Bears season tickets. That is possibly the only waiting list in Chicago longer than the one to get a boat slip. With marina demand so large, the need for a new harbor was evident. The Chicago Park District conducted a study of the lakefront in 2005 to determine the best spot for a new marina. At the top of that list was one location: 31st Street.

Chicago is home to the largest municipal harbor system in the U.S., with ten marinas stretching up the shore from Jackson Park to Lincoln Park. The latest to open is the 31st Street Marina, which boasts over 1,000 boat slips, a new beach, a play area, an extensive green roof and a host of amenities for the community.

The harbor was designed for a minimum LEED Silver certification, but it likely will obtain LEED Gold. Even better, the project is paid for entirely by revenue from the boat owners; no taxes and no capital budget funds were needed.

One reason that the 31st Street location stood out was that a lot of work had already gone into the site. “We had already done some shoreline protection work. We had already put in boat ramp,” said Robert Rejman, Director of Planning and Construction at the Chicago Park District. “We knew it was a great place for a harbor.”

Along this portion of the lake, the water closer to land is deep, which is ideal for a harbor. However, there was also a natural, shallow ridge farther out, which would cut down on the costs of breakwater construction.

Before development began on the harbor, the area had no beach and was essentially untamed lakefront land. A few isolated, poorly configured parking lots took up some room, but the site was otherwise in disuse.

Designed by AECOM and constructed by McHugh Construction Company, the first challenge for the harbor was preparing the land for stormwater management. Existing parking was moved to the north and each lot given a contingent of bioswales, crushed stone and underground vaults to manage and cleanse the stormwater before it hit any sewer infrastructure.

“Our approach was for no net loss of green space,” said Rejman, which is a tall order considering all the new construction and infrastructure. A 63,000 SF green roof covers virtually all of the new buildings. “The facility is low impact,” said Rejman. “A lot of people have a hard time knowing it’s even there until they get to the harbor.”

Unlike many vegetated roofs that are comprised of two-inch deep plastic trays, this green roof is several feet deep in places. Because of this, the green roof is able to retain a much larger amount of stormwater, in addition to the usual green roof benefits like higher HVAC efficiency and reduction of the urban heat island effect.

Of course, storm runoff is only one source of water contamination that concerned the developers. More boat slips means more potential for pollution to enter Lake Michigan’s fragile ecosystem. State of the art pump-out systems and a strict inspection regimen ensure that no discharge from the boats enters the lake. Because of these practices, the Park District and Westrec Marinas, the manager of all ten Chicago harbors, received several awards, including the ISS Fabien Cousteau Blue Award—which honors stewardship of marine ecosystems—and the Illinois Society of Professional Engineering’s Award for Engineering Excellence.

Access to the site was also key. The marina is ADA accessible, but thanks to a reconfiguration of the exit ramp off Lake Shore Drive, bicyclists can reach the harbor via the lakefront trail. A new underpass improves circulation and promotes access to this area by means other than automobile.

A harbor services building and attached parking garage—which will double as winter boat storage —were built atop former surface parking lots. These structures are mostly covered by the green roof, with the buildings tucked into the landscape. One of the transitions from higher grade to lakefront is a park, featuring paths and playground equipment, bringing the public on the roof even if they didn’t realize it. The landscaping is composed of native trees, shrubs and grasses that reduce maintenance and irrigation demands as well as promote bird habitat, an important consideration since the Lake Michigan shoreline is a major migration path. Additionally, all glass that faces the lake is fritted to help eliminate bird strikes.

The harbor services building features a community room for visitors and a patio with sail-inspired shades, all served by an energy-efficient HVAC system. A component of this is a geothermal loop that uses the lake to temper the air, helping to achieve a 33% energy use reduction.

Additional environmental benefits were achieved through enhanced refrigerant management as well as light sensors and daylighting in 100% of the occupied spaces. Low-flow plumbing fixtures help reduce the building’s water use by 40%, while the site enjoys 63% water savings overall.

During construction, the developers attempted to maintain onsite soil management to cut down on the amount of material entering and leaving the site. A larger diversion rate meant less material headed to landfills and fewer trucks on the road hauling it. “Aside from some broken footings, all major soils stayed on site,” said Rejman.

Development of the land also meant that many trees had to come down or be moved. Those that were felled, however, were put to use as well. “We worked around as many big trees as we could,” said Rejman. “We relocated as many trees as possible. And for trees that did come down, we had some really creative reuse on site.” Several of the trees were stripped of their bark, dried and then painted. These surreal, multicolored tree trunks were then installed around the playground area as interactive artwork.

Some of the timber was also used as an underwater habitat. Working with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Park District anchored the trees to the lakebed, inside the breakwater near the harbor entrance. Much like the considerations given to migratory birds, the marina was designed with aquatic life in mind also.

“We know that riprap and stone are a huge draw for fish. We wanted to see, with the addition of trees, how we could promote fish habitat,” said Rejman. Smaller fish are attracted to areas of refuge and shade. Where small fish go, big game fish will follow. The harbor was designed to promote both the surrounding community and natural habitat. This measure does both since it enhances the underwater ecosystem and provides a great location for area fishermen.

Fish also prefer areas with water flow, so an underwater culvert was included in the 3,000 foot-long breakwater. Burnham Harbor also has one of these culverts. They appeal to fish which are attracted by the current.

The Park District is working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Shedd Aquarium to install underwater cameras in the lake, to serve as an educational tool. “Kids can come see fish in the water, become interested in habitat and in how infrastructure can be married to habitat creation,” he said. “We’d like to promote that kind of connection, that responsibility we have to restoring the Great Lakes.” If it goes forward, Northerly Island—which is currently undergoing a 40 acre restoration project—would be the first location to get the cameras, though Rejman believes that 31st Street Harbor would be a great location too.

