Photo Credit: Courtesy of Tammy York
The Cincinnati Park Board decided the best way to encourage people to become better stewards of the environment was to adopt a green piece of mind for the park system. And, it didn’t hurt that the mayor, Mark Mallory, announced a “Green Agenda” in the spring of 2006.
That year, the park’s series of Green Initiative Pilot Projects began transforming the parks into learning laboratories. Beyond supporting public education, one of the goals for the green initiatives was to assess the economic and environmental impacts of new sustainable energy implementation.
The park board had five regional and 70 neighborhood parks and 34 nature preserves to select from, and decided to begin with solar and wind energy at the headquarters located at Eden Park. “Eden Park is the flagship of our green initiatives,” says Julie Horne, chief business officer for the park board. “The solar panels were installed at the end of 2006 during the winter, and went operational in 2007.” The busy park is also home to the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Playhouse and the Krohn Conservatory.