CHICAGO, ONCE KNOWN for its filthy steel mills and meatpacking plants, has earned a reputation for cleanliness and environmentalism since Mayor Richard M. Daley vowed several years ago to turn it into the greenest city in the nation. Over the last two years alone, Daley’s won a string of environmental awards and accolades, and while the city hasn’t hit the top spot (awarded in most studies to Eugene or Portland, Oregon), he’s often called America’s greenest mayor.
NOT SO GOOD: The city is wasting the equivalent of millions of trees a year by not offering better recycling to residents and businesses.
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GOOD: This year the city won a $200,000 federal grant to continue its efforts at cleaning up brownfields, abandoned land contaminated by industrial waste.
GOOD: Recycled materials are used in all kinds of city business, from copy paper in city offices to plastic railroad ties on the CTA’s el and subway lines.
The Real Greens
KEN DUNN One of the city’s earliest recycling advocates, Dunn founded the Resource Center, which has long run the kind of effective programs the city hasn’t. He’s also a leader in the more comprehensive field of sustainable development.
REBECCA STANFIELD An environmental attorney and the state director of the research and advocacy group Environment Illinois, Stanfield is a regional leader on clean air, clean power, and green public policy. Her organization is the one that marshals battalions of young people to hit the streets to collect signatures for its lobbying efforts, putting you on the spot with: “Do you have a minute to help the environment?”
BRIAN URBASZEWSKI Urbaszewski is another expert on everything that’s airborne but shouldn’t be. As director of environmental health programs for the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, he’s helped spearhead the campaign to get coal-burning power plants in Illinois to clean up.
BETSY VANDERCOOK President of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, Vandercook is Chicago’s leading spokesperson for a coherent, effective recycling policy. After fighting for the cause for nearly a quarter century, the coalition has amassed a trove of educational resources for anyone interested in recycling anything from carpet to tennis shoes.
SADHU JOHNSTON Johnston was an environmental activist in Cleveland until Daley recruited him for his administration. Now he’s commissioner of the city’s Department of Environment and a big reason the mayor has such a great reputation for supporting green construction.
MIKE QUIGLEY Cook County commissioner Quigley has been known to give interviews while waving around a thick branch ofbuckthorn, an invasive species that’s threatening to choke off other plants in the Cook County Forest Preserves. An advocate for conservation, recycling, and eco-friendly construction, he’s arguably the greenest elected official in Chicago.
NOT SO GOOD: The deals won’t take full effect until 2012, and the Chicago City Council has failed to compel the two plants in the city to clean up their acts; according to a Harvard study, the pollution from these two plants alone cause 2,800 asthma attacks, 550 emergency room visits, and 41 deaths each year. In the meantime, Chicago remains in violation of federal standards for smog and soot.