In 2009, according the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 120 million Americans commuted to work. Despite the rising cost of fuel, the vast majority of them—76%—drove alone. Only 5% took some sort of public transit and less than 1% traveled by bicycle.

Gas prices are only one reason that commuters should rethink those drive-alone trips, of course. In a report sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration, the average single occupancy vehicle trip emits 0.96 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger mile. For bus and rail, conversely, average ridership emits less than half of that at 0.41 pounds. And when those buses and trains are at full capacity, emissions plummet to 0.13 pounds.

One group is working to reduce those emissions by changing our travel habits. Active Transportation Alliance, a non-profit, member-supported organization, advocates for reliable transit in Chicagoland, as well as safer options for pedestrians and cyclists. Their mission is to make these other modes of travel so safe and convenient that commuters will naturally shift from sedentary and environmentally harmful travel to clean, active travel.

Their most visible program is Bike the Drive, now in its 11th year. On the Sunday before Memorial Day, Lake Shore Drive is closed to automobile traffic while up to 20,000 people enjoy a car-free day along the lakefront. The event is designed to show that there can be safe and reliable biking options.

Active Trans also pushes the wider use of bicycles with the Bike Commuter Challenge. For over 20 years, this program has been challenging Chicagoans to ride a bike to work for just one week. These commuters have been asked more recently to track their trips. Last year, nearly 7,000 riders took more than 16,000 trips for a total of more than 161,000 miles. “We wouldn’t still be doing the Bike Commuter Challenge after 22 years if it didn’t work,” said Brian Morrissey, Commuter Challenge Coordinator with Active Transportation Alliance. “Every year it’s grown.”

The program has evolved over the years and now commuters are encouraged to join a team at their company. “An employer is probably the biggest influencer of how a person gets to work,” said Morrissey. For example, if an organization offers free parking, or if they are headquartered in a location where it is difficult to get to other than driving, then employees are going to drive. If they are located in a dense urban area with transit and higher parking prices, driving rates plummet.

Team-focused challenges encourage higher participation as peer pressure gathers more and more employees into the teams. Suddenly, that guy who rides his bike to the office is a team leader, encouraging his colleagues to do it with him.

There are currently about 500 teams which compete against each other. Teams are categorized so that small companies can compete against each other or organizations with similar missions can be pitted against one another. After bike to work week, Active Trans awards the teams in various categories.

The latest endeavor from Active Trans is DriveLessLiveMore.com, which grew out of the Bike Commuter Challenge. The latter program is a week-long event, and there was a need to keep people engaged in sustainable commuting and not return to their old habits of driving alone.

In partnership with the Regional Transportation Authority, Active Trans created a program that not only encourages year-long alternative commuting, it incentivizes it. Participants self-report their daily travel methods, and the site awards points for transit, pedestrian, carpool, bicycle and even water taxi trips. They are then automatically enrolled in a series of monthly prize contests, depending on how many points they have accrued.

Past prizes have included Second City tickets, restaurant gift card to locations like Lincoln Park’s Bistrot Zinc, hotel and museum packages and tune-ups from local bike shops. “The site keeps track of all of this. You just have to push a few buttons,” said Morrissey. The intuitive user interface makes logging trips exceptionally easy. Participants can even save a route for repeated use. So if your regular commute is a walk to the train, the train to the city and a bus to your office, that route can be saved for easy input every day.

The prize packages benefit the businesses as well, as they get their logo and organization information on the site, and the partnership is mentioned across social media, emails and press releases. And for the prize winner, that one free visit may likely turn into a recurring relationship. “We’re hoping to attract more of that sort of in-kind support from local businesses that want to connect with our constituents,” said Morrissey.

Funded by a grant from the Department of Transportation’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality fund, DriveLessLiveMore.com has been live since last November. “We’re really looking to grow this summer with several higher profile events,” said Morrissey.

The Earth Day ride-share challenge, which begins April 8th and is now accepting teams, isdesigned to bring more members to the site during the year. This summer’s Bike Commuter Challenge, functions surrounding international car-free day in September and other events will hopefully keep the momentum going all year.

The website serves Active Trans staff as well. All that demographic data, points of origin and destination, method of travel and other data will help the organization going forward with its education and policy work.

Regionally, transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions are rising. In 2000, the Chicagoland area emitted 32.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide via transportation, not counting aviation. By 2005, that number had risen to 34 million metric tons. That’s nearly double the regional carbon dioxide output for industry, waste management, water treatment, agriculture and aviation combined.

The only way to turn around this trend is education. Active Trans works to teach the public how to travel safely and responsibly with adult education events, school programs and cycling educational opportunities. There is generally a large educational component to events such as Bike the Drive as well.

But the organization also communicates the need for a strong alternative travel infrastructure to government agencies. “We have several world class transportation planners on staff that help communities and organizations … implement biking plans, pedestrian plans or integrated transportation plans,” said Morrissey.

Municipalities can hire the organization for planning projects, and Active Trans also actively solicits at the city, state and federal level for more pedestrian, biking and transit options, such as more trails, better sidewalks and protected bike lanes. Active Trans is also at forefront protecting ridership from fare hikes and service cuts.

Despite the rise in transportation-related emissions, Americans are becoming less dependent on their automobiles. An 18-34 year old is much less likely to have a driver’s license or own a car. Half the population lives in either rural areas or suburban sprawl where cars are the only viable mode of travel. But the trend is in the opposite direction, as cities grow larger and rural areas depopulate. Hopefully, the trend for more proactive, sustainable travel continues as well.

Bike corrals, mobile urban parks, recycling bins and business certification are some of the more visible
examples of the ecological acumen of Andersonville’s commercial corridor.

Changes in how we interact with our environment come about in different ways. For example, the president can make a call to action on renewable energy, like Barack Obama did in this year’s state of the union address. Legislation, such as the revised energy conservation code, mandate behavior modification. But for the residents of north side Andersonville, change can also percolate from the bottom up.

