If you follow politics in Chicago at all, you’ve probably heard that Mayor Richard M. Daley has been using his lock on political power to try and make the Second City a more sustainable one. Daley established the city’s Department of Environment in 1992, and in the intervening years, has made some big steps toward making the city look greener (by planting thousands of trees in median planters along streets) and build greener (all new city buildings are now required to use green building technologies — using a standard similar to the LEED rating system but adapted to the unique conditions of Chicago). Daley’s stated goal is to make Chicago the greenest city in the United States, and considering the strides that have been made so far, it’s conceiveable that such a boast could become reality in the not-too-distant future.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to creating this vision of a shining city on a green hill is that government can’t do it alone. While the city has shown willingness to lead by example, it will take the coordinated efforts of the corporate community and private citizens to turn a metropolis with an aging and underfunded mass transit infrastructure, and less-than-stellar record of water management and waste stream recycling, into a model for American cities looking to get serious about getting green.

One of the more intriguing ideas for eco-friendly urban design that Daley’s administration has tried to spread to the private sector is the green roof. Through its Green Roof Grants Program, the city has subsidized more than 60 residential and small commercial projects to the tune of $5,000 each in the last two years. Because the program includes fast-track building permits along with financial incentives, the use of green roofs has spread dramatically. In fact, Chicago now has more square footage of green roofs than any other American city.

The attraction of green roofs is that they offer environmental and economic benefits to both the building owner and the surrounding community. Cities with green roofs are more livable because the increased plant matter helps improve air quality and lowers the ambient air temperature during the hottest weather. Because plants use the energy of the sun to grow and photosynthesize rather than absorbing it as heat, green roofs help reduce the urban heat island effect (which contributes to ozone formation and increased energy consumption in the summer). Green roofs also help absorb and manage storm water runoff, which can be a big problem during heavy downpours in areas with a lot of impermeable surfaces. Owners of buildings with green roofs often see reductions in heating and cooling bills of 20% to 30%, and an additional economic incentive is a greatly increased roof lifespan. Finally, I should mention the aesthetic enhancement that added greenery brings to an urban landscape.

For those residents not willing or able to make the commitment to green roof (which may require building plans for strengthening roof support, added occupant access routes, or irrigation systems), the city recently unveiled a related intiative called the Cool Roof Grants Program. The program will encourage the use of light-colored or reflective materials, some of which use a soy-based coating, on conventional roofs. While lacking the aesthetic and water-management advantages of green roofs, cool roofs do fight the heat island effect, which means less electricity demand and better air quality. The Cool Roofs grant program will be even more well-funded than the Green Roofs program: a total of $185,000 in grants will be awarded in the first year, which breaks down to about 55 projects receiving up to $6,000 each.

Cool roofs may not be as sexy as green roofs, but encouraging their use just might be a better use of scarce municipal funds: an easily-accessible way to encourage Chicago residents to do something tangible to lower the city’s carbon footprint. In essence, this is an intermediate step toward a truly sustainable roof design, with the main goal being to get as many building owners as possible to transition away from the old black tar roofing material that soaks up the solar heat and makes the city a hotter, more smog-prone, and energy-inefficient place to live. In the age of global warming triage (change something, anything, but do it soon!), this idea makes a lot of sense for a town with the moniker "The city that works." This program will work, for the most number of people.

At least I hope that’s the impetus behind this new initiative … and not, say, influence peddling by some group of crooked roofing contractors scheming to corner the market on reflective coating materials in Cook County. After all, shadier things have happened in Chicago, and you don’t have to go back to the days Al Capone to find examples.

Photo credit: U.S. EPA

References and Resources

Mayor Daley’s Green Crusade | Metropolismag.com

History of Green Roofs in Chicago | Inhabitat

Green Roof and Cool Roof Grants Programs | City of Chicago

Chicago Green Roofs Initiative | City of Chicago

Cool Roofs | U.S. EPA