New Cincinnati sustainability coordinator: don’t just preach to the choir

Steve Johns is making the transition from executive director of Citizens for Civic Renewal to the city’s new sustainability coordinator where his main responsibility will be implementing the city’s Green Cincinnati Action Plan. Johns, originally from Delaware, has been with Citizens for Civic Renewal for nearly six years and will start his new position in the Office of Environmental Quality after the July 4 holiday.He has a big job ahead of him. City Council passed the Green Cincinnati plan in 2008; it contains 80 specific steps the city can take to become a national leader in addressing global climate change by reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions 40% below 2006 levels by 2028. Though the organization and outreach the city’s environmental community provides is crucial to the plan’s success, Johns has to reach out beyond that population, into the broader Cincinnati business community and into each neighborhood, he said.”With 80 recommendations in the plan, there is a lot in there that only people who are really concerned about the environment would do. But there are some things that people who don’t consider themselves environmentalists would be interested in,” Johnson said.Those things include increasing access to reliable, affordable and accessible public transportation, bicycling, using more energy efficient appliances or gardening.”The prime motivators for some people might not be saving the planet, but addressing quality of life or economic issues,” Stevens said. “Those are the people we really need to reach. The environmental community is already interested and in fact they’re already pushing us (to do more) on a lot of fronts.”The city’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions got a boost earlier this year when it received a $500,000 EPA Climate Showcase Community Award for the plan. The grant will be paid out over three years, and will allow the Office of Environmental Quality to more easily publicize the plan to business and community groups.Johns will also be working to implement energy efficiency in city buildings, and then raising awareness about how those savings can be implemented in homes and business across the city, he said.Writer: Feoshia HendersonSource: Steve Johns, City of Cincinnati sustainability coordinatorYou can follow Feoshia on twitter @feoshiasoapbox