Eco-Andersonville, an initiative of the Andersonville Development Corporation (ADC) is one such organization. The ADC is a non-profit, economic development association that aims to support the Andersonville neighborhood’s independently-owned businesses. But those very businesses and their customers were the impetus for Eco-Andersonville’s creation.

“We had a lot of people coming to us with concerns of the environmental impact of their businesses,” said Brian Bonanno, Sustainability Programs Manager at Eco-Andersonville. “They recognized that there was a more educated consumer—people looking for businesses that had a social or environmental ethic to their business model.”

So five years ago, the ADC organized Eco-Andersonville, tasked with assisting small businesses capitalize by operating at their customers’ expectations and make impactful changes in how they function. The organization has several programs to help local businesses stay economically viable in an increasingly environmentally-conscious marketplace. For example, the sustainable business certification program, open to independently-owned Andersonville businesses, conveys to consumers the environmental consciousness of the business.

There are other certifications out there, but many that Eco-Andersonville staff researched were either too big and expensive for the small businesses or they were too focused and not robust enough to address the neighborhood’s needs. The Andersonville green building certification has a three-star scale, based on a checklist of over 300 requirements.

So far, 13 businesses have gone through the certification process, seven of which attained three stars. Andersonville has a diverse commercial corridor, and those certified businesses include restaurants, a furniture store, dentist, chiropractor and others. “Part of the reason we made our own certification is the variety of businesses in the neighborhood,” said Bonanno.

Local design and creative firm Mightybytes earned three stars through the use of Energy Star appliances, VOC-free paint, water conservation and a host of other tactics. Similarly, Hamburger Mary’s received their three star-rating with the use of CFL and LED lighting, energy management and other methods. All of their cutlery, carryout packaging and napkins, for example, are made from either recycled content or vegetable starch.

Bonanno said there are plans for a small-scale badge system, whereby businesses who haven’t committed fully to the certification program can still receive attention for individual achievements in sustainability. “We attracted businesses that were very interested in sustainability and in making these improvements to their businesses but we want to broaden that out,” Bonanno said. Under the new badge system, “if they make improvements to water usage or change out lighting, they can put our Eco-Andersonville sticker on their window.” Not only can the business owners use the merit badge system as a form of marketing, it may encourage them later to go through the full certification.

The initiative that has received the highest praise from residents and business owners is the green building incentive program. Funded by the Andersonville Special Service Area—a city program that levies property taxes to enhance services along commercial corridors—this program supplies grants of up to $1,000 to local businesses to make sustainable upgrades to their properties. “We’re helping a business that otherwise couldn’t afford to do these improvements,” said Bonanno.

Eligible projects must attempt to make improvements in water conservation, hazardous material reduction, energy efficiency, air quality and/or renewables. The program is biased toward organizations that have gone through the sustainable business certification program, though those that are seeking certification will be prioritized as well. In fact, the grant is a great tool for businesses trying to obtain certification.

Andersonville businesses have used the program to finance everything from vegetated roofs to lighting upgrades. “We can make some of these products very affordable for small, independent businesses,” said Bonanno. A local coffee shop recently used a grant to install energy-efficient hand dryers while a furniture store completed a migration from halogen to LED lighting.

Andersonville is now home to the only commercial district recycling program outside of the Loop. Pedestrians can recycle their paper, glass and aluminum in one of 15 receptacles along Clark Street. The recycling bins were purchased using a grant from the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity and weekly collection is funded by local businesses that sponsor each bin for one year. In the three years since inception, the neighborhood has collected over 23 tons of recyclable material.

The “people spot” is perhaps the most visible example of the sustainable changes that Eco-Andersonville is helping bring to fruition. “Our neighborhood is a pretty dense and urban area with a lack of open space,” said Bonanno. “This is a good way to cheaply and quickly create public space for the neighborhood. It also gets people to rethink how they use the space around them.”

The people spot was inspired by the Park(ing) Day movement, an annual event where cities around the world take a metered parking spot and install tiny public parks in an effort to raise awareness about open spaces and urban sprawl.

The Andersonville people spot, however, is a semi-permanent 6’ x 44’ mini park that is installed from March through December. Made from indigenous plants, recycled milk jugs and other materials, the people spot gives a park space, even a tiny one, to the residents of Andersonville.

Two bike corrals, such as this one in front of the Hopleaf, are among the first on-street corrals in the city.

Another highly visible sign of change are the two sections of Clark Street that have been turned into dedicated space for bike corrals, only the second and third on-street corrals anywhere in the city. “Most of the racks are filled every night, especially in front of the Hopleaf,” said Bonanno. The local bar donated the funds necessary for the corral outside their premises.

Bonanno hopes that the people spot and bike corrals promote Andersonville as a pedestrian- and bike-friendly community. “I think people right now see the importance of making a healthy community and having access to all modes of transportation,” he said.

Eco-Andersonville has also been involved with other organizations in an attempt to change composting regulations. The coalition, led by the Illinois Environmental Council, Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council and others, has been petitioning the state to broaden the legislation which currently limits large, commercial composting to facilities that have an expensive Class 3 recycling permit. “We want to create a scale for small size commercial composting facilities that can be located in urban areas,” said Bonanno. Under the proposed law, urban farms would be allowed to compost not only their waste, but accept off-site food scraps from residents, restaurants and other sources. The resulting nutrient-rich compost could then be used for urban agriculture projects or sold to local garden centers and landscapers.

Bonanno believes that the time is right for the new legislation and for community-level changes in sustainability. “I think after the economic downturn, people’s focus may have shifted,” he said. “We’re starting to see interest rebound, now that we’re coming out of a stressful period. People are more open to these types of changes, and they understand that making sustainability a priority for businesses and communities has a positive economic impact.”

Food deserts—areas where access to groceries and fresh food has been replaced by convenience stores and fast food restaurants—have plagued Chicago for years, particularly in the west and south neighborhoods. A recent report has shown that these areas are shrinking, with the number of Chicagoans living in a food desert reduced by 40% over the last five years.

