Carolyn Bentley - Great Lakes Publishing

Nominated by: Jim LaRue, Housemender, Inc.

A few thoughts about Carolyn:
Carolyn Bentley wanted to put together a "green rehab" story several years ago as a staff member of Cleveland Magazine. But she was not just an interested observer. She was also the driving engine. She partnered with the Cleveland Green Building Coalition, Detroit-Shoreway Community Development Organization and Cleveland Housing Network to buy a home in need of significant repairs and improvements and rehab it as green as possible. The Cleveland Magazine story beautifully illustrated the successful effort, but it did not highlight her dedication to green building and the project because it could never have happened without her.
She did not stop there. With her learning from this experience, she and her husband John extensively rehabbed the three-unit home in which they were living using green guidelines and then rehabbed a single family home where they now reside incorporating even more green content.

Carolyn is never satisfied. She is always pushing the envelope, so when their rental rehab work was done, they advertised the rental units as having green attributes. While this news did not cause people to line up to see the units, she opened the door and we are sure with the efforts of persons like her, rental ads will begin to reflect the attractiveness of green residential buildings and their marketability.
She has also been active member of the Green Lakewood committee that is helping to map out a strategy for making Lakewood a more green sensitive community. Carolyn has used every vehicle available to her to learn more about and create green living spaces and green community. She is clearly a sustainable champion.