Katie McClain is Helping an Entire City Become More Energy Efficient
Katie McClain, the Clinton Climate Initiative’s (CCI) city director for Chicago, may have a Clinton Foundation address on her business card but her office is inside the Department of Environment for the City of Chicago.
Katie McClain, the Clinton Climate Initiative’s (CCI) city director for Chicago, may have a Clinton Foundation address on her business card but her office is inside the Department of Environment for the City of Chicago.
This kind of partnership between a city government and a nonprofit is what makes CCI’s city projects in some of the largest cities around the world so effective in drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Katie works with both the Mayor’s office and the Department of the Environment in Chicago to implement projects to reduce the carbon footprint of the entire city. "Cities play a very unique role in the issue of climate change because they can actually implement projects on the ground level that achieve measurable and scalable results and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," she says.
The City of Chicago has developed a Climate Action Plan with the goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020, and to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. To help the city meet these ambitious goals, Katie works directly with city agencies to plan goals, initiate projects, and partner with building owners and local businesses.
A primary focus of CCI in Chicago is retrofitting buildings, which generate 70 percent of green house gas emissions in the city. By adopting up-to-date products, technologies and systems, a typical building can realize significant energy savings. Chicago is striving to retrofit 400,000 residential units and 9,200 commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings by 2020.
"When you retrofit buildings, you actually create a stream of revenue that helps to pay for the project," Katie says. To accomplish the city’s goals, Katie works with building owners directly to help them implement projects without paying for the project upfront. The money building owners save on energy costs can pay for the project over time.
Katie and the CCI staff have already worked on the retrofit of three buildings within Mercy Housing Lakefront’s portfolio -- a total of 314 units. This project is expected to reduce annual emissions of CO2 by almost 200 tons — the equivalent of planting 50 acres of trees or taking 35 cars off the road each year. In addition, the building owners are expecting a 29 percent reduction on energy costs and 11 percent reduction on water costs.
CCI is also helping to retrofit Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, which is the world’s largest commercial building. Through a CCI purchasing alliance, the Merchandise Mart has bought 9,000 compact fluorescent lights at a 7 percent discount. The improvements made to date have already reduced electricity consumption by 2,200,000 Kwh and resulted in a CO2 reduction of over 1,200 tons per year.
In addition, CCI is assisting with the energy efficiency retrofit of the Daley Center, one of the world’s tallest buildings. Construction is due to start in early 2010, but the project is estimated to generate $400,000 in annual energy savings.
By making energy efficiency practical and cost-effective, CCI retrofit projects ensure that the private sector and governments can work together to achieve long-term success.
As Katie explains, "The Clinton Foundation is seen as a neutral, not-for-profit broker of these agreements. And we work to ensure that best practices are used for all sectors to achieve dramatic results in energy efficiency."
NEWSLETTER: Spring 2011
NEWSLETTER: Winter 2011