Those are huge gains, but with a food desert population of over 383,000, the battle is far from over. One measure to combat the issue is urban farming. Since food deserts are often in areas with vacant lots, a community can address both problems, turning around brownfields while cultivating locally-grown food.

The City of Chicago recently launched Farmers for Chicago, a program that will free up five acres of city-owned vacant lots for urban farming activity. Created in partnership with Growing Power, a non-profit urban agriculture organization based out of Milwaukee, the program will help expand the supply chain for local neighborhood-level food production and wholesale. Farmers for Chicago will train up to 20 people in urban farming skills and coordinate with local nonprofits that will install food growing equipment.

“Once made available, these vacant lots will help stabilize communities by bringing productive activity to areas that need it around food deserts,” said Mayor Emanuel. “Farmers for Chicago will give local residents a chance to not only learn how to grow food in their communities, but also build their own food enterprise.”

One of the first programs of its kind in the nation, Farmers for Chicago will be implemented over a three year period. With support from the philanthropic sector, Farmers for Chicago will help establish a strong local food sector in those neighborhoods that are lacking fresh produce. Urban growers will develop the skills necessary to succeed at food commerce, such as growing and packaging fruits and vegetables as well as creating distribution chains with farmer’s markets, local corner stores, grocery chains and restaurants.

As part of the new city collaboration and with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture, several organizations have begun training residents, especially those with limited work history, in how to grow local food. Chicago-based Growing Home is expanding growing facilities in Englewood, while Angelic Organics Learning Center will soon break ground on an urban agriculture facility in Greater Grand Crossing. The Chicago Botanic Garden will continue to offer garden training courses while Heartland Human Care Services will continue to develop a two and a half-acre farm in Humboldt Park.

Farmers for Chicago will recruit 25 trainees from those programs and provide them with technical assistance needed to start a food business, including help with obtaining the General Agricultural Practices certification required for retail wholesales, building a farm operation, hoop house construction and creating a distribution plan. Trainees will have access to shared tools, space, compost, financial literacy and other enrichment at Growing Power’s Iron Street Farm.

“I am excited that the City is partnering up with the community on such an important initiative,” said Erika Allen, Executive Director of Growing Power. “Our new pipeline will take Chicago’s local food sector to the next level.”

Growing Home helps empower people and communities with Chicago’s first USDA-certified organic, high-production urban farms. With installations in the Englewood and Back of the Yards neighborhoods, as well as the 10-acre Les Brown Memorial Farm in Marseilles, Illinois, Growing Home seeks to operate, promote and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment and community development.

In 2011, Growing Home’s Wood Street Urban Farm grew and sold over 13,000 pounds of local, organic produce, with over $45,000 in earned income. Growing Home sells its produce at the Green City Market, through a Community Supported Agriculture program, and to fine Chicago restaurants. Additionally, Growing Home holds a weekly farm stand for Englewood residents and provides programming on healthy cooking and nutrition to bring healthy options to this food desert.

The city’s role will be to identify clusters of city-owned land at appropriate locations that can be made available to farmer trainees, typically through the land’s transfer to a land trust or through a lease with one of the community-based training agencies that are identified as participants. The city will make sites available to further the productive uses of formerly vacant land, improve community access to healthy food, help participants to supplement their incomes and to foster workforce training.

The incubator network will help train people interested in farming, processing, marketing, selling and distributing produce. Specific skills training will range from hoop house construction and compost development to business plan development and retail sales. There are about 15 acres in the network that are either already operating as farming and training sites, being planted this year or are breaking ground next year.

Urban farming isn’t new to Chicago, of course. Many organizations, such as Midwest Ecological Landscape Alliance (MELA), have been working to help Chicago inner-city neighborhoods develop community gardens.

One example is a lot in the Little Village neighborhood that was once an abandoned expanse of concrete. Now, 26 raised vegetable beds are manned by local volunteers from Enlace Chicago, an area non-profit that helps manage and train volunteers for urban agriculture projects.

Several MELA members donated time, money and materials to the project, including Lake Street Landscape Supply, Lupfer Landscaping and Shemin Nurseries. A 1,550 gallon cistern will collect water from the roof of the building on a neighboring lot for use in irrigating the garden.

A 40% reduction in food deserts over five years is an incredible success and none of us should ignore that. Hopefully these efforts to cultivate unused land in Chicago will help to eliminate them in the next five.

Pay any attention to green building trends and you’ll hear an oft-cited number: 40%. That’s the share of U.S. energy consumption taken by buildings. The picture is bigger than that, however, and little of it is rosy.

In 1980, buildings accounted for not quite 33%, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Back then, the energy-intensive industry sector accounted for more at over 41%. By 2010, those figures had nearly swapped; industry had shrunk to under 31% while buildings now consumed over 41%.

Residential buildings have always accounted for a larger portion than commercial buildings, but the latter have grown much faster over that time period. Residential structures grew from 20.1% of the total U.S. energy portfolio in 1980 to 22.5%. Over those thirty years, commercial buildings grew from 13.5% to 18.6%. The DOE predicts that to jump to 20% by 2035. In a dense, urban area like Chicago, structures account for about 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, with nearly 40% coming from commercial buildings.

Clearly, steps need to be taken to abate this growth. In 2009, the City of Chicago created a program to address commercial energy use, in coordination with Local Governments for Sustainability (known as ICLEI after their former title, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives).

The Green Office Challenge is a friendly competition among office tenants to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The Challenge not only offers an opportunity for Chicago businesses and property managers to gain recognition for their green achievements, they can save energy, save money and gain a competitive advantage in green innovations.

