Hasta La Ideas

Sustainability and creativity converged on October 26th during the first Cleveland Designers Accord Town Hall, held at the Cleveland Institute of Art with sponsorship by AIGA Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Chapter of IDSA, SmartShape Design, and The Cleveland Institute of Art. More than one hundred designers and innovators listened to presentations about the four key themes of the evening: energy storage, the small house movement, electric vehicle infrastructure, and water. Following the presentations, the audience separated into breakout sessions to share their perspectives and opinions.

Evening organizers Anthony Buehrer of SmartShape and Doug Paige of CIA welcomed the enthusiastic crowd and introduced the Town Hall topics and the entrepreneurs who are tackling the themes in unique ways.

Theme 1: Energy Storage & Getting off the Grid
Imagine lighting units smart enough to store energy during non-peak usage times and savvy enough to go off the power grid (operating from stored energy) at highest peak times. That’s the vision of Wireless Environment, a Cleveland-based company founded in 2007.

Company co-founder and President, David Levine, explained how their solution combines LEDs, integrated batteries, and patented sensors to achieve this objective. “The biggest issue for power companies is trying to meet the ever-increasing demands at peak usage times,” said Levine. “That’s a major reason they have to keep building more power plants.” He envisions a time when they’ll sell power much cheaper per kilowatt at non-peak, creating a market for devices that buy power off-peak and store it for use later.

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