Lisa Hong and David Nash are the driving forces behind Sustainable Cleveland. Despite its name, the group’s agenda–and its reach–is truly regional; you can see for yourself by reading the Action Plan that accompanies this interview. When not running Sustainable Cleveland, Lisa is a principal in the consulting firm eQuest strategies; Dave is a partner in the environmental law firm, McMahon DeGulis. Sustainable Cleveland does not yet have a public website, although discussions are under way with EcoCity Cleveland about creating a space for Sustainable Cleveland as part of GreenCityBlueLake.

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Tell us a little bit about the role Sustainable Cleveland plays in Northeast Ohio’s economic landscape. How do you see Sustainable Cleveland transforming Northeast Ohio?

We focus on mobilizing the largest 150 companies in the region to help them integrate sustainable business practices and innovation into their companies. We focus on this segment of the community for two reasons (1) Large, globally oriented companies are not only key drivers for economic prosperity, but social change in the 21st century; and, (2) Sustainable business practices and innovation are drivers for regional wealth creation and competitiveness.

How do your roles as co-founders impact Sustainable Cleveland?

One of the strengths of Sustainable Cleveland is that it is a non-hierarchical organization. We are advised by a Steering Committee, and projects are managed by two volunteer co-conveners (us) and a program manager. Each of these managers is integral to our collaborative “troika” project management approach. Functionally, Sustainable Cleveland’s three partners manage Sustainable Cleveland’s work.

Where do you see Sustainable Cleveland five years from now? Ten years from now?

Five years: Sustainable Cleveland facilitates the annual publishing of Northeast Ohio’s sustainability benchmarking report. Sustainable Cleveland has been the initial organization or “clubhouse” for numerous sustainable business and innovation projects, including, a proactive regional CEO round table that is looked to by the community for sustainable leadership, connecting regional businesses to each other and to other national and international networks for productive and actionable dialogue, promoting sustainable systems and industries, a regional advanced energy strategy, a sustainable supply chain training program to make small, medium and large regional manufacturers more competitive with their customers, and has spun off projects from Leadership Cleveland/ Sustainable Cleveland and Cleveland Bridge Builders collaborations development of a regional utility-scale wind farm and establishment of a fresh water institute at the Great Lakes Science Center.

Ten years: Corporate social and environmental responsibility has become a driver for economic development. Sustainable Cleveland is no longer needed in the community.

Why did you decide to develop an action plan for the TechFutures project?

Sustainable Cleveland uses “connecting and convening” as a significant part of Sustainable Cleveland’s work model. We work this way to leverage a few resources into as big an impact as possible; in some ways akin to Malcolm Gladwell’s description of creating impact in his book, The Tipping Point. By developing an action plan as part of TechFutures, we not only developed clarity on our mission and purpose internally, but on how we can function more effectively as part of a regional economic development strategy.

What are the top three things you need to accomplish/implement this year as a result of your action plan?

1. Engage representatives of the largest 150 corporations in Northeast Ohio in our projects.
2. Effectively manage conversation toward action.
3. Further build our business-oriented knowledge network to facilitate peer-learning and support cross-sector regional sustainability initiatives.

How do you think these will benefit your organization as well as Northeast Ohio as a whole?

Our vision is to establish Northeast Ohio as a global model of a 21st-century community with a thriving economy, high quality of life, and a regional brand based on innovative, sustainable enterprises in all sectors.

If you could partner with any organization to help you achieve your goals, who would it be and why?

Sustainable Cleveland would benefit from alliances with regional economic development organizations, to increase our credibility in the business community and help mainstream sustainable business practices and innovation into the regional economic development plan.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing Northeast Ohio’s future?

Attracting and retaining a new generation of young and talented residents with opportunities consistent with Sustainable Cleveland’s vision as described above.

What do you see as the most important opportunity that Northeast Ohio needs to take advantage of in order to transform itself into a more technology driven, knowledge based economy?

Re-branding to compete with cosmopolitan, progressive, environmentally healthy regions.

What do you love about living and working in Northeast Ohio? Why?

There are tremendous assets and opportunities to mobilize those assets for civic entrepreneurs (despite the region’s self-inflicted inferiority complex). Northeast Ohio’s business and civic leaders are very accessible. The philanthropic and economic development communities are often open to innovative ideas and young leaders.