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(upbeat music) - Hello everyone, I am Justin Glanville.

Welcome to the City Club of Cleveland.

I am a reporter and producer with Ideastream.

It's 6 May, and you are with a virtual City Club Forum.

(gong bangs) Hopefully you could hear that, that was the gong.

Last month president Joe Biden and his top officials announced that they are reentering the Paris Agreement and making aggressive commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of the two day summit, president Biden announced the United States will target reducing emissions by 50% by 2030.

Now, while most of the responsibility for combating the effects of climate change are being negotiated on the world stage, many of the most actionable solutions are small and local.

How we live and work together, in communities and cities, can have a big impact in tackling climate change.

You know, most of us are unaware of the tools at our disposal to help create meaningful change.

And there's still much work to be done to ensure that the solutions to climate change are available to lower income communities, and communities of color, since they are disproportionately affected by climate change.

Today, we're joined by local leaders who will discuss the tools, projects and initiatives underway to reduce carbon pollution while simultaneously creating more racial, economic, and environmental justice.

Joining us today, our Bishop Marcia Dinkins, she's the Executive Director, of Ohioans for Sustainable Change.

Which was formerly known as Ohio Interfaith Power and Light.

Bishop Dinkins is known nationally for her work, organizing clergy on issues of healthcare, the social safety net, environmental and climate justice, racial economic and gender justice, and civic engagement.

Cindy Mumford is the President of the Block Club, a residents group in the Hough neighborhood.

She is working to bring the neighborhood a solar energy garden.

That would be a hundred percent resident owned, and would cut down on residents utility bills, while also allowing them to build wealth.

Finally, we have John Seryak, he's the Founder and CEO of Go Sustainable Energy.

It's an energy efficiency and sustainable energy consulting firm based in Columbus.

As in every City Club forum, you can participate with your questions, just simply text them to the following number, 330 541-5794, that's (330) 541-5794.

You can also tweet them to, @TheCityClub, that's @TheCityClub, and we'll try to work them in.

So with that, let's begin.

I would love to hear just from all of you, what brought you to this work in the first place?

Why is it meaningful for you personally?

Bishop Marcia, can I start with you?

- Sure Justin, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this panel discussion.

I'm honored.

It's more, yeah, it's personal for me.

And I'm in this work one because I feel it's a calling, but number two, because of my lived experience.

Just to share a short story with you, I used to live in Toledo, Ohio, and where I lived at, when it rained or when it stormed, our basements would flood.

And my basement flooded to a point where the water was up to my knees and I had to put on boots, and that kept happening.

And then as I looked at what would occur during the weather or the climate change, then, you know, the humidity from the basement would then create mold in different mushrooms and whatnot that were growing in my basement.

And I ended up going into Anna Filactic shop five times and being hospitalized.

And from that moment, it was like that aha moment that I had not paid attention to how climate and environment intersected in a more personal way.

And how it shows up in so many different spaces.

And then I began to look at, you know the other ways that it impacted our lives.

And because of that, I began to see that the work that I was doing was not just a linear in nature, but there was layers to it.

And so from there, I really got interested in this work even deeper because I began to see the impact, the connections, and the stories that are connected to it in ways that we can involve more people, as well as be able to just exercise my faith in a more meaningful way in my voice.

- Perfect, and I love speaking with you on the phone earlier this week about your work with stories.

And I'm looking forward to getting into that more as we talk.

Thank you, Bishop Marcia.

Can I go to you next, John?

- Yes.

Gosh, I think I I'm a natural engineer and engineers like to problem solve.

And I was just, you know from a young age, personally interested in social and environmental issues, because they're very visible problems to just about everyone.

And so I think that just kind of nod at me.

(laughs loudly) So, and a lot of engineering careers historically I think have not been oriented towards social or environmental issues or problems.

They were more geared towards product design, but the engineering skillset can be applied to lots of different types of problems.

So it's been a very interesting line of work but I think it was a mixture of interest in applying my engineering skillset, what interests me personally.

But then also, you know observation and noticing the problems around around me and society in general and wanting to be a part of fixing the problems.

- Awesome.

And I can't wait to hear about your journey, because I know you started your company in 2006 which was really at the sort of the start of, I guess wider climate and environmental consciousness around green building strategies and so on.

So I can't wait to hear more about your professional journey.

And then Cindy could I turn next to you?

