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
