Chicago 2006 Environmental Action Agenda
April 19, 2006
Aerotecture’s ‘urban turbine’ (left) and the green roof on Chicago’s City Hall after five years (right)
Chicago’s Mayor Daley unveiled the City’s 2006 Environmental Action Agenda at a speech in Daley Plaza. The plan includes improvements ranging from the installation of four of Aerotecture’s striking helical ‘urban turbines’ on the roof of City Hall within four months to the longer-range goals of reducing the City’s demand for nonrenewable power
Also slated for 2006:
- Help fund the installation of a 16kW wind power generation system at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
- Replace roofs at three existing facilities with reflective roofs, and install a green roof on two existing facilities.
- Choose project and developer of the first sustainable, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) public land sale at the corner of Lake Street and Kedzie Avenue.
- Provide up to 600 solar hot water collectors to qualified affordable housing and social service organizations, laundromats and health clubs across Chicago through a competitive grant program.
- Launch and continually update an interactive green building website that will include an inventory of private and public sector green buildings and green roofs, as well as maps and case studies.
Some goals for 2010:
- Design public buildings to meet LEED Gold standard.
- Cut energy use by 6% from base usage in 2000.
- Broaden incentives for sustainable design to include fee waivers.
- Install five million square feet of green roofs on City facilities.
See the press release and the full Agenda.
UHC and the City of Chicago 2006 Environmental Action Agenda
How does UHC’s work help the City reach its goals? Some examples:
- Green roofs to reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect through evapotranspiration, control excess stormwater runoff, and grow food in the city.
- Materials research to find new uses for what people throw away.
- Deconstruction and adaptive reuse to save materials from ending up in the landfill while learning from older buildings how to build better the next time.