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Holiday Lights Recycling
Hosted by Great Parks of Hamilton County
December 1 - February 1, 2025
Learn more here
Regional Trail and Bikeway Committee
Hosted by Tristate Trails
January 24th, 2025 9:30-11AM
Learn more and register
Gear Sale & Donation Day
Hosted by Adventure Crew
January 25th , 2025 10AM-1:30PM
Learn more and register
Environmental Advisory Board
Hosted by OES
January 29th, 2025, 3-4 PM
Learn more here
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This Month's OES News Headlines
Take the Electrify Pledge!
Urban Agriculture Mini-Grants
Community Composting Off and Cooking
Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit – Call for Participation
New Go Solar Tools & Resources
City Upskills Fleet Mechanics on EVs
Cincy Air Watch Dashboard Launched
GCP Partner Highlight – MadTree Brewing
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Take the Electrify Pledge! | |
In Cincinnati, buildings contribute 62% of greenhouse emissions. One significant way to reduce your carbon footprint is by replacing old appliances that use gas or oil with electric ones. This allows your home to use electricity, which can be cleaner if you are part of the city’s aggregation program, or you have solar panels or batteries. Even if you don’t, the electric grid will become cleaner over time, but gas and oil will be dirty forever. You can show your enthusiasm for fighting pollution and climate change by signing the Electrify Cincy Pledge! | |
Urban Agriculture Mini-Grants | |
Garden Bed in OTR's Pleasant Street North Garden | |
Rows of garlic & onions growing in East Price Hill's Three Sisters Garden | |
Cincinnati awarded $37,222 in support of urban agriculture efforts within the City. Forty-two sites will receive funding as part of Cincinnati’s Urban Agriculture Program (UAP) for FY2025, including 7 completely new growing sites and 10 new recipient organizations. OES is proud to support local food production, access, and distribution at the ground level, and we look forward to hearing more from the UAP participants over the coming months! | |
Community Composting Off and Cooking | |
The gardeners of MLK Community Garden spent a chilly December morning filling their Johnson-Su Bioreactor with a mixture of food scraps, leaves, and wood chips. Over the next year, that material will decompose and turn into a nutrient-dense soil amendment. In November 2025, the gardeners will harvest the finished compost and apply it directly to their garden beds, then refill their bioreactor with food scraps to keep the cycle going!
This is part of OES’s ongoing community composting project, which began in 2021 as part of a USDA Composting and Food Waste Reduction grant. If you would like to get involved with this program, you can contact Laura Lair at laura.lair@cincinnati-oh.gov for more information.
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Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit | |
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The Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit – taking place June 5, 2025 - serves as a spark for connecting and learning together, deepening our resolve, and celebrating collaborative climate solutions as we each find our place in the movement to secure a resilient, equitable, and thriving future. Right now, speaker and facilitator proposals are being accepted for 50-minute discussion panels, 50-minute interactive workshops, and 5-minute short talks that explore this year’s theme. The submission deadline is January 15th.
The City of Cincinnati is proud to sponsor and support planning for this full day of programming (8:00 am to 6:00 pm), with 100 speakers, an exhibitor expo, a poster session, an art show, live performances, and a networking reception. With 20 breakout sessions, the Summit features 100+ speakers from Greater Cincinnati and across the Midwest.
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New Go Solar Tools & Resources | |
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The City of Cincinnati is pursuing SolSmart designation, which is a program that helps local governments make going solar easier for residents and businesses. As part of this effort, we have created the following new tools and resources. Check them out and share them widely!
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Solar + Clean Energy Web Page – For all your FAQs and links to resources about solar, including whether your roof is suitable for solar, how to select a legitimate installer, City tools and resources, financings and tax incentives, consumer protections, and more!
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Solar Permitting Checklist - A guide to City permitting for residential and commercial rooftop and ground-mount solar photovoltaic systems.
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Zoning Clarification Letter - Clarification of the City’s approach to accessory solar photovoltaic systems per the Zoning Code and Land Development Code.
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Zoning & Land Development Code Fact Sheet: Solar PV Systems - Summarizes how the City of Cincinnati’s zoning ordinance and land use regulations relate to solar energy.
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City Upskills Fleet Mechanics on EVs | |
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As part of the 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan (GCP), the City of Cincinnati is working to achieve its net-zero emissions goal. Decarbonizing the City fleet of 3,450 vehicles means reducing excess vehicles and transitioning to electric alternatives to cut tailpipe emissions. To prepare for the rise of electric and hybrid vehicles in the fleet, Cincinnati's Department of Public Services partnered with Bosch Automotive Training Solutions to provide hands-on EV/Hybrid training for city mechanics.
During this 8-hour session, 17 City mechanics and 3 external partners gained essential knowledge and practical skills, including motor principles, battery technology, safety systems, and maintenance protocols. Skilled EV mechanics are considered green job professionals, and their expertise is increasingly in demand. Check out this video to see the training in action!
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Cincy Air Watch Dashboard Launched! | |
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The Cincy Air Watch Dashboard is now live! Cincy Air Watch is a joint effort with the OES and the Cincinnati Health Department (CHD) to support the 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan strategy to “increase air quality studies, education, and reduce pollution from air emissions in the city.” Through this project, PurpleAir monitors are installed at partners like recreation centers, libraries, and schools in Cincinnati neighborhoods. The data is available in real-time on the new Dashboard through Cincy Insights and on the Cincy Air Watch Website.
The initiative aims to enhance community awareness of local air quality conditions and to investigate the relationship between air quality, asthma, tree canopy coverage, and heat island effects. To learn more about how air quality affects your health, view the Air Quality Educational Guide developed and published by the Cincinnati Health Department.
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GCP Partner Spotlight: MadTree Brewing | |
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OES is proud to highlight MadTree Brewing for their outstanding environmental contributions. Through their Let’s Grow Local initiative, MadTree has planted or donated thousands of trees annually, with nearly 700 trees planted by employees in neighborhoods such as Clifton, West End, Avondale, Bond Hill, Lower Price Hill, and Mt. Auburn.
MadTree’s sustainability achievements include:12 million pounds of spent grain sent to local farms for livestock feed since 2016, facilities powered by 100% renewable energy, LEED Gold Certification for their Alcove location use of 100% reusable or compostable flatware, cutlery, and napkins; offering carbon offsets for events, with funds donated to Cincinnati Parks Foundation for tree planting, and they donations totaling $900,000 to local nonprofits since 2020. Thank you, MadTree, for your efforts and generosity.
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The Office of Environment and Sustainability (OES) leads City government and the broader community in building a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient Cincinnati. | | | | |
