Two major Northeast Ohio cities earned subpar rankings for their progress in transitioning to clean energy, according to a report that ranked 75 metropolitan areas nationwide.
The report by the nonprofit the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy rankedCleveland 46th and Akron dead last.
The study measured city-level policies and programs to reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and ranked metropolitan cities across the country that have implemented greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
But representatives from both cities said Thursday the scores may not accurately reflect current sustainability policies.
Akron's sustainability practices went overlooked, city officials said
To create the report, the council reached out to and received a response from sustainability staff in cities to gather data and to complete the results of a self-evaluation, according to the report.
But Akron didn't have a sustainability team to reach out to at the time, officials said.
That means that if the ACEEE reached out to Akron, the city may not have had the same opportunity to respond which could have negatively affected the city's score, said Casey Shevlin, the city's director of sustainability and resiliency who started in February.
Shevlin's position is new to the city under the administration of Mayor Shammas Malik, and she is currently the sole member of the city's sustainability department. The study was conducted during former Mayor Dan Horrigan's tenure.
"We have room to improve for sure. That's exciting. That's why I'm here," she said. "But also, I think, [it's] important to note that the way that they went about the evaluation left them probably in the dark about some great things that have been happening here in Akron."
Shevlin highlights actions such as the city's municipal district energy system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions through energy-efficient building upgrades, along with its membership in Power a Clean Future Ohio, a nonprofit network that connects cities with clean energy funding and resources, and ongoing efforts to revise the city's greenhouse gas inventory.
"It's important to know where we stand emissions-wise, and also looking at your emissions, analyzing them, thinking critically about them," Shevlin said. "That's what you need to do to formulate ... a reduction strategy and a reduction plan."
The report and its findings are helpful resources to highlight areas where the city can improve its sustainability practices, Shevlin said.
"It can help you to build your to-do list, essentially ... because they're trying to show you 'here's where we think you might be falling short of the best practice standard,' or 'here's what your peers are doing,'" she said. "That's really helpful information for someone like me who's looking to kind of benchmark things and figure out how we can do better."
Cleveland's ranking is out of date, officials said
The city of Cleveland submitted data to the ACEEE in April 2023, said Tim Kovach, Cleveland's decarbonization strategist. But Cleveland's submission to ACEEE for the scorecard only includes data up to 2022, which Kovach said makes the city's overall score a bit out of date.
"I do think that it does not reflect the number of things that we have done or that we are committed to do [and] that have occurred in the interim," Kovach said. "There are a number of things that we think would, had they been accounted for, reflect better in our overall score and our ranking."
The report highlights a need for policies and building codes that support efficient outdoor lighting, location-efficient development and clean energy workforce initiatives.
Since submitting its data, Cleveland has implemented several programs that address some of the shortcomings highlighted in the scorecard, Kovach said, including the transportation demand management ordinance city council passed last summer, an upcoming decarbonization analysis and the city's ongoing update to its climate action plan.
Though Kovach said he agrees the city could be doing more on the clean energy workforce development, it is already looking into recommendations from a recent report by the Fund for Our Economic Future on best practices, he said.
"We have partnered with the fund, with the other foundations [and] with Cuyahoga County to explore ways that we can create a workforce development strategy for the green economy in Northeast Ohio," Kovach said. "That is going to be a big part of the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan that the city is leading the development of for the region."
State restrictions may be holding Ohio cities back
Of the cities studied, the top five were in California, Colorado and Washington, states with overarching climate policy and state-level funding for sustainability projects.
The same can't be said for Ohio, Kovach said. This could play a role in the lower scores Ohio cities received in the ranking, including Columbus at 32nd, Cincinnati at 49th and Toledo at 72nd.
"We exist in a state where ... even though we are we're working or we're doing our best to advance climate action from a local level, we're often facing strong headwinds at the state level that makes it difficult for us to advance at the rate that we might like to," Kovach said.
Cleveland Department of Sustainability continues to work with state agencies like the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and peer cities like Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton to further sustainability projects in the future, Kovach said.
