On October 11, 2005, the NEO Excellence Roundtable will feature City of Cleveland Sustainability Programs Manager Andrew Watterson to discuss successes and opportunities for our core city and region to lead the country and world as an environmentally-friendly and sustainable community. In a presentation Andrew made on "the State of Our Environment", at a recent meeting of the Ohio League of Conservation voters, I learned Cleveland is already a leader with sustainability, in many important ways, by adding hybrid vehicles to the city fleet and enacting an anti-idling policy intended to reduce emissions and fuel consumption (by 10%)... see Hotel Bruce for details. Andrew mentioned plans for wind turbines in the city and indicated many other exciting developments ahead - please join us on Tuesday the 11th, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, at the City Club to discuss these important issues with our "Sustainability Czar".

This will be a popular discussion - please RSVP ASAP - to confirm, please contact Norm Roulet at 216-534-1732 or norm [at] realinks [dot] us.

About Andrew Watterson, from Hotel Bruce:

Crowning Cleveland's sustainability czar

A key announcement for sustainability in Northeast Ohio is coming down the pike—the official crowning of Cleveland’s sustainability czar. Bruce blog has learned that Andrew Watterson, most recently a project manager for the developer Chesler Group, will be named to the post. The City Sustainability Coordinator will be housed in the city’s public works department where he’ll be charged with integrating sustainability ideas into standard operating procedure.

Watterson was the project manager and right hand man to Sadhu Johnston, founder and former head of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition. Johnston and Watterson spearheaded the development of the Cleveland Environmental Center, a green renovation of the former Cleveland Trust Bank building.

Watterson will certainly have a lot on his plate, but observers hope that a few easy victories may be achievable, such as saving the city money on its utility bill (for example, it’s been estimated that the city could save a couple hundred K just by putting LEDs in its traffic signals). Further up the food chain is championing an agreement between a provider of wind turbines and Cleveland Public Power to generate a percentage of the city’s power from (reported) utility grade wind off the shores of Lake Erie. Even with strong mayoral support, as in Chicago, the struggle for sustainability czars is to enlighten lifetime bureaucrats (and skeptics) to see how innovation is in our collective interest.

About the NEO Excellence Roundtable:

We're nurturing face to face visioning and so have revived a storied tradition of roundtable lunches at the City Club, each Tuesday between 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, where non-hierarchical area innovation champions are breaking bread and brainstorming. The NEO Excellence Roundtable format is casual and conversational - to join us for lunch, please contact coordinator Norm Roulet at norm [at] realinks [dot] us. Each attendee is expected to pay for your own meal - $13 for a buffet lunch, which is always excellent - if that is a barrier to you attending, please join us regardless and we'll cover the difference.

In the interest of supporting this open collaboration, we've also established a virtual Community Of Interest Link (COIL) called NEO Excellence - please visit at http://neoexcellence.realinks.us. To participate in the community, please "create an account" using the link found at the home page.

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