivery service that debuted in 2010.
 
“The company was essentially started to improve wellness in Cleveland through nutrition,” Wong says. “Our point is... Read more >

Last week, Fresh Water participated in a forum entitled "A City of Two Tales: Writing About Cleveland" at the Happy Dog in the Gordon Square Arts District. The event showcased the power of new media to spur civic dialogue and prompted an ongoing debate about telling the city's story to natives and newcomers alike.

The event was organized by Ohio City Writers (OCW), a nonprofit writing center that hosts classes and literary events on Cleveland's west side... Read more >

The prevailing impression of regionalism that has been bandied about Northeast Ohio for the better part of a decade is all wrong, says a collaborative group of area nonprofits. While the consolidation of countless municipalities is useful, it is not intrinsically regionalism. True regionalism, they argue, is defined by economic activity -- not political boundaries.

NorTech was recently named a recipient of the State Science and Technology Institute’s 2011 Excellence in Technology-Based Economic Development (TBED) Awards. Now in its fifth year, the awards program identifies national models developed by states and regions to accelerate science, technology and innovation to grow their economies and create high-paying jobs.

NorTech won the Most Promising TBED Initiative award for its cluster model, which is currently being applied... Read more >

What's the best thing a city can do to achieve more economic success? Increase its number of college graduates. Simply put: The most prosperous cities have the highest number of college grads. Efforts by CEO's for Cities and our own NOCHE -- dubbed the Talent Dividend -- are designed to up college attainment and thereby boost everybody's bottom line.

NorTech is accepting nominations for its 11th annual innovation awards, which highlight breakthrough technologies and innovations in Northeast Ohio.

“The innovation awards recognize those businesses and individuals and leaders who have created jobs and attracted capital to the region,” says NorTech president and CEO Rebecca Bagley. “The bottom line is recognizing companies that have had a positive economic impact.”
 
NorTech has held t... Read more >

Tremont Electric is developing a new energy source with its recently patented nPower Wave Energy Converter (WEC). The four-year-old Cleveland company made a huge splash with its nPower PEG, a pint-size power plant that allows people to charge their hand-held devices while walking, running or biking. Their new product uses the waves of Lake Erie -- and ultimately larger bodies of water -- to generate commercial-scale electricity.
 
“We put it in something like a ... Read more >

Cleveland State University is part of an economic impact study of shale in Ohio and its potential to give a big boost to the state’s economy. Ohio State and Marietta College are also participating in the study, commissioned by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the Ohio Shale Coalition.
 
The study focuses on the economic impact of drilling for gas and oil in the Utica Point Pleasant and Marcellus shale formations that run along the eastern half of the st... Read more >

LineStream Technologies is growing by leaps and bounds in the automated software control market. The company was created in 2008 as a spinoff out of research done by CSU’s Zhiqiang Gao, director of the Center for Advanced Control Technologies and focuses on commercializing and simplifying control software.
 
Basically, LineStream products increase efficiency, are easy to implement, and therefore improve the performance of automated systems.
 
&ldquo... Read more >

The ninth annual Green Energy Ohio Tour, held last weekend at 260 businesses and homes across the state, featured more than 160 solar, wind and green energy projects in Northeast Ohio. Yet while education was the tour's primary goal, it also communicated a critical, attention-grabbing memo to policymakers: this fast-growing industry is driving development and job creation in Ohio.

"With some of our legislators currently doubting the value of renewable energy, our... Read more >

NorTech is helping to harness the alternative energy business and translate it into big business in Northeast Ohio. The Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo at the John S. Knight Center in Akron on September 14 and 15 will bring together the major energy players to network, educate and discuss the future of advanced energy. "We will take a look at where we're heading and how we can beat the rest of the country," says Dave Krapinski, NorTech vice president. "The whole driving ... Read more >