New Action Plan for Investing in Environment & the Economy
by Joel on April 7th, 2009
The City of Chicago recently released its comprehensive and innovative Chicago Climate Action Plan. Chicago now has a very good baseline of existing emissions and a blueprint for its goals of reducing Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Daley and tremendous efforts by the City’s Department of Environment, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and others, such as ShoreBank Corporation board member and former head of the MacArthur Foundation, Adele Simmons, the City now has a clear understanding of what it will take to achieve its ambitious goals.
The steps required to meet the goals are staggering. For instance, the plan calls for retrofitting 400,000 units of housing by 2020. Currently, approximately only 6,000 residences are weatherized annually. This figure should rise substantially given the programs authorized in President Obama’s stimulus package. Even so, the ramp up is considerable.
Interestingly, while the plan offers a great deal of detail on many facets, nowhere does it quantify the expected costs and capital needs for meeting the objectives. Indeed, the capital needs are likely significant. While the exact figures are difficult to calculate since each building will have a different level of capital investment, assuming $7,000 per unit of housing (the estimate used for weatherization costs in the stimulus bill), the housing portion comes to $2.8 billion, and this doesn’t even include the additional costs of more expensive items, such as windows, let alone, higher cost technologies, including geothermal, solar thermal or photovoltaic systems. More likely, given the costs of these items, the capital needs, just for the housing portion (and not including the costs to retrofit the 23,000 commercial buildings), exceeds $4-5 billion.
Such a level of investment would be a huge boost to the region’s economy – indeed, the spending on these retrofits is likely to create tens of thousands of good paying jobs directly, and indirectly support many times that number in the manufacturing, retail and ancillary industries. All told, the investment could support nearly 500,000 jobs regionally. And considering the highest unemployment in 25 years, the dividend on the investment will be an enormous one.
We have seen firsthand how these types of investments impact individuals, families and communities. From the drillers being hired by a geothermal company such as Indie Energy, to the energy raters and installers, active in our Homeowners’ Energy Conservation Loan program, we know that every dollar makes a huge difference reducing energy costs, creating jobs, and protecting the planet, whether its in Chicago, or in any other densely built area of the nation.
To learn more about the Chicago Climate Action Plan’s environmental impact, check out my colleague Karen’s earlier post here.
Tags: Chicago Climate Action Plan, community development, green banking, green building, green jobs, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
[...] Original post: New Action Plan for Investing in Environment & the Economy … [...]
[...] New Action Plan for Investing in Environment & the Economy … [...]
[...] New Action Plan for Investing in Environment & the Economy … [...]
[...] April 10, 2009 Ditch Your Car with the Chicago Card Plus/I-GO Card Chicago Examiner – April 7, 2009 New Action Plan for Investing in Environment & the Economy Shorebank Voices – April 7, 2009 The Role of Privatization in Efficiency and Democracy Eight [...]