What brought you to the work of climate and environmental justice?

- Oh, well, thank you for inviting me to your panel.

I'm really honored.

I can just say that it was very very personal to me and to my neighbors as well.

I've lived in this community for, gosh almost since the early sixties.

And in addition, it was really when we got together with our neighbors, we were able to the city, the city of Cleveland offered some grassroots meetings where the community could come together and talk about social environmental issues.

And then we were also able to come up with a plan for implementation.

And during this plan we've been at this since 2018, we've noticed that social environmental issues also have a direct impact on our overall health and wellbeing.

As the Bishop spoke earlier, we all too many times have a lot of issues in our community when it comes to asthma, CLPD, high blood pressure, and other elements that are played in the African-American community.

But what makes our project great, and what really, really, really galvanized the community as a whole is that we get a chance to own it.

This is a project where we're able to position ourselves in this marge, and this market, we're able to produce a solar garden, to not only address our housing envelope, but also social and economic issues and disparities.

And that's what got me involved.

And this is my passion, but it's not just my passion.

It's the collective passion of our community.

- Fantastic.

Yeah, I can't wait to get into some of the details of the solar garden too.

That's such a cool project.

So John, I'd like to read a definition of climate justice that I found, because I think for me at least, it wasn't a term that I was as familiar with as environmental justice.

But this definition comes from Mary Robinson.

She's the former president of Ireland, and she now runs a Climate Justice Foundation.

And she says that climate justice, "Insists on a shift from a discourse on greenhouse gases, and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart."

And then from there, I'm paraphrasing now, she says it's about creating opportunities including economic opportunities and jobs within those communities.

So I have a two-part question for you.

What are some of the ways that your clients are becoming more energy efficient?

And then how is that creating opportunities for the people who are most effected by climate change here in Ohio?

- I mean, practically speaking, the what we see our clients doing, you know kinda this technical answer to your question, how our clients are becoming more efficient.

The, I think right now it's actually a mix of efficiency but also onsite generation, which is pretty new the last couple of years.

But it's allowed through technological innovation.

And I think just greater awareness of that organizations utility bills are manageable.

They used to be viewed as a fixed cost.

And so frankly they were just never managed often by organizations and now they are.

So organizations are finding a lot of savings opportunity.

But it's things you might think of.

It's upgrading lights to LEDs, it's controlling the heating and cooling systems better.

A lot of it isn't there, the controls, it is things like rooftop solar systems.

So we're seeing a lot of that kind of across the board.

as far as like creating opportunities, I think the what's interesting about this discussion is I would say our clientele and where the opportunities are created have largely been where the opportunities work, if that makes sense.

So I don't know that we have noticed a real concerted effort with as the energy infrastructure changes from, you know largely centralized plants and fossil fuel, based generation to renewable energy and storage and energy management.

I don't know that we've seen those opportunities extended to other parties.

You know, it's largely the same sorts of companies, that were in the space before coming back.

So we've had to be honest, we've been reflecting on that.

And I think some of the work we're doing in the Cleveland community, with community solar and growth opportunities partners, I think brings that up and highlights that, that probably there needs to be some effort in leaning in to make these opportunities in this new market equitable and open to others.

It's kind of a candid answer, but I guess, you know the same players that have been in the space are the ones that are participating in the new economy.

- Now, I appreciate your candor.

Thank you for that.

And just as a followup, I know, like it sounds like you know, much of your work and maybe even still now has been in improving efficiency in existing systems, or like within our existing energy infrastructure which is probably why the opportunities are going to existing players.

So do you see kinda like renewables and projects like the solar garden, which we'll talk about here in a second.

Do you see that as really being the doorway to creating sort of opportunities in the non-traditional, among non-traditional players?

- Yeah, for sure.

I think that there's some attention around that and it can be a great vehicle, it's visible, and it makes sense.

I think, you know, an underserved communities there you find a lot of the traditional energy efficiency opportunities that have been technically achievable and economically feasible for a long time, still haven't been done, right?

So we're talking something as simple as insulating a home, or getting a smart thermostat into a home, or upgrading the heating and air conditioning, and not just homes, but also small businesses.

Small businesses have barely been touched from an energy efficiency perspective.

They don't have access to expertise.

They don't have the internal staffing, often to figure these things out.

There's a landlord-tenant issue.

