Evanston City Council at its Jan. 8 meeting received an update on how the city is meeting its Climate Action and Resilience Plan goals. City staff said steps are being taken but progress will become increasingly difficult as “low hanging fruit” initiatives are well underway.
“I want to highlight that each year we don’t make significant progress, it makes it harder and harder for us going forward,” Sustainability and Resilience Specialist Ben Martin said. “We’re running out of the low hanging fruit and this will not only be expensive, but a difficult task.”
Greenhouse gas emissions metrics just wrapped up for 2023 and the team is starting to analyze the data. Martin shared between 2005 and 2022 Evanston reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 48% with renewable energy certificates and 36% without. Evanston hopes to obtain a 50% overall decrease by 2025 in its path to reaching 100% by 2050, according to the presentation.
Natural gas use generated 51% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, Martin said, with the city’s natural gas use remaining consistent with no significant decline in the past 20 years.
The city’s sustainability and resilience team tripled in size last year. This allowed them to launch the Green Homes Pilot, break ground on an all-electric animal shelter, obtain a municipal operations electricity contract for 100% renewable energy and advocate for phasing out natural gas in new constructions, according to the presentation. Sustainability and Resilience Specialist Kirsten Drehobl said the team made progress toward its Parks and Green Space Strategic Plan, Source Water Protection Plan, Stormwater Master Plan, the Comprehensive Plan and municipal vehicle electrification.
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“Every single item we’ve accomplished has been a collaborative effort between city staff, (all of us here), residents, Evanston businesses and nonprofits,” Drehobl said. “I want to give a thank you to everyone involved in this. We cannot underscore how much of a team effort this has been.”
Both Martin and Drehobl were hired in 2023 as part of the team’s growing numbers. Both new hires completed their graduate studies in environmental and sustainability programs with several internships under their belts prior to joining Evanston’s staff.
The team, including Sustainability and Resilience Manager Cara Pratt, acknowledged the work City Council put into these increased efforts. Key among these include the private tree preservation and plastic bag ban ordinances. Plastic bags are banned in Evanston alongside a 10 cent shopping bag tax with paper bags consisting of at least 40% post-consumer recycled products.
Pratt shared the City Council will likely consider ordinances in 2024 regarding building performance standards, eliminating parking minimums, stretch codes and deconstruction.
The stretch code and building performance standards proposals were officially submitted on Jan. 4 by Councilmember Jonathan Nieuwsma, according to the referral tracker. The stretch code proposal will be heard by the Utilities Commission and the building performance standard proposal will be heard by both the Utilities Commission and the Environment Board, the tracker states. Councilmember Eleanor Revelle and Mayor Daniel Biss co-sponsored the two referrals.
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.