Climate-Related Plans Overview

City of Chicago 2022 Climate Action Plan (CAP)

The 2022 Climate Action Plan (CAP) builds off the climate action planning that the city first began in 2008. Its ambitious goals are centered around five pillars: (1) increase household savings, (2) reduce waste and create jobs, (3) enable personal mobility and improve air quality, (4) enable Chicago’s clean energy future, and (5) strengthen communities and protect health. Under each pillar are specific strategies and actions, many of which involve green infrastructure either directly or indirectly.

2022 CAP Plan Green Infrastructure Goals and Actions

Promote Sustainable and Healthy Buildings:

•Retrofit 20% of residential, industrial, and commercial buildings by 2030

•Retrofit 90% of total City-owned and Sister Agency-owned buildings by 2035

•Electrify existing residential (30%), City-owned (90%), industrial (20%), and commercial buildings (10%) by 2035

•Enact policies to ensures new construction meets sustainability related requirements

Water Management

•Commit $5 million in investments towards green alleys implementation and development of green infrastructure/flood mitigation projects.

Solid Waste Management

•Divert 90% of commercial, industrial, and residential waste and 75% of construction and demolition waste from landfills and incineration by 2030.

•Enable Chicagoans to walk, bike, take public trans or use shared micromobility for 45% of all trips by 2040 through expansion of bikeways, updated land use policies with focus on street safety and accessibility near public transit, and investment in CTA to increase reliability and frequency of services

•Electrification of delivery and CTA bus fleets, and incentivization for electrification of ride hail and taxi fleets .

Solar Panel and Renewable Energy Installation

•Install 30 MW clean renewable energy projects on Chicago property and 5,000 MW of projects within a 250-mile radius by 2030; this includes 5MW of community-owned solar projects on industrial roofs, as well as municipal solar power on library roofs

Greening Efforts and Natural Areas Management

•Dedicate $46M to planting 75,000 trees over 5 years in underserved communities

CMAP – ON TO 2050: Environmental Chapter

Adopted in 2018, CMAP’s ON TO 2050 contains five chapters: community, prosperity, environment, governance, and transportation. Most information relevant to green infrastructure falls under the environment chapter, though the community and prosperity chapters also contain important information regarding equity and workforce development.

Promote Sustainable and Healthy Buildings:

•Review and update design manuals to ensure that current data informs design standards, in tangent with continuing research and analysis on such design standards

Water Management

•Protect and enhance aquatic systems through the water resource management and coordination, watershed plans, and optimization of water infrastructure investments

•Reduce flood risk through maintenance and monitoring of gray and green infrastructure, including stormwater utility fees, the protection and expansion of open spaces, and

property acquisition and voluntary buyouts to help willing landowners vacate high flood risk area

Greening Efforts and Natural Areas Management

•Promote and/or require native species, habitat restoration, and sustainable landscaping materials

•Increase community greening efforts, expand neighborhood parks, and promote cobenefits of parks such as stormwater management

•Protect and steward high-priority natural areas through effective planning, identification of high-quality landscapes (“ecological cores”), and creation of ecological buffers around and connections between cores

•Reduce the rate of impervious surface creation through urban infill and densification

•Incorporate site-scale green infrastructure into hardscapes such as transportation rightof-ways and non-parkland green spaces like subdivisions and golf courses

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago 2021-2025

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is responsible for providing stormwater management and treating wastewater for residents and businesses throughout Cook County. The MWRD also partners with communities to build green infrastructure and capital improvements to mitigate flooding issues. Its most recent plan was designed to articulate the MWRD’s mission, vision, and strategic goals; identify a set of strategic initiatives to achieve goals; and provide a framework for measuring progress and updating the Plan on a yearly basis.

Water Management

•Further stormwater management goals to mitigate flooding across Cook County through a proactive, equitable stormwater management program, including implementation of grey and green infrastructure

•Enforce the Watershed Management Ordinance (WMO)

•Further acquisition of flood-prone property

EPA Region 5 Climate Plan

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) divides the United States into 10 regions to provide more targeted goals and strategies for each. The Chicagoland Area falls under EPA Region 5, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and 35 tribes. Following a national Climate Adaption plan, all 10 Regional Offices developed Climate Change Adaption Implementation Plans to provide more details on how they will integrate climate adaption into their planning.

Promote Sustainable and Healthy Buildings:

•Work to reduce exposure to radon and air quality risks through technical assistance around measures like ventilation improvement and preventative maintenance

•Educate parties on the impacts of climate change on indoor air quality

Water Management

•Address threats to water quality resulting from increased temperatures and extreme weather

•Reevaluate of sewage, stormwater, and wastewater management systems, and integrate green infrastructure, municipal wet weather planning, and energy efficient practices

•Create a drinking water program that focuses on water quality, quantity, and infrastructure with a focus on changes caused by warmer water temperatures.

•Prepare for changes in the Great Lakes, including declining ice covers, changes in lake levels, new growth of algae blooms, and heightened likelihood of flooding.

National

FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan

The EPA’s mission is to “protect human health and the environment”. This strategic plan provides a roadmap for achieving this mission while holding in mind its guiding principles: follow the science, follow the law, be transparent, and advance justice and equity. It outlines seven goals for addressing climate change and environmental justice, all of which include long-term performance goals with quantifiable outcomes.

•Collaborate with international organizations like the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) to provide technical assistance on commercial and residential energy efficiency

•Update Indoor airPLUS new home construction specification, and promote indoor environment protocols for home energy upgrades

Water Management

•Ensure safe and reliable drinking water through investment in water infrastructure and cleaning up of contaminated sites.

•Protect and restore waterbodies and watersheds by conducting monitoring and assessments, improving tools for detection of harmful algal blooms, creating safe reuse and stormwater capture practices, and providing technical assistance.

Solid Waste Management

•Invest in domestic recycling, as well as solid waste and food waste infrastructure

•Clean up contaminated sites. Update waste regulations and provide grants to improve local solid waste management programs and infrastructure.