So I think where, you know, like the community solar where there's actually an advantage is it's visible and it's interesting.

It's harder to get a rallying cry around installation, I guess it doesn't, maybe it doesn't have to be that way but that's what we've noticed.

But all these things could come into, you know, small business and residential communities that today, you know, they're technically and economically feasible, so.

- Hmm, and maybe are the barriers just sort of maybe a lack of funding, or a lack of knowledge or awareness about those opportunities being available?

- Yeah.

I think the there's a lot of barriers, but I thought about this and I wanted to say also that like there's a lot of complicated things you know, community need solar, for example, I mean I could list probably like 20 barriers to why it's gonna be difficult to get started.

But I also wanted to say there's, I think we need to also realize instead of just saying it's complicated and hard, we also need to acknowledge really It's kind of simple, it's as simple truth too, I think people are saying like, Hey, why don't I buy or own a solar panel?

How come I can't generate electricity for myself?

And use that and have that choice.

And I think we need to hold on to that simple truth to help push us through a lot of the economic and regulatory and political barriers.

But there's an institutional in their shop with the electric sector, but frankly, I don't, I mean this is new.

This is a new thing.

And a distribution utility doesn't necessarily know how to integrate a community solar project.

And so there's not a clear entrance ramp for organizations or people who do wanna do this sort of project.

And that's the first barrier is it's like there's just not even a way to connect the folks who wanna do these projects to the system.

But I think we need to acknowledge that it can be done.

There's a simple truth to it.

And that'll maybe help us get us through some of the barriers that do exist.

- Great.

Cindy we've been kinda teasing the solar garden project here for the last couple of minutes.

So I'd like to turn to you next.

You and the Block Club or working with John's company right now, on a project called the Hough Community Solar Garden.

It'll be integration of solar panels on about eight acres of vacant land and the neighborhood.

And it's planned to generate about 300 kilowatts of energy and power 50 homes, representing a hundred people in the neighborhood.

Can you talk a little bit about how you and the Block Club got the idea for that project, and how you've been getting it off the ground?

- We actually got the idea from the project by doing our own research when it comes to renewable energies, and we were very interested in reducing our carbon footprint.

And we are well aware of the barriers that dress projects such as the BC.

We also know that there are different models in other states.

There are 12 other states that have done this sort of community type solar ownership array and they've been very successful.

So with Cleveland, we are trying to, let's just say integrate ourselves through the underground railroad, by working with stakeholders, such as Mr. Seryak and Growth Opportunities Unlimited, Cleveland State.

We have also been involved with a legal form to help us to adopt policy, to introduce as legislation, so that this work can become a reality.

So we just a matter of fact, we have a meeting with the city today, right after this meeting.

Because the interest is so high and working with the city of Cleveland Sustainability Department, to make this project a reality.

So we have a vested interest in making this project worked and our interest in solar, because I don't even know if I can even share my screen, but anyway we just wanted to make sure that we position ourselves.

If there is the industry of solar, the projected outcome through 2026 is $52 billion, $52 billion.

And then it's projected to reach $223 billion by 2026.

And as John mentioned, these are all the existing big players that are at the table.

So this is an avenue for us to create wealth within our community.

For generations if we're able to create a pathway, not only for our solar project, but for other communities that look like ours, that want to change our economic footprint through this industry.

So if we're able to collaborate and we are doing a great job of collaborating now, this project will be a model not only just for the Block Club and Hough, but all through greater Northeastern Ohio, in addition to other surrounding states in our area.

Like I said it's always easy to identify the barriers, but what we've done with our collaborations if we've identified the barriers we've come up with a strategy for implementation.

Now, the buy-in for this type of project is crucial to its success.

Given that city, the city of Cleveland has Cleveland Public Power, and John you can speak to more of those, the structure of Cleveland Public Power.

It gives us an opportunity to introduce this legislation because it's ran by city council.

And John you can correct me.

So that means that it is not as regulated as the regular regulatory body that the other the illuminated company is with.

So we're able to get off our power purchase agreement, we already know that the stack the cards are stacked against us, and this is why the players at the table at the table, there's this team players, as John mentioned, this is our last go around to position ourselves as a people to take advantage of this wealth and also benefit overall.

And this will also help eradicate policy.

If it's done correctly, steer headed and led by the community.

We have to have a seat at the table to implement change.