More than 100 property owners and office tenants participated in the first year, including Jones Lang LaSalle, the Merchandise Mart, Transwestern Corporation, Office Depot and Microsoft. Office tenants are evaluated through a “green office scorecard” based on 50 green strategies that are related to five key office-related sectors: waste, energy, transportation, outreach and tenant engagement. Property managers can implement behavioral changes and capital improvements to reach those goals, and all are encouraged to use Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager to track the data.

Nearly 150 property managers and tenant companies located in Chicago’s downtown business district took part in the Green Office Challenge last year. Combined, they saved $17.5 million in energy costs and reduced energy use by 124 million kWh, the equivalent to the energy used by 45,000 homes. These efforts averted the emission of more than 85,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

“Chicago’s efforts in sustainability have created economic opportunity throughout our neighborhoods and dramatically improved the overall quality of life for residents,” said Mayor Emanuel. “The Green Office Challenge is a great example of the private sector working with government to reduce costs and create jobs while protecting the environment.”

Participants worked to set and achieve specific green goals, supported primarily through monthly training events, use of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and other tools. It is because of these efforts, for example, that participants were able to divert 43% of their waste from landfills.

Round three, which launched in February, is a collaboration between the city and various partners, including non-profit Delta Institute, technology start-up GreenPoint Partners and sponsor Office Depot. This round will run through 2013 and suggests activities that employees and building managers can undertake to green their business practices. The competition has previously been focused on office buildings and tenants in the Loop, but this round will expand to those not just in the central business district but across the city and even the suburbs.

Mayor Emanuel’s environmental action agenda, Sustainable Chicago 2015, sets a target of doubling participation and impact in round three, as part of a larger goal to accelerate the economy through sustainability.

Aside from opening up the program to the full extent of the Chicago area, the key to the future success of this version is competition. “In Chicago, we like to compete and we like to win. And we love to win on sustainability,” said Karen Weigert, the city’s Chief Sustainability Officer, at the February launch party. “We want Chicago to be the most sustainable, competitive, livable city in the world.”

Last summer, ICLEI released the Green Business Challenge App, a customizable web application that now allows any municipality to launch a friendly competition among its business community to save money, energy, water and waste. Based on the success of Chicago’s Green Business Challenge, nearly a dozen cities and counties have also launched similar programs, including Houston, Charleston and Arlington County.

Houston Green Office Challenge participants reduced energy use by 28 million kilowatt hours, water use by 74 million gallons, and diverted 40% of their waste from landfills, in addition to many other achievements like adding bicycle parking, implementing flex time and telecommuting policies. The secret to the Green Business Challenge program’s success is twofold: fun and friendly competition, and media recognition for the businesses’ green achievements.

The web app allows any local government to launch a Green Business Challenge program in weeks, not months, and to administer it with fewer staff and less money. Participants access the app through the local government’s website, and use it to register, take a baseline survey, browse a library of tips and resources, update their achievements, view a scorecard that tracks their progress toward goals, read customized suggestions for ways to increase their score and operate a carbon calculator. Program administrators can use the tool to customize the pr-ogram, view reports on participants’ progress and maintain engagement with mass emails.

On Washington Street, colored pavement and signage will designate the BRT lanes. Curbside platforms and bus shelters will provide safe boarding options, while also protect bike lanes from traffic.

Through careful planning and design, the lanes will provide a balanced separation of bus, bike and regular traffic lanes. Two miles of bus-priority lanes on Madison, Washington, Canal and Clinton will serve Union Station, Ogilvie Transportation Center, CTA subways and Navy Pier with more than 1,700 buses per day, making it one of the busiest bus routes in the nation.

Colored pavement markings and conspicuous signage are designed to integrate BRT with other modes of travel in the Loop. Level-boarding, queue jumps for buses at key intersections, distinct bus shelters, digital bus tracking displays, sidewalk improvements and protected bike lanes are also planned as part of the system.

“By using a balanced approach to configuring the roadways for BRT, we will make cost-effective improvements without dramatically changing the current traffic setup,” said CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein. “At the same time, we will provide transit connections to downtown businesses and major destinations more reliable, fast and easy.”

Under the proposed lane configuration, eastbound Washington will feature a colored bus-only lane that will be serviced with island bus-boarding platforms. Two car lanes will remain for traffic through the Loop. A bike lane against the southern curb would be protected from auto traffic by the bus lane and boarding platforms.

The Union Station intermodal transfer point will connect Metra rail riders with CTA buses.

“The Central Loop BRT corridor will provide a new, fast and reliable transportation option to connect people to jobs and major destinations such as Navy Pier,” said Metropolitan Planning Council Executive Vice President Peter Skosey. “This is a smart investment in Chicago’s public transit network.”

BRT improvements could improve overall bus travel times through the Central Loop corridor by three to nine minutes per trip. While buses are only 4% of the vehicles traveling through the corridor, they carry more than 47% of the commuters making trips in vehicles.

Residents in the two northernmost wards will receive their carts this week and can expect recycling pickup as early as March 1st. This is only the first of four phases this year that ultimately will see recycling expansion to every part of the city, however. “If you don’t have recycling yet, you will have it this year,” said Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams.

Funding for expanded blue cart recycling, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, will be not come from the residential end. Budget efficiencies brought about by programs such as managed competition and grid-based garbage pickup should offset the cost.

“You cannot be a green city and not have recycling citywide,” Emanuel said. He went on to point out the other pro-environment initiatives that the city is undertaking this year, including the closing of the last two coal-fired energy plants in the city, investments in the public transit infrastructure and expanded LEED square footage. More bike lanes are also planned for Chicago streets, including 20 new miles this year. “It is my goal that at every level, Chicago is known as a green city,” Emanuel said.

A darkened downtown Chicago as it appeared in 2009 during the second international Earth Hour Challenge.

The Earth Hour City Challenge is a year-long effort rewarding cities that are preparing for increasingly extreme weather and promoting renewable energy. The U.S. challenge recognizes leading cities for their efforts to curb carbon pollution and prepare their communities for the harmful consequences of climate change. One city will serve as the 2013 U.S. Earth Hour City Capital, and qualify for resources to advance local climate readiness efforts. Nearly 30 local governments from across the country are members of this year’s inaugural group of Earth Hour City Challengers.

