4. Chicago, IL

The Wind at Its Back

Chicago, IL: The Wind at Its Back

When environmental officials send you a several-pages-long "Bird Agenda" for their city, you know they've got all their little eco-ducks in a row. Long-serving Mayor Richard Daley is committed to making Chicago a healthy and attractive place for all creatures great and small, and for residents and visitors alike. The mayor has had greening on his mind since he first entered office in 1989, implementing progressive and sometimes controversial measures. He's planted about a half-million trees, removed traffic lanes in favor of green medians and bulldozed a downtown airport, putting in its place a 100-acre park. Under the mayor's leadership, Chicago has become known as the "Green Roofs City," with carbon-sequestering vegetation covering more than 4.5 million square feet of rooftop. In September of 2008, Mayor Daley took his commitment to combating global warming a step further: he released an aggressive carbon emissions-cutting plan that includes changing city building codes, installing huge solar panels on municipal properties, and retrofitting low-cost housing complexes to reduce water and energy use. If the plan works and the city successfully cleans up its air, it'll be high on our list of places we seek refuge after the Big One hits San Fran. (Photo by Dori)

City of Chicago

Mayor: Richard M. Daley

Chief Environmental Officer: Sadhu Johnston

Commissioner, Dept. of the Environment: Suzanne Malec-McKenna

Sustainability Website: http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Environment&entityNameEnumValue=05

Chicago's Rankings

Chicago sustainlability rankings chart Cities are ranked relative to each other. A longer bar denotes a higher ranking.
Chicago, IL: City Charts

Stories and Perspectives

Turning Hot Black to Cool Green:

Turning Hot Black to Cool Green:

When a team of scientists swooped in over downtown Chicago last year aboard a police chopper, they noticed something astounding: the black asphalt roof atop the county building that adjoined City Hall measured in at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Armed with thermal imaging cameras, the scientists and environmentalists then shifted their equipment to City Hall’s “green roof” – a roof covered in lush vegetation. That roof, they noted, was cooling out at a mere 70 degrees. “It really confirmed a lot of what we knew” about green roofs, says Sadhu Johnston, chief environmental officer in the Chicago mayor’s office.more »

Watering Chicago's Food Deserts

Watering Chicago's Food Deserts

Barack Obama’s career trajectory took him from the rough-and-tumble South Side of Chicago to the U.S. Senate and then, quickly, around the country as his party’s nominee for president. For the folks at Growing Home, a South Side Chicago-based nonprofit offering job training to homeless and low-income individuals through urban-farming, the goals are much more modest: a good job, a living wage and healthy food on the table.more »

Sears Tower Greening

Sears Tower Greening

At 1,450 feet and 110 stories, Chicago's Sears Tower is the tallest building in America. And soon—if officials have their way--the landmark building, all 3.8 million square feet of it, may become the largest green structure in the United States. In announcing the initiative, former president Bill Clinton stressed the benefits of green building. And they’re not only environmental. "This is not a big bottle of castor oil we have to drink," he said. "This is the greatest economic opportunity that our country has had to mobilize and democratize since we mobilized from World War II." So what will set the building apart from it’s not-so-green neighbors?more »

Chicago Resident Greens and Preens

Submitted by Claudia Louise Pesenti

Biking the boulevards in Chicago is a green pleasure rather than what it used to be: a daring ride through the asphalt jungle that the streets had become due to blight, lack of funding and civic responsibility. Now, trees line the streets of Chicago, corners are bursting with native plants, and folks are picking up the trash in their communities.more »

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Latest Comments
Yusuf B.
Yusuf B. says

I agree with Laura, but the fact the Foie Gras law/ordinace was even written up, let alone passed says something about Chicago vs. other metro areas. more »

Laura B. says

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Chicago and think it is doing wonderful things on the sustainablity front BUT Mayor Dailey certainly is not especially animal compassionate. He... more »

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Chicago Talk

Donna H.

Greenhouse Department Leader-Teacher

Christian evangelical organization is looking for a new leader/teacher to head up horticulture training program for previously homeless adults. more »

Donna H.

Greenhouse Department Leader-Teacher

Christian evangelical organization is looking for a new leader/teacher to head up training program for previously homeless adults. more »

Jeanette P.

Senior Business Advisor for Sales Business Development

Ideal for a business development professional that wants to be part of a sustainability consulting team. You maintain relationships with executive-level manufacturing manufacturers. We are seeking an experienced professional with a drive to help companies achieve sustainability and profit. more »

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Many laws protecting environmental quality have promoted liberty by securing property against the destructive trespass of pollution. —Ronald Reagan

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