- Bishop Marcia, Can I turn to you next?

You've spoken about how there's a moral imperative to address climate change.

Can you talk about that a little bit?

And then what are some of the ways that Ohioans for Sustainable Change is addressing that moral imperative through its programs?

- Faith leaders, as faith leaders.

We have a moral imperative to bring forth the truth or to educate those within, you know the faith community, also to combat some of the false narratives that have been legislated, you know based around belief in ideologies and values in a religious space.

And we've seen this in 2016 and 2020 with our prior administration and the election.

And so, you know, we have a responsibility, a mandate.

that we need to begin to teach and train so that we can have, you know, transformed communities.

And one of the things that we're doing is we've launched the Black Church, the Green Movement, and the Black Church, the Green Movement, is really about educating faith leaders on climate change as well as environmental justice, so that they can be one, equipped to take the message into their communities, two, to be able to build green teams or social justice teams within their congregations, to also, you know have training on the inside and conversation, you know on the inside with regards to our responsibilities.

And, you know, I often tell people you cannot say that you've accepted a call to ministry, but you deny the call to justice.

And so we're moving in a space of acknowledging our call to justice and doing this at the intersection of our faith.

And that's where the moral imperative comes in.

And we have done in the past be the spark trainings, Ohio formerly, when they were Ohio IPL, they did a lot of work around energy efficiency and they had an energy stewardship program as well as the faithful footprints.

And what that did was it allowed houses of worship to have energy audits and do energy assessments to become energy efficient.

And we were able to probably bring over a hundred houses of worship into that space, and they continue to be faithful energy stewards, and continue to move towards energy efficiency within their congregations.

And faithful footprints is about the congregants, you know members of the church who also say, Hey, you know I want my home to be energy efficient.

I want to be able to protect against, you know, some of the things attached to climate change or environmental justice.

And we have also, you know, trained them and gotten them the things that they needed, in order to have energy efficient and safe homes.

And so those are just, you know, different ways that we carry that moral imperative, as well as just lifting our voices to speak against unjust policies, or degenerative policymaking, which continues to leave some out, as we call it.

Or I like how Thomas Sowell puts it, division of the anointed versus the benighted.

We're showing up as thinkers and leaders in this space to challenge the vision of the anointed, which is the political thinkers who believe that they don't need empirical data.

They don't need anything, but just their thoughts.

And as a result of that, we see the place that we're in with regards to climate change, and climate denial, and environmental injustices, that continue to be perpetuated.

- And Bishop Marcia sticking with you for a moment.

You also are involved with an initiative called Reimagined Appalachia, and its aim is to bring climate justice and new jobs to four states, Ohio, west Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

And my ears perked up, when you talked about one of the projects that you're working on with that initiative being a story map.

Where you'll be posting I believe on online, a map with associated stories of people living in those states and how climate change affects them, I think.

But can you talk a little bit more about that?

And then maybe also just a bit more about Reimagined Appalachia?

- Sure.

So Reimagined Appalachia, as you stated is a four state campaign, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

And the whole purpose for Reimagined Appalachia was to connect to the federal, you know, to connect to the federal policies and to push for federal infrastructure, or public investment into the Appalachian regions.

And so a lot of this is connected to bringing union jobs into those four regions.

And so what I have done, and what you're speaking about is inside of the blueprint, you know.

A lot of times we can develop things and they're not always racially inclusive.

And we realized that in Reimagined Appalachia.

And so as a part of that I started building out the Black Appalachian Coalition, and the Black Appalachian Coalition is addressing issues.

First of all, when we think of the word rule or Appalachia we always consider it to be like this nostalgic place rooted in whiteness.

That's exempt from the problems that America experiences with regards to race.

And so the purpose of the Black Appalachian Coalition is to confront black and visibility.

And, you know because they have been, black people have been erased and excluded from the story of Appalachia.

And so through story-based strategies, our goal is to bring forth their word.

Or as I like to say, decolonize the knowledge that's attached to history, photography and stories, and we're going to decolonize the knowledge through contrast mapping, story-based mapping, and other story-based strategies, not only one to bring to the forefront, the rich history that black people have played in Appalachia.

But if we're going to talk about economic justice which will then lead us to racial justice, we have to make sure that those voices are at the table.

Those voices are seen, voices are heard, as well as those individuals are seen.

