Green Umbrella

Greater cincinnati regional food policy council: a cross sector collaboration of organizations and individuals, community influencers, and decision makers, collaborating to drive impact in creating healthy, equitable, sustainable food systems for all in the greater cincinnati region. Current focus areas include 1)connecting local farmers to schools and students to learn about where food comes from, 2) encourage availability of healthy, desirable food options across our region, for all income levels, 3) dialogue with residents who have experienced food insecurity to better inform emergency food systems based on their needs, 4) convene regional partners to develop a comprehensive approach to regional food system planning, 5) telling the story of our region's foodshed through the cincinnati's foodshed atlas.

Common orchard project: the common orchard project is working to install and maintain hundreds of small orchard plantings on vacant lots and public land across greater cincinnati. It partners with communities characterized by low access to fresh and healthy food and low tree canopy coverage, to design, plant and maintain public orchards where fruit can be grown and distributed to neighbors. These pockets of greenspace provide shade, habitat, community gathering spaces and exposure and access to fresh fruit growing right where it is needed most. The common orchard project plants approximately 10 orchards per year and trains neighbors to serve as orchard stewards, who care for and harvest from the trees and other plants at the right times.

Gu event series: a variety of one-time and on-going public events supporting or aligning with the organization's primary focus of advancing environmental sustainability in the greater cincinnati region. Public programs include midwest regional sustainability summit, green drinks, annual meeting, and cultivate+connect. Cincinnati 2030 district: the district's mission is to create a network of healthy, high-performing buildings in the city of cincinnati. Participating members make a collective commitment to reduce their buildings' energy use, water consumption, and transportation emissions by 50% by the year 2030. The cincinnati district also includes a healthy building pillar with a goal of improving the health of building occupants, with interventions tailored to the most pressing needs in our city. Members of the cincinnati 2030 district are property owners and managers, developers, and commercial tenants who commit to assisting the district to achieve its reduction goals through the implementation of sustainable, emissions-reducing solutions in their buildings. Currently, our 42 members have committed 318 buildings and 27.7 million square feet to the cincinnati 2030 district. By partnering directly with members, the cincinnati 2030 district accelerates the development of sustainable buildings by breaking down market barriers, encouraging collaboration, and assisting members in the deployment of innovative sustainability solutions.gu impact teams: gu facilitates cross-sector collaboration with the goal of achieving policy and systems level outcomes that result in a resilient, equitable and thriving region. In 2024 the two impact teams supported were the greenspace alliance (protecting and restoring high quality greenspace and increasing equitable access to greenspace) and green schoolyards action network (working to ensure all cincinnati public schools' students have equitable access to outdoor experiences and environmental education regardless of demographics, economic status or family support for such activities). We also support faith communities go green in collaboration with equasion (partnering with religious communities to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all by mobilizing their moral voice to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change).