Energize Clinton County (ECC) is a grassroots movement and a community center for sustainable economic development founded by Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert based in Wilmington, Ohio. They are 2003 alumni of Wilmington High School who both chose to defer plans for the Peace Corps in order to change the fate of Clinton County, especially in light of DHL’s departure and the loss of 8,000 jobs in the area.
ECC has recently had a huge success with their Green Enterprise Zone ordinance. ECC has been working with the city of Wilmington to adopt policies that will help to facilitate green economic development. The Wilmington City Council will be conducting the final reading of the Wilmington Green Enterprise Zone ordinance on Thursday, July 16th. If adopted, it would mark a monumental step in Wilmington's response to the economic crisis because it will provide an innovative framework that can serve as model for other communities that are seeking an approach to building local capacity to facilitate green development and investment.
ECC hopes that the adoption of the Green Enterprise Zone (GEZ) will provide a unique opportunity to promote the positive steps being taken by Wilmington in response to the DHL crisis. Hopefully this model could be useful to other communities across Ohio as well.
If you know of any other examples of this type of local innovations, please feel free to share with us and others by commenting on our blog.
For more information on ECC and their GEZ, you can visit their website: http://energizecc.com/