Midwest Sustainability Summit brings experts together to reverse climate change

Regional leaders and international experts will join together June 10 for the second annual Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit. This year’s event — a collaboration among local organizations from within a variety of sectors — is aimed at figuring out ways we can work together to reduce carbon emissions.
 
“Green Umbrella’s vision is to have the Greater Cincinnati region recognized as one of the top-10 most sustainable metro areas in the nation by 2020,” says Kristin Weiss, Executive Director of the nonprofit. “To do that, we need to be on the cutting edge of environmental sustainability and embrace the leap over incremental improvements. This Summit helps us achieve that.”
Paul Hawken 
Keynote speaker for this year’s event is Paul Hawken, whose latest book Project Drawdown provides readers with 100 existing solutions to reverse climate change. Not only are the solutions credible, but they’re scalable on a global level and, regardless of their impact on the climate, are intrinsically beneficial to local communities and economies.
 
Hawken’s talk fits well into this year’s theme of “Innovation and Collaboration.”

One way Cincinnati can take an existing solution and work together to implement it in a unique way, for example, is through electric vehicles. The presenting organizations and sponsors for this year’s event have arranged for attendees to be able to test drive electric cars and access savings toward the purchase of one.
 
“Electric vehicle adoption will help us reach our 2020 regional sustainability goal to reduce the consumption of gasoline and diesel as motor fuels by 20 percent,” Weiss says. “Our region is ripe for this, too, as we now have a comprehensive network of charging stations for electric vehicles, whereas at the beginning of last year we had zero fast charging stations.”
 
An added perk for those with electric vehicles, according to Weiss, is free parking.
 
“City of Cincinnati residents who are owners of electric vehicles will be able to park for free through the city’s All-Electric Vehicle Incentive Program,” she says. “It’s a model for other municipalities.”

Do Good: 

• Register for the Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit at Xavier University, which is open to the public. Admission includes both breakfast and lunch. 

• Learn more about this year's Summit, including the speakers who will compose the day's panel discussion. 

• Support Green Umbrella and its goals for our region.