Featured Portfolio News News
Thursday, November 8th, 2012
The parking lot at Our Lady Gate of Heaven Church (about 20 miles south of Chicago) had frequently been filled with up to two feet of water after large storms. Now instead of remaining flooded for about three days, the bioswale soaks up rainwater and the lot is usable within a day.
A week after Sandy, another storm is brewing along the U.S. East Coast bringing more rain and flooding to communities that are still struggling to recover. As mass evacuations are ordered, we are reminded of the obvious: nature knows no boundaries when it comes to flooding. Every property owner is at risk.
The statement may seem obvious now, and yet it is so easy to forget. Here in Chicago, the region was pummeled by Hurricane Ike in 2008, with severe storms and flooding in July 2010 and then again in July 2011. Damage is not restricted to cataclysmic events—CNT’s interviews with property owners tell a tragic story of ongoing damage when it rains. Elizabeth Rafferty’s South Side Chicago home has flooded four times in the last two years; flood damage to Jim Vinci’s home in Des Plaines cost him $150,000; and Darlene Crawford estimates that she’s been flooded around 30 times in the last four decades. People told us of the stress they suffer whenever it rains; of days off work, and of the problems tackling mold and dampness. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources, Our Lady Gate of Heaven | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
The neighbors’ rain garden straddles their front yards and serves both homes.
On a quiet tree-lined street in Rogers Park, two neighboring households have devised an elegant way to manage stormwater – they built a shared front yard rain garden watered by its own “river.”
Rob Hansen and Kristi Piccolo live next door to Richard and Ami Herzon. After responding to the CNT’s flood reduction survey and visiting with a CNT auditor, both families decided to reduce the threat of flooding by directing roof runoff water away from their single family homes. They also wanted to keep their yards free of standing water.
Over the course of two weekends earlier this summer, Rob and Kristi and Richard and Ami worked together to curtail neighborhood flooding and keep polluted water out of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. As a bonus, they now have a lushly decorated yard. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
Hurricane Sandy’s massive impact on the east coast is a reminder that global warming is a defining issue of our generation and we need effective action. Addressing climate change and creating sustainable energy security are the biggest opportunities for new jobs and industries, a dynamic economy, lasting peace and a better quality of life for our children. Yet, the 2012 Presidential campaign has largely ignored these pressing issues. The 2012 Presidential Climate Action Plan lays out a set of strategies for the next president to use executive authority to help the country address global climate change even in the face of legislative inaction. Read more »
Posted in Energy, Featured Portfolio News, PCAP | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012
CNT is making the case to national leaders for the public/private financing of green infrastructure retrofits.
Having established one of the largest multi-family residential energy retrofit programs in the nation, CNT is now piloting the nation’s first wet weather ‘Wetrofit™’ service. Funded, in part, by State Farm and the Surdna Foundation, Wetrofit is modeled on CNT’s experience in energy retrofit services. The unique approach, based on public/private partnerships, aims to deliver coordinated, tailor-made solutions to municipalities looking to retrofit neighborhoods and properties with green infrastructure. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
CNT Water Program Director, Harriet Festing, recently presented the new ‘Smart Water for Smart Region’ initiative to an audience of utilities managers and businesses at the American Water Works Association-Pennsylvania Section’s Great Lakes Summit. Her presentation, underpinned by fresh survey research carried out by CNT, indicated that water infrastructure problems across the Great Lakes states are widespread and a threat to cities. In the first surveys of their kind—one on urban flooding and one on water loss control—the research revealed the magnitude of the problems facing water industry professionals, and identified opportunities to work across the industry in the Great Lakes states to alleviate these significant problems.
Smart Water for Smart Regions was launched in Chicago on September 19th at an event hosted by State Farm to over 100 guests. The initiative offers a blueprint for the responsible utilization of water in the Great Lakes states. The goal is to help cities deliver water services to homes and businesses more efficiently, while protecting the region’s water resources. The initiative is being sponsored by State Farm, the Joyce Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
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| Cover image from Losing Ground: The Struggle of Moderate-Income Households to Afford the Rising Costs of Housing and Transportation |
Conventional wisdom holds that metro areas like New York, San Francisco, Boston and D.C. are the most expensive places to live for average families. After all, these traditionally upmarket cities have some of the highest housing costs in the nation. But conventional wisdom is the name given to a popular idea about to be debunked; housing costs are just one part of this story. A new report from the Center for Housing Policy and CNT draws attention to the other, often hidden, factors that contribute to a growing cost of place for American households. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Friday, October 5th, 2012
*** Deadline extended to November 6th, due to Hurricane Sandy ***
Through a grant to Project for Public Spaces from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program, Livability Solutions will be offering free technical assistance workshops to 6 to 12 communities around the country, enabling local governments and communities to implement changes that will move them along the road towards smart growth and sustainability. Livability Solutions is a partnership of organizations with expertise in sustainability planning, including CNT. This technical assistance will take the form of one- to two-day workshops, led by one or more experienced coalition members, focused on one or more of the group’s unique suite of livability tools. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
The City of Chicago has selected CNT to manage the Chicago Sustainable Backyards Program (SusBy) which encourages Chicagoans to create more environmentally-friendly landscapes in their yards, as well as in community and school gardens. The program promotes simple, low-cost measures that residents can use to enhance the environment and reduce neighborhood flooding. It offers Chicago residents educational information and rebates up to 50% back on their purchases of trees, native plants, compost bins and rain barrels. Funding for rebates currently comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Program and a USDA Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
In a US EPA-funded project, CNT is using its highly acclaimed guide – The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental and Social Benefits to help showcase the added economic benefits of green infrastructure.
CNT released the guide in 2011 to provide municipalities with a methodology for assessing the financial, environmental and community benefits of select green infrastructure elements. By demonstrating that a comprehensive green infrastructure strategy can help reduce the economic burden of water management while improving a community’s quality of life, CNT has helped establish green infrastructure as part of a viable planning solution to stormwater management. The City of Lancaster, PA will be used as the basis of the upcoming case study. Lancaster developed its own Green Infrastructure Plan in 2010 to establish a more sustainable community and reduce the volume of stormwater runoff returned to local waterways. Read more »
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Thursday, August 30th, 2012
CNT’s president Scott Bernstein has contributed a chapter on poverty and transportation to Kenan Heise’s upcoming book, The Book of the Poor: Who They Are, What They Say, and How to End Their Poverty. The book is the result of fifty years Heise spent interviewing individuals who live below the poverty line, and offers a unique point of view on an oft-discussed subject.
Bernstein’s chapter calls for reducing the poor’s exposure to high costs of transportation by guaranteeing better transportation choices on a basis that the poor can afford. Just as so-called “food deserts” describe areas with no affordable grocery stores, too many of our neighborhoods are “train deserts,” where poor peoples’ modest income can’t keep pace with the combined cost of housing and transportation. Scott’s essay offers a bold yet practical set of recommendations for quickly getting on the path to improving this situation. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