Otherwise we'll continue to build the trenches that go around them, that continues to perpetuate the racial wealth gap.

And our goal is to make sure through those stories, that not only are we building the trenches to where there's jobs and economic and entrepreneurialship opportunities, but also to look at the things that has been perpetuated as a legacy of slavery around environmental divestment, economic divestment, that's connected to other things such as, redistricting, and red lining and so on and so forth.

And so the cool thing about it, as you said, Justin is, we'll be able to go in and put those stories on the map and people will be able to hear those stories.

We'll also be attaching it to some of the bad actors around fracking to also build the conversation for renewable energy.

But I'm excited because we're gonna tell this story and advance it in such a way that it'll connect the story and hopefully break the urban and the rural divide, as well as create economic mobility and sustainability.

For those who have been divested from as well as who continue to carry, or continue to be overburdened by climate and environmental impacts.

- I am so honored to be on the panel with you.

I, our project has addressed some of those similar barriers.

We were able to receive a small grant that allowed us to do energy audits for the residents in the homes.

And then what happens a lot our community is very mixed use and culture.

And a lot of people did not qualify for energy audits because of the income guidelines as required to them for free.

So what's unique about our project, is that it is all inclusive, culturally and economically.

Many times working class people don't qualify for a lot of the program.

This model that we're using with the BC is all inclusive, culturally, economically, and geographically.

Because the way that the solar project, the solar firm, you don't have to be close to the solar firm to take advantage of its benefits.

And we're able to generate wealth, which will make it sustainable in the sense of job creations, such as job as for the landscaping part, engineers, engineers such as John, project managers, is these components for the job development.

They're all inclusive within our model and our strategy that we're gonna use for the Block Clubs Solar Garden Project.

We are already partnering with our neighbor.

Its been what?

I think we were like seven, we are partnering with our neighbors in were five.

It is so important that you create avenues or pathways for everyone.

Yes, we have, we, a lot of us live in the poverty guidelines.

We have a lot of working class people.

You have a lot of working poor people, and then you all have also have people that are families that fall within those demographics of middle-class.

And the reason John Seryak's work is important because it's we hope to become one of your stories, but we also need the data.

Everything now is driven by data, data, data, that's all you hear is data.

So we wanna show this as an evidence based practice model that it can go in and change not only the look of a community, but it can also enhance the people in the community.

And everyone has an opportunity to participate in this type of model with the solar garden that we're implementing.

- Wonderful.

Well, believe it or not, we are at a past first 30 which means we're at the midpoint of our forum.

And I wanna get to questions.

If you have any questions feel free to text them to, 330-541-5794, again 330-541-5794.

You can also tweet @TheCityClub and we'll try to work them in.

We do have a couple of questions that have already come in.

So one is about a specific project in Cleveland.

Someone's to know what the panelists think of the Opportunity Corridor asphalt plant proposal.

Now I'll, I don't know a ton about it myself, but there's been a large proposal to build an an asphalt plant along the Opportunity Corridor which is a new Boulevard that will connect I-490 to University Circle on Cleveland's East side.

Anyone on the panel, been following that proposal?

Or the Opportunity Corridor in general and wanna to speak to it?

- I'm familiar with Opportunity Corridor because our project falls within those geographic lines.

We know that anything when it can relate to infrastructure is always a benefit to its surrounding communities.

Most of the time, we would just like to see from a community perspective how some of those dollars come back, and how they are infused into the community for progress and development, that the community control that dollars, control those dollars?

- So we have also a couple of questions on transit.

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

In the last 15 years RTA fairs have doubled while service has been cut 30%.

What is being done to promote transit?

What does this say about the region's commitment to climate change?

Has anyone been looking into transit at either the local or the state level?

Bishop Mercia based in Dayton.

So maybe Bishop, you might be familiar with some initiatives outside of Cleveland.

But anyone wanna weigh in on transit, and the opportunity for transit to create greater climate equity?

- I do know that, and I just moved to Dayton, not too long ago, so I'm not that familiar with everything that goes on.

But I do know that inside of Reimagined Appalachia and Policy Matters Ohio.

They have been doing a lot of work around transit.

And currently is looking to build a transit committee to address the issues that this question just raised.

I do know that this is just the beginning of it.

I also know that Amanda Woodrum with Policy Matters Ohio.

She has been working on transit for the last several years.

