Extreme cold and winter storms drive up utility bills for all of us. To help, OES has created a hub of winter energy resources designed to make energy bills easier to understand and more affordable. 

Need help understanding your energy bill? Looking for emergency utility bill assistance? Want tips to keep the cold out and lower energy costs? Check out the OES website to learn more or email oes@cincinnati-oh.gov if you'd like to invite a team member to come and speak to your community council or group. 

Save the date! Join the Greater Cincinnati Earth Day Coalition on Sunday, April 19th 2026 at Washington Park for this year’s Earth Day celebration. Engage with sustainability organizations and neighborhood green efforts, attend the Green Jobs Summit, and check out the EV Car Show, as well as the Career Fair, and so much more. For more information or to get involved, check out the Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition website.

To build on the work completed with Climate Safe Neighborhoods in Winton Hills, OES, Groundwork ORV, and Green Umbrella held a focused workshop to bring youth voices into the conversation. Winton Hills has a strong youth effort already underway, so it made sense to build on that strength. The partners convened young people with the help of local leaders in Winton Hills to discuss how climate change impacts their neighborhood and how we can minimize those impacts. Their ideas were incorporated into the Winton Hills' Climate Resilience Plan.

Climate Safe Neighborhoods is a collaborative planning process between local climate resilience organizations, the City of Cincinnati, and residents in the neighborhoods most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. 

GCP Seeds of Change - Seedling Spotlights

Urban Agriculture Grants Fund 48 Projects in 2026

OES recently awarded funding to 48 organizations through the GCP Seeds of Change Urban Agriculture Grant Program. These entities are agricultural production and growing sites as well as local food aggregation & distribution sites. Local food production and distribution play an important role in addressing health, social, economic and environmental issues. Congratulations to our 2026 awardees!

Green Workforce Training Opportunities Available Now! 

A Green Workforce Development grantee, Groundwork Ohio River Valley, is recruiting for the 2026 Green Corps cohort to begin on Monday, February 23rd. They are hiring 12 people aged 18-25 who are eager to build new green job skills and certifications, but are not currently pursuing a college degree. Green Corps members earn $18.52 per hour and average 30 hours per week through December 2026. This is a great, hands-on entry point to a quality job in the green workforce! 

Youth Showcase Celebrates 2025 Grantees 

OES had a great time celebrating our youth grantees last week! Thanks to the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund, OES granted funds to 20 youth teams to implement sustainability solutions in their neighborhoods through the GCP Seeds of Change Grant Program. We can’t wait to see what they accomplish next! 

Regional Climate Action Plan Complete 

The Green Cincinnati Plan is crucial for driving climate action in the city, but what about the rest of the Cincinnati region? 

A group of local governments, development agencies, and nonprofits came together to write the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) for the Cincinnati region. This CCAP serves as the Cincinnati region's strategic plan to become more sustainable in the face of climate change. The CCAP is a culmination of the partners' work over the past three years, which includes a greenhouse gas inventory for the region, results from community visioning sessions, expert focus groups, and strategic planning across partners. 

The CCAP offers strategies to lower greenhouse gas emissions across the 16 counties in the Cincinnati Metropolitan Statistical Area. These strategies are diverse in their focus, targeting emissions from a variety of sources like buildings, energy use, transportation, agriculture, waste, and industry. OES was proud to help to lead this effort and looks forward to supporting implementation in coming years.

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