So, What Does It All Mean?

Parkway Trees

• The benefits of a robust urban forest include increased shade and energy savings, an uptake of CO2 and the filtration of pollutants, and a reduction of stormwater runoff into the Fox River.
• Read the City's Urban Forest Management Plan.

Prairie Green Preserve 

• Aside from the ecological benefits, the Prairie Green Preserve acts as a barrier to the westward expansion of city limits, effectively limiting suburban sprawl and the associated environmental impacts.

Wastewater Management

• Eliminating the use of chlorine mitigates harm to aquatic life in the Fox River and decreases demand for the storage, shipping, and handling of a highly corrosive and toxic chemical.

Historic Preservation

• Historic buildings contain embodied energy, which is the total energy required for the extraction, manufacture, processing and delivery of materials to the building site, plus any energy spent on demolition and disposal of installed materials. Replacement of an existing building requires as much as 65 years to recover the embodied energy lost.

Waste Collection

• Lakeshore Recycling utilizes an aerobic digester system to eliminate the negative impacts of traditional organic waste collection.
• Learn more about how Lakeshore manages organic waste.

Annual Road Program

• The City adopted the use of warm mix asphalt over hot mix asphalt, reducing the amount of fuel needed to make asphalt by 20 to 30%.
• Specifications have been updated to ensure that newly laid pavement is composed of 25 to 30% recycled asphalt grindings, and the concrete and grindings used as the sub-base of pavement, curbs, and sidewalks is 100% recycled.