Director outlines Green Cincinnati Plan progress, flags funding shifts and brownfields work

Director Ali Kroner delivered a progress update to the Climate City Services and Infrastructure committee on the Green Cincinnati Plan, telling council the coalition has advanced more than 85% of the plan’s 130 actions but is operating amid changing federal funding and rulemaking.

Kroner said the office had secured more than $50,000,000 in federal awards at one point but that litigation and program shifts have reduced the near‑term picture “closer to $18,000,000.” He framed that as a setback but said the city still has significant resources and momentum to invest in local climate solutions: “That's still significant resource, still a lot of momentum that we are building upon.” (Ali Kroner, Director, Office of Environment and Sustainability)

Kroner organized the presentation around 10 themes. He said energy and decarbonization remain central, noting a 100‑megawatt market solar array completed last year and about $1,000,000 a year in savings to the city from that project. He reported the city has installed solar on roughly 30 facilities generating more than 2 megawatts across rooftops and said the warm‑up Cincy program has delivered energy efficiency improvements to more than 500 low‑income rental homes.

On recycling and organics, Kroner described pilot efforts that added 900 rental units to recycling programs and the deployment of 36 food‑scrap drop‑off sites serving about 640 households on a subscription basis. He said the city had installed 40 air‑quality monitors in partnership with the health department and a children’s hospital to provide community‑level data.

Kroner highlighted brownfields work and financing: the city, port and development partners have brought in roughly $34,000,000 focused on 22 cleanup sites and plan to leverage House Bill 15 incentives. He said the Municipal Investment Fund award will support a county scan to nominate Priority Investment Areas for state cleanup grants and that the administration will seek a council ordinance to designate PIAs for submission to the state.

Kroner also described resilience hubs—facilities with solar and battery backup identified to offer refuge during grid outages—and a focus on climate migration planning with regional partners. On housing and workforce, he said the city is assessing tools such as a Green Bank and intergovernmental agreements to stack housing and climate incentives and cited a regional Chamber report that estimates potential for 44,000 green jobs and $11,000,000,000 in regional economic activity if scaled.

Kroner closed by describing small grants through the Seeds of Change program: council seed funding has invested more than $700,000 across more than 100 projects in 47 communities, matched with about $300,000 in external funds and on pace to exceed $1,000,000 by 2028; 29 projects have been led by people under 22.

Council members pressed for details on next steps and funding needs. Kroner said budgets and implementation plans are being mapped and that energy audit results for 65 city buildings will inform future capital requests but he did not provide full audit findings at the meeting. Chair Mika Owens and Vice Chair Ryan James praised the work and emphasized equity and renter access as priorities.

The committee filed the report for the record.