By Brett Rosenberg
December 20, 2006

Brendon Daley, Chicago Energy and Air Quality Deputy Commissioner, provided insights into addressing global climate change issues at the local level. Citing the mayor’s commitment an passion about the environment, Daley discussed several integrated programs and policies the city has undertaken to reduce its impact on the earth’s climate.

Beginning several years ago as a means to alleviate the “heat island effect,” in which ambient temperatures in urban areas tend to be much higher that less developed areas, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley started planting trees all over the city – in neighborhoods, downtown, in parks, everywhere. The city then installed a rooftop garden on city hall, which has reduced the energy necessary to cool the building in the summer and eased stormwater runoff. Since the city and county each occupy half of the building and the county declined to participate in the garden program, there is ample evidence of the numerous benefits of the rooftop garden.

As Daley explained, the mayor wholeheartedly believes in leading by example. By undertaking a program and showing that it works, he then can require, or at least urge the private sector to follow. Through an important incentive program to encourage rooftop gardens and other green building strategies, the city has a “green permit process” that expedites a developer’s project through the permitting process and waives many of the associated fees for projects that meet certain environmentally sustainable criteria.

These are just part of Chicago’s 2006 Environmental Action Agenda, according to Daley. Other examples abound, such as 15 million square feet of commercial office space that has been retrofitted for more energy efficiency, saving over $8 million per year; economic development programs, such as luring a solar panel manufacturing company to town, not only to produce a beneficial product but add jobs, too; and the “Waste-to-Profit” network, in which a company’s wastes or by-products can be used as inputs for another company’s product, thus reducing the amount of waste generated and the energy required for brand new materials.