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Seeds of Change: Vertical Farming Comes to the South Side
June 10, 2010 by Matt Baker · 2 Comments
When the global population first entered the billions, Napoleon was reshaping Europe, Beethoven and Haydn were contemporary musicians and the cutting edge in technology was the steamship. That population would double sometime between the World Wars and by the turn of the millennium, humanity numbered over six billion. Of course, we’re not done; estimates suggest that by the year 2050, a world census could come in somewhere between nine and ten billion.
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ComEd Increases Financial Aid to High Performance Buildings
June 2, 2010 by Matt Baker · 1 Comment
Commonwealth Edison has announced that it will increase the maximum funding amount of financial incentives for new construction or major renovation projects in its service territory to $150,000—a $50,000 increase since the program’s inception in June of 2009.
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South Works Planned Developement Set for TIF Infusion
May 12, 2010 by Matt Baker · 2 Comments
The Chicago City Council may once again turn to controversial tax-increment financing (TIF) to help pay for the redevelopment of the years-dormant South Works property. On Tuesday, the Council’s Community Development Commission voted unanimously in support of pledging $96 million to finance the first phase of a massive overhaul of the former U.S. Steel plant on the city’s south side. If approved by the full Council, the South Works TIF would be the City’s largest ever subsidy of private development.
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Chicago Climate Exchange Set to Go on ICE
April 30, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), a leading operator of regulated global futures exchanges and markets, has announced its acquisition of London-based Climate Exchange Plc, the parent of, among other exchanges, the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange.
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JJC Opens First LEED-Certified Community College Greenhouse
April 26, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
If it could, a leafhopper that sneaks through the roof of Joliet Junior College’s (JJC) new Greenhouse Facility this spring would gloat. Its lower-flying fellow pests cannot penetrate the structure: the near 16-foot walls are too high, and the passive ventilation system offers no vents or fans to slip through. But just as it prepares to dig into a chrysanthemum, that leafhopper gets sucked up and out of the facility.
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Wash the Planet in Green
April 22, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
As you’re likely aware, today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Much has changed since its creation by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI). The focus early on was environmental toxins, from polluted rivers to acid rain. Those threats have been abated slightly, but not eliminated (according to Friends of the Chicago River, for example, 1.2 billion gallons of sewage end up in the waterway every day). Since 1970, our understanding of the environment has grown, as has our lexicon of menaces: climate change, urban heat island, ozone depletion, VOC, HFC, GHG.
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Evanston Contemplates Lake Michigan Wind Farm
April 13, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
The struggle over offshore wind turbines is one usually fought along the the East and West Coasts. But that battle is now here by the shores of Lake Michigan as the City of Evanston contemplates the installation of a wind farm off its shore.
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Chicago Among Top Five Greenest U.S. Cities
March 31, 2010 by Matt Baker · 2 Comments
Continuing a national appraisal begun last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ranked the top U.S. cities in terms of efficient buildings. Chicago moved to fifth overall, up one spot from the previous year. The ranking is based on number of building which garnered the EPA’s Energy Star rating, of which Chicago has 134.
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Chicago Announces Creation of Green Jobs Using Recovery Act Funds
March 15, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
The City has used $16 million received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment program to create more than 650 “green” jobs for formerly-incarcerated individuals, Mayor Richard M. Daley said last week.
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Mad Scientists: The Crazy Ideas That Just Might Save the World
March 12, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
By Matt Baker
After the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the United States government believed that the Soviet Union had not only leapfrogged them technologically, but had become a grave threat. This resulted in the creation of a federal research and development arm—the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later DARPA). Defense research efforts under this agency resulted in the unmanned Predator drone currently at work in Afghanistan and Iraq, the F-117 stealth fighter and most notably, ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet.
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