Sustainability : Buzz

In recognition of National Honey Month, Scott Cockerell, director of business development, Wannemacher Total Logistics, will talk about various issues within the honey industry, including production, supply, bee shortage and competition at the monthly Northwest Ohio Ag-Business Breakfast Forum on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. The program is hosted by the Center for Innovative Food Technology at the Agricultural Incubator Foundation, 13737 Middleton Pike (St. Rt. 582) in Bowling Green. Cost is $10.

Get all the details and registration information here.

Youngstown-based Strollo Architects is ready to start a $4 million- plus rehabilitation project of the long-vacant Wells Building downtown to turn it into the company’s new headquarters with 12 apartments on its upper three floors.

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A business in Lorain has grown into a national leader supporting online sales of other companies. Trademark Global, in the former Lorain Ford plant at Baumhart Road and West Erie Avenue, is a multi-faceted business growing into its latest home -- 300,000 square feet of warehouse space at the former automotive plant.

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Avon Lake residents may soon be able to harvest a portion of their home’s energy from the offshore winds of Lake Erie.

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), a regional economic development corporation started in 2009, was granted $4 million from the Department of Energy and an additional $1 million from private partners in December to spur an offshore freshwater wind pilot project that called for the manufacturing of five to nine wind turbines placed in Lake Erie, seven miles off the coast of Cleveland.

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The fifth annual Youngstown State University Sustainable Energy Forum, featuring more than 200 academicians, energy-industry leaders, government officials and entrepreneurs, will take place June 3 and 4 at Youngstown State University.

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While the Ohio State men’s basketball team was competing in the NCAA Tournament, other members of the university community were working toward a different championship title.

OSU was crowned the winner of the second annual Environmental March Madness Tournament early Tuesday, defeating other schools in the “Sustainable 16” after filing out initial surveys.

The tournament pitted universities against one another based on each college’s environmental curriculum and sustainability efforts and was organized by Enviance, an environmental software company.

As the 2013 national champion, OSU will be awarded a $5,000 grant for its Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability (EEDS) program. Its director will also get an all-expense paid trip to San Diego to attend the 2013 Enviance User Conference and be a part of a discussion panel in April.

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In 1804, Ohio University became the first university established in Ohio. The ninth oldest public university in the United States, OU set up camp in Athens, Ohio, and the 20,000 students who call it home each year swell the population of the city only to leave once summer arrives.

But not Geoff and Michelle Greenfield. After completing their master’s degrees at OU, the couple decided to make Athens their home. They installed some solar systems on their off-the-grid home in 1997, and the community took notice. People started inquiring about how they did it and if they would help on new projects. What started out as a hobby job grew organically into a small solar business for the Greenfields.

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Ohio is making history as a leader in the fuel cell industry from the perspective of technology development and manufacturing, including both system integration and supply chain.

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Recently, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron recommended to the Ohio Legislature changes to Ohio's energy efficiency portfolio that would essentially freeze the energy efficiency mandate found in Senate Bill 221 at current levels. As currently written, Senate Bill 221 calls for Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to undertake energy efficiency improvements by 2025 equal to 22% of 2008's energy consumption. FirstEnergy's proposed changes would end the mandate at the less than 3% cumulative reduction required to date.

Ohio's Legislature should consider carefully any request to alter Ohio's course on energy efficiency. For many reasons, a reduction in the energy efficiency goal does not appear to be a good idea at this time.

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Many entrepreneurs who once envisioned their fledgling clean-tech start-ups becoming the next big thing are now downsizing their dreams.
Newer start-ups attracting investor interest have more modest aims than their clean-tech peers of a decade ago. The new batch expect to generate revenue more quickly and cheaply, and are focusing on making existing industries more efficient and sustainable, building upon the clean-tech infrastructure such as smart meters that have become widespread.

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Ohio State University has agreed to buy 50 megawatts of wind energy – equivalent to 26 percent of power consumption on the Columbus main campus – from the Blue Creek Wind Farm in northwest Ohio.

The agreement is one of the largest purchases of wind power by a North American entity that is not a utility, the school said.

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The nation’s wind energy industry is growing, and that’s helping Ohio, according to a new report by an environmental group. The Natural Resources Defense Council says its new study finds that a wind farm, consisting of something like 10 wind turbines, creates a lot of jobs.

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Over-The-Rhine’s tipping point wasn’t in the form of an eco-friendly general store or gourmet popsicle shop (it now has both), but rather the renovation of the neighborhood’s cultural heart, Washington Park.

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