Earth Day is a perfect opportunity to get involved in your local community and work alongside neighbors to support our natural environment. This year, we’re taking a look back to highlight some of the ways in which Cleveland neighborhoods and organizations have made strides to make the city a clearner, more sustainable place. Read a few of The Land’s top stories on sustainability below:
On May 24, 2015, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, called for global cooperation on addressing humanity’s greatest threat: the degradation of our planet’s physical environment. His encyclical letter addressed all of mankind, emphasizing the moral and ethical responsibility of caring for our planet.
“…[O]ur Sister, Mother Earth…now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her,” he wrote in his letter. “We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.”
Alarmed by the data and touched by the call to action of Pope Francis, a group of laypeople from St. Malachi Parish on Cleveland’s near west side studied “Laudato Si,” the Pope’s 184-page letter “on care for our common home,” over the course of a year. Thus, the seeds of the West Side Creation Care Team were planted, and a local environmental ministry was born.
Read more here.
Local shops offer refills on personal products and household cleaners, aim to reduce plastic waste
In recent years, Greater Cleveland has welcomed several stores providing a zero waste shopping experience where the packaging-conscious shopper looking to eliminate or minimize excess plastics can bring containers and refill them with soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap or household cleaners.
Refill Goodness owners Jennifer Vedrani and Jennifer Salkowski opened a location in Medina and a satellite location inside Made Cleveland, a boutique selling all local items in the Cleveland Heights Coventry neighborhood, in early 2023. Plans are underway to add another location in the Gordon Square neighborhood early this year.
Read more here.
On January 23, Greater Cleveland Partnership got an early morning wake up call when Sam Allard of Axios Cleveland broke the story that a coalition of grassroots organizations led by Cleveland Owns, the InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, and the Greater Cleveland Housing Justice Coalition would be leading a walkout at the second annual Sustainability Summit organized by Greater Cleveland Partnership.
Read more here.
West Side Market composting pilot program reduces food waste, landfill dumping
In the alley behind his stand at the West Side Market, Eddie Abu of Brothers Produce pointed to three 64-gallon containers teeming with melon rinds, pineapple stems, and other scraps. Three, it seemed, were not enough.
“I need four or five!” Abu told Robert Kurtz, who works with commercial clients of Rust Belt Riders, Cleveland’s leading compost company.
Abu wants to do his part for the environment by separating food scraps from compost instead of trashing them. “If I can help, why not?”
Read more here.
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