Chi-town Goes Green

After our day flexing muscle with Working Bikes, we set out Friday morning to learn about sustainability in Chicago from the perspective of the city government. Several years ago Mayor Daley declared that he wanted to make Chicago the “greenest” city in the nation, and over the course of the day we found out how the government is working to make that statement a reality.


We started with a meeting at the Chicago Department of the Environment, an office which is responsible for “protecting human health and the environment, improving the urban quality of life, and promoting economic development in Chicago.” Antonia Ornelas from the Energy and Air Quality division hosted us for the meeting and began by giving an overview of the city’s current environmental projects, many of which are based on Chicago’s Environmental Action Agenda

Some of the initiatives we heard about included a recently passed ordinance requiring every new public building to be LEED certified, as well as the city’s permitting system that gives priority to green buildings in the approval process. We also found out that Chicago is one of the most bike-friendly large cities in the nation, with over 100 miles of bike lanes so far, and a plan to have a 500 mile bike lane network completed by 2015.

Next we heard from Dave Graham about how the city manages brownfields, which he defined as sites with environmental health issues that affect the development of a property. Since Chicago is a city still transitioning from a heavily industrial past, many places require remediation to remove toxins from the land before they are safe for humans. Another initiative we learned about is the department’s work to encourage the installation of green, or living, roofs in the city through a grant program. Green roofs help mitigate the urban heat island effect, which is when the temperature in cities becomes much hotter than they naturally would be due to concrete, asphalt, and other traditional building materials absorbing and re-radiating the sun’s energy. Kevin Laberge gave us a guided viewing of the green roof installed on City Hall, which is just across the street from the Department of the Environment.


Our meeting rounded out with presentations by Marissa Strassel and Margaret Rice. Marissa told us about the Chicago Conservation Corps, a project to train and empower city residents to tackle environmental issues in their neighborhoods. Margaret then led a discussion on environmental justice in Chicago, and we learned about environmental health disparities between different communities in Chicago.

Our discussion at the Department of the Environment really demonstrated the potential that local governments have to set up systems that favor sustainable development. By building viable bike lanes, for example, the city encourages people to use a carbon-free source of transportation. And by offering expedited permit approval for green development projects, Chicago provides a strong incentive for developers to consider sustainable building materials and design. Far from traditional command and control environmental regulation, the Department of the Environment’s initiatives instead create conditions that make going green a logical and relatively easy decision. It’s a powerful geographic lesson to be sure: we shape our landscapes, but in turn they shape us. While there is still much work to be done in Chicago, the city has already come a long way.

Antonia Ornelas gives the crew a presentation at the Chicago Department of the Environment

I was both excited and encouraged to hear about what was going on in the city, and that feeling only increased at our next stop for the day, The Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT). Built on an old brownfield site on the west side of the city, the center is a demonstration of the possibility of green building technology. Meghann Maves gave us a tour of the site, telling us that CCGT’s dual mission is to research sustainable building design, but also to educate the public on what they are learning. The center itself is a LEED Platinum building (the highest level of certification possible), and it is bursting with examples of green building technologies: wind turbines, solar panels, permeable parking lots, storm water collection, green roofs, native plantings, etc. The building also hosts a great line-up of programming related to sustainability – seminars, speakers, workshops – that are open to the public. And perhaps the best part is that it houses a growing public Green Building Resource Center, with ample materials and knowledgeable staff available to help answer questions for prospective homeowners and business owners.

If I lived in Chicago and were taking on a building project, this would be my first stop.

Our final stop on our tour of Chicago’s “green government” was just down the road from CCGT, The Garfield Park Conservatory. The conservatory, one of the largest in the nation, is an internationally recognized horticulture facility and an important part of the City of Chicago Park District and its surrounding Westside community. Thousands of plants are grown here each year for City parks and spaces. The rich and tangy smell of the conservatory alone makes it worth visiting, ant the variety of flora and fauna from around the world was really great to see in the middle of the country’s third largest city.

After a day of much walking, we were excited to rest our feet and spend the evening with Julia Ferguson (Udall ’05) and her dad, Doug Ferguson. Along with good conversation, they grilled us an excellent dinner, complete with Midwestern brats! It was a great way to end our tour of the city, though I know that with so much exciting environmental work going on in Chicago, I’ll be back.

*A special thanks to Samantha Bingham, Clean Cities Coordinator, for helping us set up our visits at the Department of the Environment and the Chicago Center for Green Technology!

By: Julie Curti