Clean Energy Plan

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

Cook County Board President Preckwinkle mobilized her administration to lead by example, ensuring that Cook County responded to today’s environmental and economic challenges by creating a Clean Energy Plan that cuts across the County’s own infrastructure. The Plan builds on the successes of the County’s earlier efforts to reduce our emissions. It specifically outlines the actions needed to reduce County buildings’ emissions by 45% by 2030, to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to have 100% renewable electricity for County owned- and operated buildings by 2030. The Plan was released in July 2020. It is composed of four tracks: Reduce, Maintain, Renew, and Support, which lay out actionable, effective strategies to prioritize capital projects and operational improvements that work toward clean energy solutions. The quantifiable steps in the Clean Energy Plan encouraged energy efficiency projects to move forward at a quicker rate than in previous years. In 2020, there were three lighting improvement projects and an operational improvement that led to cost and energy savings. The Plan’s framework shows how local governments—not just Cook County—can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It shows counties that achieving carbon neutrality and 100% renewable electricity for their facilities is possible.