How Green Is Your City? Cool Cities Coalition Compiles Community's Environmental Accomplishments

Elmhurst Cool Cities Coalition members have compiled and recorded their environmental accomplishments in Building a Sustainable City: Environmental Accomplishments in the Elmhurst Community. The document is available by visiting the Coalition’s website at elmhurstcoolcities.org.

“Whether a church has eliminated Styrofoam use, or the College has implemented a food scrap composting program, every effort makes a difference,” says Lisa Gerhold-Dirks, Elmhurst Cool Cities Coalition chairperson. “Those efforts grow and inspire.”

The impressive list of accomplishments dates back to October 2007, when former Mayor Thomas Marcucci signed the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. The agreement, signed by more than 900 community leaders across the country, pledged to reduce global warming pollution in communities by 7 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012.

The Coalition hopes Building a Sustainable City will help its members and city leaders define the community’s environmental vision, encourage the sharing of resources, promote individual and collective successes, and develop strategies to improve Elmhurst’s overall environmental sustainability.

“We set out to record as many of our community’s environmental accomplishments as we could with the help of organizations and residents that form our coalition,” said Gerhold-Dirks. “The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. As a community, we boast an impressive list of accomplishments.”

A sample of accomplishments includes:
• A renovated York High School Aquatics Center roof featuring all new LED lighting;
• A Berens Park playground surface consisting of 136,000 recycled tires;
• Fire Station No. 2, a LEED-certified building, constructed with sustainable materials; and
• A Bike Plan, added to the Elmhurst Comprehensive Plan, incorporating environmental upgrades to the biking infrastructure, making it safer to navigate Elmhurst by bike.

Members of the community are encouraged to share their own environmental efforts by commenting via the Coalition’s Facebook or Twitter accounts. The Coalition is volunteer-led, and membership is available to all individuals and organizations interested in Elmhurst’s sustainability. Monthly meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the month at the Elmhurst Public Library, 7 p.m. Check the Coalition website for any changes.

The Coalition is now encouraging Mayor Steve Morley and Elmhurst aldermen to support and sign the new Illinois Cool Cities Local Sustainability Protection Agreement.

“We hope this is the first of many Coalition documents highlighting our city’s sustainability,” says Gerhold-Dirks. “In the near future, we’d like to create a more formalized way track environmental accomplishments and quantify the positive impact those actions have on the environment.”

Elmhurst is one of 8 Cool Cities in DuPage County, and recently DuPage County was named the first Illinois Cool County.

Elmhurst Cool Cities Coalition is a volunteer coalition of local institutions, organizations, business leaders and citizens working to achieve the goals of the Sierra Club Cool Cities campaign and the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. The Coalition encourages city residents and local leader to implement clean energy solutions that save money, create jobs, help curb global warming and to build a cleaner, healthier future. To participate or obtain more information, visit www.elmhurstcoolcities.org; ecoolcities@gmail.com; 630/426-9789.