And just like you said, the person indicated, you know that the dollars they could continue to reduce the dollars and the investment, but yet continue to emit the gases.

And so there's been a push.

It's been a difficult push for that very reason because on the local or the county levels, they will say that they don't have the money.

They will say that they don't have the money to invest into the infrastructure to improve things.

And so such it's been a long battle that, you know we're still pushing and fighting against but I definitely would encourage you to look at policymattersohio.org, and they would have some information there.

And also if you would like to be connected to Amanda Woodrum with the Reimagined Appalachia project around, you know further getting further information on transit and what they're moving, because I'm not a part of that committee.

I definitely can pass that information on as well.

- You know, while we're talking about funding, I also mentioned at the top of the hour that, you know we're sitting here kind of waiting for Biden's new infrastructure plan to potentially pass.

that plan is really sweeping there's money in it for everything, from transit to boosting the electric car industry, to renovating houses.

This is a question to all the panelists.

You know, if the plan passes, what do you think we'll see, how will it affect your work?

- I think this will provide the opportunity for change, and even in making the playing field even.

If we are able to, once the Bidens administration proposal was passed, I think we should stand behind it as a people but we also have to be held accountable for these funds when they come to the community as well.

So many times, you know, I don't know how many to date my age.

There have been a lot of money when it came down to a model cities, empowerment zone, now is Opportunity Corridor, where we would like to be able to see as a people these dollars come straight to the community where the people have control over how they address their social ills and build themselves up as a people economically, socially, and culturally, and health wise.

- I would echo some of the things that was just stated, but I also think that we should not get so comfortable, and thinking that the Biden's jobs plan is going to meet everything.

Because I think inside of that, there will still be some fights because there are dollars that are being allocated to fossil fuels.

I think it's about $3 billion.

That's being allocated to fossil fuels.

There are certain things that Biden will not come out and just speak against or speak about.

I do believe that, you know if we look at it from a holistic perspective, it will bring resources into the communities.

I do believe wholeheartedly that we have to ensure that those community, that the community has a voice and where those dollars go.

But I also think we have to ask ourselves, and a lot of times we don't think about it, is are we going to be competing or one service against another?

You know, so I always ask people at the risk of what?

You know, and even when we look at it I don't wanna just look at things from like climate and environment, because if we're going if we're talking about climate and environment and we're talking about fossil fuels, and we're talking about pollution, we're also talking about our health as Ms. Mumford just said, we're talking about our health.

And when we're talking about our health, or we're talking about economics, then we also have to be talking about healthcare.

We also have to be talking about taxes and revenue.

So for my work I think it also begins to advance a deeper conversation.

We also need to be talking about prescription drugs.

We need to be talking about the whole person, the whole self, inside of this and not just allowing things to be fragmented in such a way that we're looking at it.

You know, just from one lens in a sense.

And so for me, it's like, yeah, this will help to push to make sure the proposed changes under the ACA become permanent for those who have pre-existing conditions and, you know, who would be able to have access to healthcare.

But it also allows us to make the argument under, you know the job's plan to lower prescription drugs now.

Because of the fact that prescription drugs, people who have been subjected to the impact or the social determinants that have impacted their health you know, they're paying out the wazoo, you know, for health, you know, for prescriptions.

And so I think for us, let me speak for me, for me the jobs plan elongates the conversation, because I feel like we're not just in one 50 fights, we're in one fight with 50 rounds, and we have to connect this whole ecosystem together.

But also being mindful that some of these things that comes in that jobs plan also has certain limitations.

And will impact our work.

And we still have some work to do, because again you can't say I'm for climate change and I wanna invest all of these dollars, but I'm still for putting, you know, $3 billion.

I think it's 3 billion I have to look again, but I know, you know, into fossil fuels.

So it's like, you know, how do we deal with that double-edged sword?

- John, lemme bring you back in here too.

You know, are you expecting a huge boom in business with this new Biden infrastructure plan?

And could this be kind of a watershed moment in terms of you know, bringing some of the folks that haven't been at the table, or haven't been able to from opportunities around energy efficiency into the picture?

- Yeah, I think I'm hoping it's a watershed moment.

I like watershed moments.

And I think the industry is at a point where like some nudges can put it in a good direction.

From my perspective running the business, no, I guess I'm not planning on some influx of funds, you know, we'll see what happens.

