What cities
can do

Increasingly, the fate of the planet depends on the future of cities. Cities are where most people live, where most resources and energy are consumed, and where most wastes are produced. To avert further destruction of the earth's life-support systems, cities must be transformed into places where people can live healthier lives while reducing their ecological impacts.

Across the country and around the world, innovative cities are assuming responsibility for becoming more sustainable. In this section of our site, we explore what the City of Cleveland can do (taking advantage of the opportunity of a new mayor) and what other cities are doing in Northeast Ohio and around the world.

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Making Cleveland a green city

To the new Cleveland mayor

The Cleveland Sustainability Programs Manager
Creating a 21st Century sense of place
The Cleveland neighborhood platform
Kent's goals for sustainability
Oberlin as global citizen
Urban innovations in North America
Sustainability in European cities
Resources for green urbanism
PD discovers eco-projects
Metropolis magazine profiles Cleveland

Recycling issues

Download PDF document of the special issue of the EcoCity Cleveland Journal (Sept/Oct 2001) on "What Cities Can Do." (warning: large file 13.1 MB)

You have to love your city
and love the area you're trying to improve:
genuinely love it,
not regard it with suspicion, disdain,
any of those emotions,
or whatever you do,
even with the best intentions,
will be distastrous.
—Jane Jacobs