“We are highlighting the best and brightest ways cities are keeping their communities one step ahead of the climate-driven changes and extreme weather we are all experiencing,” said WWF-US Director of International Climate Policy Keya Chatterjee. “These cities really have put in place some of the most forward-looking, locally-oriented measures in the U.S. and are truly global leaders in addressing climate change.”

For its nomination, WWF noted that Chicago is setting a high bar for local governments with its ambitious climate action plan and work engaging citizens about citywide efforts to reduce emissions and prepare for climate change. Chicago’s work to improve the resilience of its public transportation system to extreme heat and urban flooding, as well as its efforts to transition the city to renewable energy sources stand out among the nation’s best climate-smart programs. Chicago holds the top spot among U.S. cities in the deployment of some key climate strategies including the installation of more than 5.5 million square feet of green roofs and the largest urban solar electricity generation plan (10 megawatts).

“The work we are doing builds economic strength and environmental health today and ensures Chicago’s quality of life over the long term,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “From investments in energy efficiency and clean energy to public transportation and bike friendliness, we will continue to enhance Chicago’s sustainability.”

“The Earth Hour City Challenge clearly demonstrates that cities are on the front lines of responding to climate change,” added Chatterjee. “These local governments have set ambitious development plans, improved local public transportation systems and committed to reducing carbon emissions to improve their citizens’ quality of life while simultaneously reducing their impact on our planet.”

WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization, working in 100 countries for nearly half a century. With the support of almost 5 million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth, halt the degradation of the environment and combat climate change. Visit www.worldwildlife.org to learn more.

Image: Justin Kern

While it was popularized—and now thrives—in Germany and Scandinavia, the passive house concept actually started in the 1970’s, at the University of Illinois. The technology stagnated in the US after the energy crisis receded, though it took off in Europe.

But, as more developers and consumers in this country accept sustainable architecture, the search is always on for the next superlative in green building. Currently, a passive house truly is the greenest option for new construction. It will likely be some time before another technology dethrones it.

So when the Lema Family decided that they wanted to build a durable, super-efficient home, it wasn’t long before they decided to build a passive house in suburban River Forest, the first certified passive house in the Chicago area.

Before any passive house is built, before its drawings are finalized, it goes through rigorous energy modeling. The size of the shell, insulation R-values, window solar heat gain, thermal bridge coefficients and many other factors are input into proprietary software until an optimal layout results.

In the northern hemisphere, passive houses rely tremendously on their southern exposures; collect heat on the south side and lose little on the north. The energy modeling allows the architect to finagle the layout for optimum energy management. And as strictly engineered as passive houses are, every detail counts, even something as minute as bundling hot water pipes to scale down heat loss inside the home.

“The strategy is to minimize losses first and then maximize gains,” said Tom Bassett-Dilley, the Oak Park-based architect who designed the Lema’s home. Energy loss is controlled by insulation and airtightness; energy gain is maximized by the proper placement of high performance windows.

Another factor is the compactness of volume. “If you took these 3,600 square feet of treated floor area and spread it out as a ranch, you’d have huge heat loss,” said Bassett-Dilley. There are no hidden nooks and crannies in a passive house; the ratio of treated floor area to thermal envelope is very important. The south windows are no different than the north ones in terms of solar heat gain; they are simply larger and there are more of them.
The most distinctive feature of a passive house is the super insulation. Conventional wisdom says that there are diminishing returns when adding insulation to a build. The genius of the passive house concept, however, is that if you insulate to the point where you don’t need much energy to condition the space, the whole system becomes much more efficient.

The Lema house’s R-value rises from the ground up. An R-40 slab supports R-60 walls and an R-100 roof tops everything off. That’s more than double the recommended R-value for this climate. “You build to code, and it’s pathetic as far as energy goes,” said Bassett-Dilley. “And it’s obsolete. This would be pretty hard to get obsolete, because when you get to this level of insulation, there’s not much to be gained by doing more.”

Eight inches of foam separate the concrete slab from the earth. Atop that, Logix insulated concrete forms (ICFs) form the basic shell of the home. They are the bulk of its insulation too, with 6¼ inches of concrete sandwiched by two, 2¾ thick, foam forms. Appended to the outside are two inches of polyiso insulation and inside the concrete shell, 2×4 stud bays are filled with blown-in fiberglass insulation.

According to Brandon Weiss of Weiss Building and Development, who acted as general contractor on the project, recent studies have shown that blown fiberglass contains the highest level of recycled content of any insulation on the market, even cellulose. The product they used, Jet Stream by Knauf, claims a minimum post-consumer recycled content of 62%. Unlike blown cellulose, the fiberglass incorporates no formaldehyde, phenol or borates. Also, it can be blown in dry so there are no concerns of moisture content inside the wall.

Airtightness is another key to the success of any passive house. A drafty house is a house in need of constant conditioning. The latest Illinois energy conservation code, which will go into effect on January 1, 2013, requires new construction to test at five air changes per hour (ACH) or lower; a certified passive house, by contrast, needs to be at 0.6 ACH. The preliminary blower door test on the Lema home was nearly half that at 0.33 ACH.
The primary reason that this house can test so airtight is the ICF construction. There are no gaps or seams except for around windows and doors. Anywhere there may be air leakage is sealed with tape. Every window, every door, even the drainpipes that go down below the basement slab are taped off, a job that fell to Weiss. “I have an inventory of every hole in the house,” he said.

It’s common with passive houses to create an airtight shell and then fir in walls and ceiling. This not only provides room to run electric, plumbing and ventilation, but it prevents penetration of the air barrier. “We kind of treat it like a balloon,” said Eric Barton of Biltmore Insulated Concrete, the shell contractor on the house.

