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Congratulations 2010 Clean Air Counts Community Plaque Winners
| Bronze |
Silver |
Gold |
| Crystal Lake |
Countryside |
Batavia |
| Northlake |
Hanover Park |
Buffalo Grove |
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Itasca |
Hoffman Estates |
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Lincolnwood |
Homer Glen |
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Oswego |
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President Elliott Hartstein of Village of Buffalo Grove and President William D. McLeod of Village of Hoffman Estates accept Gold Level Awards at the Northwest Municipal Conference Dinner with Village Board Members and Supporting Staff.
President Christopher S. Canning of Village of Wilmette presented President Gerald C. Turry of Village of Lincolnwood with a Silver Level Plaque at the Northwest Municipal Conference Dinner.
DuPage Mayors and Managers applauded as Mayor Pruyn of Itasca presented Mayor Craig with Hanover Park's Clean Air Counts Silver Plaque
at the June 16th Meeting.
May 5, 2010, Clean Air Counts Communities Meeting
The Clean Air Counts Communities meeting will take place from 10:00 am until 12:00 on May 5th at the Oak Park Library located at 834 Lake Street. Please RSVP by May 3rd to Eve Pytel by email or phone 312-201-4506. To download the agenda packet, click here.
February 3, 2010 Clean Air Counts Community Meeting Documents:
Presentation on Proposal to Revise the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone and What this Means for the Chicago Metropolitan Region: -Edward Doty, U.S. EPA Pollution Prevention Cost Per Pound Annual Participation Summary Idling Gets You Nowhere Grant and Participation Form
Particulate Matter Strategies |
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September 16, 2009 Communities Meeting Summary and Resources
The Clean Air Counts Communities Committee met at the Marion Steet Cheese Market in Oak Park. Meeting Notes, the Chicago Air Agenda Presentation, the Municipal Safer Pest Control Project Presentation, Revised Recognition Application, and Resources Handouts are available by clicking on the blue text.
Funded by a network of local foundations and federal appropriations, the Clean Air Counts Campaign has provided businesses and municipalities with tools and resources to implement air quality improvement strategies for five years. The following are program highlights:
- Exceeded program goal of reducing smog forming emissions by 5 tons per day by 38%. Through its business and municipal members, the Campaign has reduced ozone precursor emissions by 6.87 tons per day, or 2,887,539 pounds.
- Awarded a total of $ 626,158.84 in municipal grants to fund lawncare exchange programs, gas can replacement programs and diesel retrofits.
- Over 500 business and municipal members.
- Honored over 70 communities as Clean Air Counts Communities.
- The Campaign and its members have been internationally and nationally recognized for excellence and have received 8 awards including a TOBY (The Office Building of the Year) award and multiple Illinois Governor’s Pollution Prevention Awards.
- Planted 16 Demonstration Gardens at businesses, institutions and municipalities showcasing the use of native plants.
- Hosted 35 business forums and participated in 60 festivals and community events.
- Featured in 10 television and radio news stories and hundreds of print new stories.
- Recognized its members for their contribution to better air quality on 31 billboards; 5 special segments on radio; The Business Ledger, Crain’s Chicago Business, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, and Pioneer Press.
Right Way to Mulch a Tree Door Hanger
Trees provide an enormous environmental benefit, but many people incorrectly mulch their trees. This helpful door hanger will provide a reminder to so this the right way. One side is in English and the other is in Spanish. To download the hanger click here.
Idling Reduction Resources:
The Clean Air Counts Campaign has created an Idling Reduction Calculator to help communities estimate pollution reductions resulting from idling reduction strategies.
Passenger car idling in the Chicago Metropolitan Region is responsible for 25 tons of pollution per day. To educate drivers, communities are posting signage at schools, parks and train stations to reduce pollution from idling vehicles.
Communities are also using the Idling Reduction Tool Kit’s brochures, fact sheets, sample resolutions, drop in articles and sample letters to educate the public.
