Featured Portfolio News News
Thursday, January 31st, 2013
CNT will be participating in an upcoming summit on Building a 21st Century Transit System. Riders for Better Transit, a group dedicated to organizing Chicagoland transit riders to push for improved and expanded services in the city, will be hosting a summit at the UBS Tower Conference Center on February 25th. Bringing together a group of transportation policy leaders, the summit will discuss the challenges of creating a 21st century transit system. Focusing on issues like reform of the transit authorities’ governance structure and funding sources and investment strategies of the Chicagoland transit system, expert panels will discuss potential solutions to the problems facing the region. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Location efficiency, Transit Funding, Transit Policy, TransitFuture, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Thursday, January 24th, 2013
With especially stretched budgets, and a commitment to keeping tenant rents low, it only makes sense for affordable housing providers to reduce their operating costs through energy efficiency upgrades. Yet, the affordable housing community utilizes energy efficiency resources at a disproportionately low rate compared to other types of housing. Why?
A recent blog post CNT Energy co-wrote with Focus on Energy addresses this quandary. It explores key themes essential to better integration with affordable housing, including language employed, division of duties, and timing.
Read the complete post here>>
Posted in Energy, Featured Portfolio News | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is in the process of developing Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Guidelines and Policies in order to expand upon the environmental benefits of Complete Streets and respond to changing climate conditions. The guidelines will define ways to implement environmental best practices on CDOT infrastructure projects and all work within our streets and alleys. With input from project stakeholders, CDOT is proposing a consistent criteria for the design, implementation, and maintenance of sustainable infrastructure best practices that will help ensure these innovative ideas are consistently implemented.
On January 29th from 6-9pm, CNT will host a public briefing meeting for CDOT to share the draft guidelines. As a project stakeholder, CNT is a participating member of the task force to inform and shape these unique, wide-reaching guidelines and policies. If you’ve ever seen your street re-paved, only to see a utility trench cut a year later and roughly covered over, these guidelines hope to address this issue (among many other issues that affect the long-term viability of our urban infrastructure). Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Governor Quinn’s announcement of a new $1 billion Clean Water Initiative to overhaul the Illinois’s “aging water infrastructure” left one thing out—stormwater. But don’t worry! CNT has good news for communities seeking to improve water quality and reduce urban flooding, according to our inquiry to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, stormwater is included.
Since the Governor has ordered that this money should be invested in local and regional projects through the State Revolving Loan Funds, now is a perfect time for local governments and counties to apply for low interest loans (1.93%) for their water supply and stormwater projects that will prevent leaks, improve water quality and reduce urban flooding.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
In the Chicago region, as in most US metropolitan areas, the dispersal of businesses and residents from settled communities to greenfield developments has created a number of socioeconomic and environmental challenges. The growth of employment centers in exurban areas inaccessible by mass transit creates strains on municipal infrastructure, depletes farmland and natural resources, increases regional congestion and pollution from cars and trucks, and exacerbates a jobs-housing mismatch as workers must drive farther and pay more at the fuel pump. These trends can be countered by creating more jobs, housing, and amenities near well-established passenger and freight transportation infrastructure, particularly in the west Cook County suburbs, as a recent CNT report finds. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
Integrated resource planning, or IRP, is a comprehensive form of water planning that considers all aspects of water resources planning – water supply, wastewater and stormwater – and the interrelationship between them. Its ultimate objective is to establish long-term, least-cost goals that sustainably support a community’s needs and ensures water resource protection.
As communities continue to grapple with budget shortfalls, mounting water infrastructure needs and overwhelming stormwater pollution problems, we need to ensure we are making the best water infrastructure investment decisions and utilizing funds the most efficiently. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
Credit Flickr User "ricardodiaz11"
Municipal aggregation is in the news, most recently in light of Chicago City Council’s 50-0 vote approving the bulk electricity buying plan.
The plan will save customers money over ComEd’s fixed price rate. A positive result of aggregation is that it may encourage folks to think about their own power and usage, perhaps for the first time. And knowledge is key when it comes to informed decision-making by Chicago residents and small businesses. Read more »
Posted in Energy, Featured Portfolio News | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
CNT is pleased to announce the release of “Upgrade Your Infrastructure”—a new guide for helping cities set and meet annual goals for installing green infrastructure retrofits. The guide is part of a joint initiative between CNT, American Rivers and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, with a grant from U.S. EPA Region 5.
Polluted stormwater is one of the greatest challenges we have to clean drinking water and surface waters in the Unites States. In highly urbanized environments, more than 90% of rainwater may run off impervious surfaces and enter sewer systems. When the combination of sewage and runoff exceeds the stormwater system’s capacity, untreated raw sewage discharges directly to surface streams resulting in Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) or Separated Sewer overflows (SSOs). Cities in at least 32 states are affected, with older communities in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions some of the most affected. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2012
The ComEd Residential Real-Time Pricing (RRTP) program has a brand new look. The RRTP program gives you access to hourly, real-time electricity prices, but it is more than just a different electricity rate. The program also provides information and customer support to help you make the most of real-time electricity pricing.
ComEd recently brought on CNT Energy as the program administrator for the RRTP program. CNT Energy will provide the added services, tools, and information that RRTP participants receive, along with a team of specialists to answer your questions. For RRTP participants, ComEd will continue to supply your power, respond to service calls, and issue your bill. Read more »
Posted in Energy, Featured Portfolio News | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
Community members work together to make room for the Bowman Community Garden.
Volunteers working together—children and adults pushing wheel-barrows and carrying shovels—bring the words care, community, and cooperation to mind. Thanks to the support from the Prince Charitable Trusts, CNT helped create three new neighborhood open spaces. Each of our community partners—the Albany Park Community Center, Bowmanville Community Organization, and the United Church of Rogers Park—brought local volunteers together with CNT to reduce urban flooding in their neighborhood. The result: accessible community open spaces that reduce stormwater run-off in backyards and basements, and engage community members through hands-on participation. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