The roofline—where heat is most likely to escape—was the trickiest part of the project. Standard trusses were tied into the ICF walls, but unlike a traditional home, the bottoms of the trusses were skinned in half-inch plywood. The plywood seams, including the perimeter where they butt up against the ICFs, were all taped off creating an air-tight barrier. A drop ceiling grid was suspended from that, to which drywall could be hung. The cavity between the drywall and plywood also serves as a mechanical space.

While passive houses are often referred to as “furnace-free,” this can be a misnomer. Some buildings are erected in which the living area is never conditioned, but these tend to be in temperate climates with low humidity, like northern Europe.

But in a climate like Chicago’s, some HVAC is required. Two ductless mini-splits are more than sufficient to condition the whole house. The maximum design load for the home is 13,000 btu hours, or four kbtus per square foot. “That’s about a tenth of what a typical built to code house would be,” said Bassett-Dilley. In the summer, the Lemas can expect to use less than a ton of cooling, when a similarly-sized, conventionally-built home would use more like five tons in that time period.

Early designs of the house called for a pellet stove for extra insurance in the winter. The energy modeling was so granular that they even considered towel warmers in the bathroom, not so much as an amenity but as a heat source. With the mini splits in place, these ideas were easily abandoned.
The house is airtight, but it still needs ventilation and the true heart of any modern passive house is the energy recovery ventilation system (ERV). The system in the Lema house has an extremely efficient fan that recaptures about 85% of the outgoing heat.

Air continuously circulates through the home at a leisurely 80 cubic feet per minute, ensuring a healthy and comfortable living space without any heat transfer between the indoors and out. The ERV extracts air from the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry, and delivers fresh air to bedrooms and other living spaces. From a performance standpoint, an ERV will regulate the movement of air coming into the living space, rather than permitting a porous structure to allow air to come and go unregulated.

“It’s advantageous for the homeowner, too,” said Weiss. “There aren’t as many moving parts in their home.” Maintenance on the mechanical system is as simple as periodically changing the filters on the ERV unit.

“Most of everything we’ve used here has been third party certified for indoor air quality,” said Weiss. Indoor air quality is an important consideration in any construction project, but more so in a passive house where ventilation is kept constant but low. For this reason, most of the finishing products were Greenguard Children and Schools certified. “Passive house being so tight,” said Weiss, “if you’re sealing up and using formaldehyde in cabinets, for example, there’s nowhere for it go but stay in the house.”

The walls were clad in a sheetrock product that claims to capture and permanently remove VOCs. The filters are rated MERV-8 so that the homeowners will enjoy a high level of air quality once they move in.

Because passive houses ideally have as few penetrations of the thermal envelope as possible, they do demand different appliances. A standard range hood would be too drafty, so a self-contained, charcoal exhaust hood will manage the induction stovetop. A standard clothes dryer runs on gas and vents to the outside which would also introduce a possible spot for air infiltration. In condenser dryers, by contrast, the hot, damp air passes through a heat exchanger to condense the water out before being reintroduced to the drum.

The house is packed with plenty of other sustainable features as well. Most of the home’s ambient lighting is handled by high-efficiency T-5 fluorescent, packed into light coves directed at the ceiling. Before construction began, the site was home to a semi-demolished brick house. Most of that brick was salvaged and used in gabions surrounding the basement windows. The house is clad in siding manufactured from fast-growth trees. Unlike cement boards, these are lighter, more durable, have less embodied energy and don’t produce silica dust when cutting.

The house is also pre-wired for a five kW solar photovoltaic array, should the homeowner choose to install one. On the garage is a solar thermal installation to pre-heat the home’s domestic hot water. These are all extra steps, of course, and not standard to a passive house. “The theory of passive house isn’t gadgets,” said Barton. “Every passive house doesn’t have solar hot water. It doesn’t have to.”

Super insulating and taking all the other steps necessary to build a passive house does add about 10% to the upfront price. “But there’s not a big cost premium,” Bassett-Dilley said, “if you’re willing to consider the expense of your house in terms of mortgage and operation cost together.” Considering a passive house averages about 75% less to heat and cool than a traditional home, the extra cost disappears on a home with a 30-year mortgage.
In terms of design, passive house is very flexible. The only real limitations are on compactness and orientation. “It’s something that architects, if they’re really going to call themselves green, need to be honest about,” said Bassett-Dilley. “Once builders and architects are trained and consumers find out about it, the only reason you wouldn’t do it is if you’re building a disposable house.”

All images courtesy Tom Bassett-Dilley Architect, Ltd.

Cannon Design’s Chicago office once occupied three stories and about 80,000 square feet at 111 W. Washington. This year, they moved into one floor spanning between the buildings at 205 and 225 N. Michigan. But don’t call the 60,000 square feet of space in Michigan Plaza a step down; Cannon Design has proved that less really can be more.

The former space “created a silo effect for our people,” said Mark Hirons, Principal/Design Director for Corporate Interiors at Cannon Design and lead on the Chicago office design. “It wasn’t very flexible or efficient in that context.”

A large, open platform was a major driver in their location search. “We wanted to make sure that we were thinking differently, that we engage clients to expose them to new ideas and thoughts,” said Hirons, who views the new Cannon offices as a catalyst for his clients in the way they think of their own projects. “While this may not be the exact environment [our clients] are looking for, it lets them cleanse the palate and makes them more open-minded about different aspects of how space can impact their work.”

The build-out, performed by Executive Construction, Inc., took about three months. The greatest challenge was in uniting the two towers that, while immediately adjacent, are independent of each other.

There was a significant expense in installing a fire break at the connection, but the added cost was necessary to create the unencumbered space they desired. “There are very few buildings with a 55 or 60,000 square foot floor plate in Chicago,” said Hirons.

This created a virtual bridge between the two buildings, allowing light and people to travel from the north end of the space with its views of the Magnificent Mile to the south which looks out upon Millennium Park.

