• The first commercial roadway application of photocatalytic cement, which cleans the surface of the roadway and removes nitrogen oxide (NOx) gases from the surrounding air through a catalytic reaction driven by UV light.
• More than 60% of all construction waste was recycled. More than 23% of all new materials were sourced from recycled content. 

The City of Chicago and its Chief Sustainability Officer Karen Weigert were highlighted on a segment of PBS's Newshour that discussed recent work in reducing the urban heat island effect. 

Chicago Fights Extreme Urban Heat With Greener Ideas

 

PBS's Hari Sreenivasan toured the City's 23,000-square-foot green roof atop City Hall and met with Chicago Department of Transportation's Janet Attarian to discuss Chicago's recent pavement innovations that make the city's streets more sustainable.

 

To watch the full clip please click the image above.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced support for a referendum on the November 6th ballot that would allow the City to explore purchasing energy in bulk on behalf of Chicagoans. Through the municipal electricity aggregation, the City would pool residential and small commercial electricity accounts, negotiate lower electricity prices and secure innovative and clean energy sources.

 

"Municipal aggregation can potentially bring meaningful savings to Chicago ratepayers and small businesses through lower monthly electric bills, and can help us increase our investment in renewable, clean energy sources," said Mayor Emanuel. 

 

In order to create the Aggregation Program, the City's residents must pass a referendum on November 6. For more information on the Program please click [here].

 

Now you can find all of the green roofs in Chicago! The City's new dataset provides the location, satellite images and square footage of existing green roofs within Chicago. The Green Roofs dataset is the newest of sixty-eight sustainability-related data sets that are now available for the  public to view. Assisting people and companies in adopting sustainable practices through the sharing of information, the sustainability datasets accomplish goal #2 in Mayor Emanuel's recently released Sustainable Chicago 2015.

 

To view more sustainability datasets, please visit the City of Chicago Data Portal.

 

 

Now is the time to send in your receipts and rebate forms to get up  to 50% back on purchases of trees (up to $100 rebate), native plants (up to $60 rebate), compost bins (up to $50 rebate), and rain barrels (up to $40 rebate). The Chicago Sustainable Backyards Program will return in 2013, but send in your receipts now so you can take advantage of rebates again next year! Submit your recepits by Dec 31, 2012 to receive your 2012 rebate. Rebate forms, educational resources, and program info are available atwww.cityofchicago.org/rainbarrel. Contact susby@cnt.org or773.321.2674 with questions.

Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago invites you to join local and international visionaries to create nature-inspired solutions to society's most important challenges. Programming for all ages, including speakers, workshops, visual and performing arts, and an   exhibit hall. Keynotes will be by Vandana Shiva, Nina Simons, John Edel, Gerould Wilhelm, Mark Lakeman, Starhawk, and Richard Heinberg. Help us start a long-term, local movement that will create a vibrant, environmentally healthy, and socially just city through positive solutions that follow nature's principles.

Early Bird registration ends 9/28!

 

To register or learn more please visit http://chicagobioneers.org or follow @chibioneers on twitter.

 

Register for the Chicago Wilderness biennial Congress and join representatives of the alliance's 260 member organizations along with students, educators, volunteers, community partners, and interested members of the public in a dynamic exchange of ideas, success stories, and lessons learned. The Congress will take place November 15 at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum and include sessions with over 100 presenters. Click here to learn more and register.