I honestly don't have time to follow.

I don't have an ability to nudge national policy.

I'm pretty focused on the State level which for our company, and I think our customers our state's energy policy has been kind of a focus area.

I, but I can't say, you know what we look for is, you know, I steer the ship by the current, so to speak, not the wave.

So one time spending, for us one time spending projects, don't change things a lot.

You kinda have to manage around them.

I think we're looking at an energy ecosystem that is totally changing.

And so we're looking at like, what are things gonna be like over the next 10, 20, 30 years?

And that's how we make decisions on how to staff who to serve?

So I think to the extent that there's a Federal Bill that creates funding for projects, and it pushes on those key points where the industry's going then I think it will be money well spent.

It can bring new people to the table.

I think past experience has been though that, oftentimes that doesn't happen.

So I do have some skepticism on the effectiveness of that.

And, you know, I guess that's our experience from spending bills passed often the money doesn't go to the project that saves energy or doesn't bring people to the table.

That doesn't mean it can't happen now, but I think that's where people's minds should be as the is that funding being spent effectively.

- You know, and I have to really agree with John.

You know, unless we take a panoramic view, or a drone's view of this opportunity, you know it's like before the passing of the Civil Rights Act, so that people would have the opportunity for some, for opportunity for fairness, even after the passing of the Civil Rights Acts, but we have to change the laws.

Like John said the policies that are in place now don't make the playing field even, and give projects such as like single time projects, a chance for growth.

- I think that's a great transition into another question that we've got from the audience.

And I'm gonna paraphrase a little bit, but you know the title of this forum is Global Problem, Local Solutions.

And the audience member is writing in with the question, you know, how does a global problem get addressed with local solutions essentially?

You know, we have goals such as reducing greenhouse gas affluence by 50% by 2030.

And to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

So how do we address those really big global goals and that big global problem?

How are these, how are local projects helping to address that?

Maybe I'll start with Bishop Marcia.

- So I think it's well, for us I can say from the local standpoint is we have, I have been participating in conversations with CAN International, to see how we can address the domestic and global issues.

One of the things that we do know is collectively looking at carbon emissions, looking at the top 1% who continues to be the largest carbon emitters, but also be the ones to get the largest gain as far as wealth is concerned, and then create and perpetuate poverty.

And what we have been doing is looking at the different ways that we can bring that conversation together as a whole, and come together and identify solutions in ways that we can work together.

So currently right now, especially since Biden has put the US back inside of the Paris Agreement, we have been having various meetings over the past couple of months, to really identify solutions and ways that we can work together, to address the domestic and the global problems.

And, you know, I'll be honest right now, it's still kind of a little bit of tension around it, simply because there are certain things that we see or that we want here in the US that, you know the international groups are like, you know we needed to be a little different.

But at least we're in the dialogue.

And that's how we started, you know, to look at some of the ways that we can engage with one another to build this voice that addresses the domestic and global problems.

- I think what I'm hearing too from folks on the panel is that, if we simply allow those big global goals to kind of guide things, and for money to flow in the traditional ways, then the same players will be at the table who are always at the table.

And I think part of what I'm hearing from the panel is that local solutions help to disrupt that a little bit.

Is that fair, Cindy?

I feel like you especially in that space.

- Well, you're singing my song.

(Justin chuckles) - Yeah.

But I felt like there's an opportunity for us to grow, you know.

So to come together collectively and work in solve problems, and be, to participate in international laws and creating international forums, addressing the same type of issues that plague us here, are that they play other people around the world.

That's why this model is this is a business model.

It's not a program model.

The model that we have with the the community solar grant is a business model that can be implemented anywhere.

And then with the growth of it, we could also, hopefully as we grow fund other projects.

That may not meet your regular lending, you know criteria.

So, but like I said we need the data to support what we're doing.

And we need the data to support and show our outcomes.

And like Bishop Marcia stated, Bishop Dinkins stated, this, our health disparities are not just limited to the United states, or even to have my community.

These are global issues that if we're able to come together, work together, and see our needs and not and see where there are opportunities for us to work together instead of competing against each other, with all that's going on with aggression and injustice, in addition to what's going on with the African-Americans and the police injustice right now.

And I don't get me wrong.

I have love the police.

I have a lot of family members that are police officers.

But what's going on?

And these are global issues.