Before construction, the space was parceled up by walls and separate offices. Wanting to maximize the volume, an open ceiling was designed which not only leveraged the artificial lighting, but allowed the core of the floor to take in daylight. The reflective finish on the cement floor also helps move light around the space.

But openness is not the only theme to the Cannon Design Chicago space. The open format gives employees more freedom of movement while also merging different functions of the office environment. It is flexibility that really drives how the space was designed.

The computer training room, for example, was designed to be multifunctional. A ledge around the room’s perimeters can hold monitors so that an instructor can see everyone’s progress. But within minutes, the room’s desks can be rearranged into a more traditional setting. “We minimized cost and increased flexibility,” said Hirons. “It’s a very vanilla box, but it allows for amorphous use of space.”

Many aspects of the office, from workstations up to entire rooms, were conceived with more than one purpose in mind. “We wanted everything to have multiple functions to minimize waste.” Many surfaces, such as desktops and conference room walls, are magnetic and also accept dry erase markers. One location does this and more, with a smart board acting as a projection screen, upon which an employee can mark with a stylus and have his or her notes sent to team members.

A consolidated café acts as a nucleus for the office, where people can not only get coffee and eat lunch, but gather for small, informal meetings or just go for a change of scenery. “We probably had five or six different coffee areas. Now we’re all centralized in one place,” said Christopher Lambert, Sustainability Services Business Leader at Cannon Design Chicago. “That’s just an efficiency thing, but you end up having multiple benefits. In addition to a cultural benefit, you also get significant space savings.”

Across from the café is a multi-use gallery space. Interactive panels can partition the space or open it up. They swivel and slide to alter the gallery to the user’s needs and the panels also have writing boards for when the gallery is being used as a conference room. Cannon Design has held social events in the combined gallery/café for up to 250 people, negating the need to rent other spaces.

Together, the gallery and café create a nexus in the office unlike what they had at their previous location. “That’s the core of this center space. Not only the flexibility, but the cultural aspect,” said Hirons. “People engage more here in two weeks than they did in five years before.”

There was a bit of a culture shock for some Cannon Design Chicago staff after moving. There are no enclosed offices except for human resources; all other employees have a workstation, mostly organized into workgroups for productivity. The open plan meant that those who had a private office for years needed to adjust to sharing space with their colleagues.

The open concept can also be a shock to Cannon Design clients when they visit as well. “Once they understand the different elements and how it would apply to them, they totally engage with that,” Hirons said. “It’s helped open their eyes to possibilities.”

One step Cannon Design takes before proposing drawings to a client is to conduct a workplace strategy that focuses on health perspectives, but also cost saving opportunities. “This space is a good model for them to be able to understand how it could impact their own staff,” Hirons said.

As they began designing their new space, Cannon Design conducted employee surveys to discover what the people who would actually use the space desired. Nearly three quarters said they would use alternative work spaces if provided. As a result, there are eight capacious meeting rooms for larger gatherings, including one with room for 60 people, but there are also 20 smaller “enclaves” for more intimate meetings. These grew out of survey results which showed that the average meeting at their firm only involved three people. The eight-person conference rooms in their old space were more often than not unnecessarily large. “One of the cool things about being in this big floor plate is you get many different ecosystems,” said Lambert.
The firm also conducted an embodied energy study on possible materials to be used in the space. They concluded that the embodied energy—that energy used to manufacture and ship all the materials used in the office—ended up being equal to three and a half years of energy bills.

“It helps you realize if you’re making responsible choices. We wanted to use this project as an opportunity to work differently, think differently,” Hirons said. “Not just us, but for everyone we touch, our clients and our community.” Reuse aided this goal. For example, some spaces are partitioned by panels that had been doors used by the previous tenant.

Michigan Plaza obtained LEED-EBOM Gold in September and the Chicago office of Cannon Design was awarded LEED Platinum in October. During their overhaul, the two buildings of Michigan Plaza diverted over 11 tons of furniture and electronics from landfills and recycled 80% of construction materials.

Annually, new water efficiency solutions should reduce the buildings’ consumption by over 4 million gallons and greenhouse gas emissions should recede by nearly 1,500 metric tons. The management also implemented a tenant education program for sustainable practices and created a green cleaning policy.
The space was already very green when Cannon Design moved in, but the Platinum label should be an indication that they went above and beyond. The washroom facilities were upgraded with high efficiency fixtures by Toto, designed to be 43% more water efficient than what is typical. “It was important to us to reduce consumption as much as possible,” said Lambert. “We are an engineering firm as much as architecture firm.”

Despite the large floor area, the space was able to implement a very efficient lighting plan, with help from the Energy Center of Wisconsin and a ComEd incentive program. Daylight sensors attached to the banks of LED lights help maintain a low wattage per square foot that is 45% better than the typical office. The views to every cardinal direction also mean an hourly change in light levels during the workday. “It’s been a terrific win from both making people feel comfortable as well as keeping energy consumption at a responsible level,” said Lambert. Also reducing energy use, the vending machines in the kitchenette have occupancy sensors as well, only lighting up when someone is present.

Perhaps the most visible sign of Cannon Design’s commitment to sustainability is an energy use dashboard, on display in the resource library. These dashboards are a great way to track utility usage, but they are usually confined to the facility manager’s computer terminal. Putting the dashboard out in view not only tells employees and clients about the firm’s green goals, it makes everyone who interacts with the space more cognizant of how they use it.

The system currently tracks light and plug loads real time. “Ultimately, this is not going to be just an energy dashboard but a sustainability dashboard,” said Lambert. “It’s about lifestyle choices as much about the things we consume every day.” When complete, the dashoard will track outgoing waste, water consumption, electricity, employee transportation use and other metrics, not just in Chicago but in all Cannon Design offices. “We want people to see that the choices they make have an impact on their day to day lives,” said Lambert.