How we keep going
Advancing sustainability in the lean years
When I was a teenager I worked in a restaurant for a Vietnamese couple. Linh, the matriarch would always say to me, “When you have money, you go shopping. When you don’t, you stay home”. She had been a child during the Vietnam war, a refugee, and a foster child among many other things and at that time, she was a franchisee of a small restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.
Implied in her advice is the knowledge that prosperity ebbs and flows and our attitude and agility about it is fundamental to our resilience.
Our communities are reeling from both real and threatened cuts to programs and funding sources we are relying on to address the climate emergency, protect the environment and support public health and well-being. But those of us who have worked in public sector sustainability for awhile have been here before: 2001, 2017 and now in 2025. While local governments are making the case and fighting for federal grant funds they’ve already earned and have a legal right to, its important to remember over the next four years, there is plenty of work to do to advance sustainability locally as funding inevitably declines.
Even though environmental, social and infrastructure programs are likely to be cut more harshly than we’ve experienced before, I think we can adjust our playbook by learning from those other lean years.
I like to think of change happening in layers: policy, planning, programs and projects. When you have money, you do the programs and projects. When you don’t, you “stay home” and tee them up by focusing on the foundations of policy and planning. And while policy and planning take resources, they are good opportunities for sustainability teams to learn by doing and to build in-house expertise.
Policies: The next four years will be a good time to review what sustainability policies are in place. Are they being followed and enforced? Do they need an update? What policies are missing that would help to formalize and accelerate your sustainability strategy and goals? Can you work to get buy-in and adopt new policies and legislation if needed? These can be policies focused on buildings, infrastructure, procurement, zoning and more.
Planning: Given the current state of climate action, focusing on planning for adaptation, human resilience and climate-ready infrastructure and climate migration might be a good use of four years. There is time to do deep, collaborative and inclusive planning at the community level. Models like Resilience Hubs, can be advanced and principles of inclusive governance can be implemented. These things can take more time than they take money and coalitions help to do more with less.
Innovation: I have faith that new models and partnerships will be developed to continue with programs and projects, but it is hard to imagine they will keep pace with what was in the pipeline as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Personally, I struggle with the idea of slowing the speed and scale of the real programs and infrastructure that address the climate emergency: energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification, circular systems, nature-based solutions— but I believe if we can make tangible, meaningful progress no matter what, we will be doing right by our communities.
Myself and I'm sure a plethora of other sustainability professionals and activists, as well as impacted citizens, look forward to your planning and policy updates for Cuyahoga County!
Cuyahoga County manages the Waste Management Department who's goal is to be 'zero waste', I think this is a bold vision that can only be done with collaboration not just policy. As we've learned from not being able to ban plastic bags for example. It needs private-public partnership buy in.
CDC's within Cuyahoga County have used models such as the 'EcoVillage' and 'EcoDistrict' model to guide revitalization in the Detroit- Shoreway and Slavic Village communities. Resilience Hubs are another great model to add too as a resource. And lets not forget the wonderful Toolkit, Green City on a Green Lake created!
Even with the Federal government currently cutting parks budgets and Medicaid, Ohio pulled back on their renewable energy goals at the state level, and Cuyahoga County now dealing with deficits. There is still positive news, we still should be entitled to much of the IRA funding, Ohio recently sent $50 million+ to local colleges and universities, and within Cuyahoga County is getting $70 million dollars in Federal funding for a Lakefront development. And there is lots on the private investment too, including still an increase trend in electric vehicles, VPP, and community renewable energy!