10 Ways to Make City More Sustainable

A new plan identifies 10 “big ideas” to improve the economic and environmental well-being of Milwaukee. The ideas include everything from strategies to expand renewable energy to reducing food waste.

The draft proposal from the City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity is focused on reducing greenhouse gas pollution, increasing racial equity and improving the long-term prosperity of the city.

The 145-page draft plan was released Thursday. It warns that all of Milwaukee will experience the impacts of climate change, including increased flooding and extreme heat, but that the situation will likely be worse for the city’s most vulnerable residents who are often members of racial minority groups.

The plan aims to create and support a path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. It would address racial and economic equity issues in part by supporting the creation of “green jobs” that pay at least $40,000 per year and focusing recruitment on people of color.

The 10 big ideas include making energy-saving upgrades to existing houses, building new net-zero energy homes, benchmarking the efficiency of commercial buildings, expanding the number of people walking, biking and using mass transit, electrifying vehicles, expanding the amount of renewable energy, protecting and restoring natural areas, reducing food waste, establishing a resilience ambassador program and creating a green jobs accelerator.

Each of the ideas includes underlying data to evaluate the current environment and how to measure progress. It also includes specific strategies and opportunities to achieve the idea.

The plan also includes support for a number of things already in the works, including building a trail network along 30th Street railroad corridor, adding bus rapid transit lines and adjusting zoning laws.

The task force, supported by the city’s Environmental Collaboration Office, was created in 2019 and held several public meetings through its nine workgroups. The public can submit a comment on the plan through Nov. 30 on a city website.

“We welcome public feedback on the plan to make sure we got it right,” said city sustainability director Erick Shambarger in a statement.

The Common Council is expected to review a final plan in early 2023.

Task force members include Shambarger, Ted Kraig, Freida Webb, Janet Meissner Pritchard, Julie Kerksick, Linda Frank, Pamela Fendt, Pamela Ritger de la Rosa and Rafael Smith. The task force is co-chaired by alderman-turned-budget-director Nik Kovac, Wisconsin State Assembly representative and former county supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde, county board chair Marcelia Nicholson and supervisor Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones. Bruce Wiggins, Jennifer A. Evans and George Martin led work groups, but were not formally on the task force. Several dozen people participated in the task force’s efforts and are thanked in the plan.

A full copy of the draft plan is available on Urban Milwaukee.

The “10 Big Ideas”

As included in the draft plan.

1. Green Jobs Accelerator – Creating clear pathways to increase the number of people of color employed in family-supporting green jobs. This includes public outreach, coordination with existing training providers, clear career ladders from entry-level employment to progressively higher skills, public benefits agreements on government-funded projects, and support for businesses owned by people of color working in this field.

2. Healthy Home Energy Upgrades – Making weatherization and renewable energy retrofits more affordable as part of holistic housing improvements that also address lead-based paint and other health hazards.

3. New Net-Zero Energy Homes – Building healthy, affordable, net-zero energy homes on Milwaukee’s scattered vacant lots. The project envisions supporting a new factory in Milwaukee that constructs modular housing components year-round to both reduce the cost of new home construction and restore manufacturing job opportunities for people of color.

4. Commercial Building Energy Benchmarking + Building Performance Standards – Requiring large commercial building owners to annually
track and report on their energy use and develop longer-term building performance standards to gradually reduce GHGs from commercial buildings.

5. People-Centered Transportation and Urban Design – Helping people drive less by improving and expanding city-wide public and active transportation options and creating thriving communities where people live, work, and play through Transit Oriented Development.

6. Electrify Transportation – Building a network of publicly-accessible EV charging stations, increasing EV adoption rates through public outreach, and transitioning municipal fleets to EVs, hybrids, and other low-emissions vehicles.

7. Greening the Electric Grid – Transitioning the electric grid to carbon-free sources of energy through advocacy for better renewable energy policy with state utility regulators, the direct purchase of renewable energy from new utility-scale projects, and expansion of rooftop solar in the city.

8. Protect and Restore Nature in the City – Protecting existing natural areas and increasing the amount of green space and trees on private and public property through expansion of the Green Schoolyards program and removal of excess asphalt in commercial parking lots that also contribute to urban heat islands

9. Food Waste Reduction – Reducing food waste and feeding hungry people through public-private partnership called FEED.

10. Resilience ambassadors – Partnering with trusted neighborhood-based organizations to connect underserved communities with available tools and resources to make their homes and neighborhoods more resilient to climate change.