And if we don't, if we're not able to assimilate ourselves together, to change the laws on a local level, on a state level, national level, and even on a global international level, we are lost.

So we, this is a great opportunity for us to work together.

And this hard work, I have to tell you very, very hard work.

Long hours.

(Justin laughs loudly) - Yes.

I was talking about that with Bishop Marcia a little bit on the phone as well.

The part-time job, that's actually a job, right?

So we just have about four minutes left and I'd love to just close by asking everyone on the panel to maybe give some advice for folks who are listening, you know what are some ways they can get involved?

You know, the whole idea, again of this talk is a global problem, local solutions.

Are there ways that listeners can get involved in your work to help with the problem of climate justice?

- Yeah, I think for us one way is, you know our stories are important, and the stories is is what brings us in.

So if people have stories that they wanna share and speak to the lived experiences within their community because it's like Ms. Mumford said, we need the data, not just the quantitative but the qualitative data, this mixed methodology.

And so for us, it is, you know definitely we're looking for people to train as trainers, in the Black Church, Green Movement.

We're looking for people to be a part of the Black Appalachian Coalition table to bring voices to the table.

So we are having collective wisdom, bringing that collective wisdom together to build out an a policy agenda to dismantle a lot of these degenerative policies.

But we're also just looking for people who just wanna, you know, just go out in the community and talk about it.

You know, and to educate, we have to, you know, get this, you know you can come and come to the trainings and get the skills.

And then we just ask, we always say just rinse and repeat it, tell the story and help equip others as we equip you.

And those are ways that you can, you know, be involved with our organization.

Volunteerism, internships, research we need it all.

(laughs loudly) We'll take it all.

- All right, there you go.

Cindy, how about you?

Any ways that folks can get involved in the solar garden, for example?

- Sure.

You can reach out to me at Cindy Mumford.

I had to put it in the chat.

I'll let you put it in chat.

cindymumford@thebcward7.org, or you can get into contact.

Look that for us on the website, we need bodies.

We need bodies, and never underestimate the power of one, and never underestimate yourself.

So if you wanna get involved, you know, just reach out to us.

You can reach out to me by telephone number you can put into the chat, is 216-496-2300.

We love to talk and share our stories, but we also need people to help - John.

Any last thoughts from you.

Are you looking to hire?

Are you gonna be it was business booming around energy efficiency right now.

I know you've grown a lot since 2006?

- Yeah.

We do have some job postings up and we're always looking for interns.

So yeah, if anyone is a technical out there and looking to work for a company like ours, or has some experience for sure get in touch and we'll keep hiring.

So there's no, but later too.

My thought on like what you can do, you know not knowing who's all listening in, but I think inquiry works really well.

I don't think anyone needs to have all the answers right now.

I don't think any one person has all the answers.

But I do think where we see a lot of change get sparked, is when someone asks a question, right?

So it could be with your employer, like, how do we manage our energy use?

Or reducing our energy use or carbon footprint?

They'll think about it.

You could ask your council person, right?

They're probably looking for that sort of interest and inquiry.

It could be your house of worship.

It could be your neighbor, you know just bringing these things up and saying like, well what are you doing?

And sharing thoughts, you know, it's a low bar, low time way of getting a dialogue started that doesn't get contentious and from our end, that is what, that's where we see our clients start to make changes and start to invest in energy is when they get a friendly question from their employers, or their shareholders, or their customers, or someone in their community, it creates change.

- Love it.

So, yeah so talk to your neighbor, talk to your coworker.

I love it.

All right, well we're unfortunately we're out of time, so thank you all for joining us for today's forum on the intersection of climate change, utilities, energy and justice.

We've been talking with Bishop Marsia Dinkens.

Who's the Executive Director of Ohioans for Sustainable Change.

Cindy Mumford, who's the President of the Block Club and Hough.

And John Seryac, who's the Founder and CEO of Go Sustainable Energy.

Today's forum is a part of our climate change series sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation.

Our community partners are the Ohio Climate Justice Fund, and Power Clean Future Ohio.

We appreciate their support and planning today's forum.

All of the City Club's virtual forums are presented for free every week.

Thanks to generous support from the Bank of America, KeyBank, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and PNC.

You can join them in supporting City Club's mission, by making a contribution online or becoming a member at cityclub.org.

I'm Justin Glanville.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

And our forum is now adjourned.

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