Chicago, Evanston, Lombard, Northbrook, Wheaton, Wilmette, Winfield and Wood Dale have passed resolutions to reduce idling and posted signs. Idling Reduction Calculator
Idling Reduction Programs
Estimating Smog Precursor Emissions from Idling Vehicles
Report on VOC Emissions from Gas Powered Leaf Blowers: This study examines pollution impact from the three different policy aproaches to limit leaf blower use.
VOC Emissions from Gas Powered Leaf Blowers
On August 24, 2005 the Clean Air Counts program hosted a tour of its outreach corridor located in the River North Industrial Corridor of Chicago. The corridor is a unique neighborhood in which residential, commercial and industrial development operate in close proximity, all just minutes from Chicago’s Loop. The tour highlighted Clean Air Counts participants and their voluntary efforts to improve air quality in the region.
Comcast and WTTW (Channel 11) filmed the tour and interviewed Mayor Murawski and Rob Brenner, Director, Office of Policy Analysis and Review, Office of Air and Radiation, US EPA. Scenes from the tour were featured on that evening’s edition of Chicago Tonight.
Clean Air Counts is a partnership of the Caucus and United States EPA. The Campaign encourages businesses, other organizations and private citizens to voluntarily reduce smog-causing pollutants from unregulated sources. As a result of recruitment efforts in the outreach corridors, over 250 businesses and hundreds of households have joined Clean Air Counts.
Clean Air Counts Honored by U.S. EPA
On April 7, 2005, Clean Air Counts was awarded a Clean Air Excellence Award. Northbrook President Mark Damisch, Clean Air Counts Chairman, traveled to Washington, D.C. with Northbrook Administrator John Novinson and Director of Clean Air Initiatives Kate Agasie to receive the award.
The Clean Air Excellence Awards Program is sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation. The Program was suggested by the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC), a senior-level federal advisory committee that provides advice to EPA on Clean Air Act issues and the Awards Program.
The Awards Program, now in its fifth year, annually recognizes and honors both individuals and organizations that have undertaken the risks of innovation, served as pioneers in their fields, and have improved air quality. Each award recipient has either directly or indirectly reduced emissions of criteria pollutants or hazardous/toxic air pollutants. The programs are innovative, replicable, and sustainable; their efforts have helped to make progress in achieving cleaner air.
The award recipients are chosen through a multi-step judging process. EPA staff conducts an initial technical screening of all applications. Selected entries are then reviewed by a CAAAC task force, which provides advice to EPA on the candidates’ programs. EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance then provides additional comments on entries. EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation makes the final award determinations. This year’s twelve recipients were selected from over 100 regional air quality programs who applied.
Further information on the Clean Air Excellence Awards Program is available on the EPA’s website at www.epa.gov/air/caaac/clean_award.html.
Quality of life has everything to do with the quality of the air we breathe. This is why, in 1999, Mayor Daley invited the suburban municipal associations that participate in the Caucus and their member Mayors to join him in developing an innovative, non-regulatory approach to reducing smog-causing emissions in the metropolitan region and achieving compliance with standards of the federal Clean Air Act.
Funded by a network of local foundations, the Caucus worked with an organization known as the Delta Institute to develop an ambitious smog-reduction plan. The planning effort involved the region’s municipalities working in collaborative partnership with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Regional Transportation Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority, Citizens for a Better Environment, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Openlands Project and other groups.
We’re proud to report that this proactive plan was adopted in December 2001. It is literally a breath of fresh air that will result in reduction of polluting emissions by five tons per day – the equivalent of removing 80,000 cars from our roads on a daily basis. In addition, the “Clean Air Counts” Campaign will help reduce costly public health problems caused by pollution. Businesses and industries that participate will also save money as a result of more efficient operations, less maintenance, and reduced use of energy.
Total cost of the plan is $9.6 million. The Caucus plans to fund the project through federal appropriations, foundation grants, as well as state, county and municipal funds. An appropriation request is currently pending in the United States Congress for first year funding. Planning also includes a local funding match for the project, pending congressional action on the appropriation.
For more information about the “Clean Air Counts” Campaign, visit the website:
www.cleanaircounts.org
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