Current Projects

Delta Redevelopment Funds

Financing can be a major roadblock for green businesses, brownfield and infill developments. Delta Redevelopment Funds are helping to solve that problem by providing project loans, pre-development assistance, and technical assistance for real estate projects and green businesses in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Thanks to an allocation of New Markets Tax Credits, first-lien and subordinated project loans and forgivable pre-development loans are now available for projects and businesses in low-income communities. (more...)

Delta P2E2 Center

The Delta Pollution Prevention and Energy Efficiency (P2E2) Center provides expert services and flexible financing to help Great Lakes businesses reduce pollution and cut energy costs by at least 15 percent. We also help farmers and landowners earn and sell carbon emissions credits by reducing greenhouse gases. (more...)

Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Credits

The Delta Institute is partnering with state agencies in Illinois and Michigan to help farmers, foresters and other landowners fight global warming and earn and sell greenhouse gas emissions credits by adopting conservation practices on hundreds of thousands of acres.

The Illinois Conservation and Climate Initiative (ICCI) is a joint project of the State of Illinois and the Delta Institute. It allows farmers and landowners to earn greenhouse gas emissions credits (also known as carbon offset credits) when they use conservation tillage methods, plant grasses and trees, or capture methane with manure digesters. The Delta Institute set up a similar program in Michigan called the Michigan Conservation and Climate Initiative (MCCI).

The idea is simple: use the profit motive to encourage landowners to fight global warming. Emissions credits can be calculated, then pooled or aggregated with credits from other producers and landowners for sale on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®). Members of the exchange include large companies, municipalities, and institutions that have made voluntary commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas contributions, either directly or by purchasing emissions credits. The Illinois and Michigan programs offer “extra credit” to farmers and landowners who create wildlife habitat and limit soil and nutrient run-off to streams and lakes.

In Illinois alone, some 790 landowners and operators have enrolled more than 153,000 acres through ICCI. As an aggregator, the Delta Institute calculates, pools and trades carbon offset credits for these lands and has recently sold the first round of credits on behalf of Illinois landowners.

Michigan has between 10 and 13 million acres of private forest lands, and small commercial and non-commercial forest owners play a major role in the state’s economy. Delta helped the Michigan Department of Natural Resources pilot the Michigan Forest Carbon Offset and Trading Program to provide incentives for owners of the state’s working forests to manage their holdings with sustainable forestry practices.

Delta also serves on the City of Chicago’s Climate Change Task Force and is working to expand trading of carbon offset credits through new partnerships in Arkansas, Indiana and Ohio.

Green Purchasing & Toxic Use Reduction

In Illinois and Michigan, two new regional green purchasing initiatives are helping facilities reduce reliance on toxic inputs, use resources more efficiently, and reduce solid waste.

Illinois ranks among the top 5 states in the nation when it comes to shipments of hazardous material. Each year, more than 200 million tons of toxics are shipped into or out of the state. Cook County alone accounts for 37 percent of these shipments.

The Delta Institute recently formed the Chicago Region Green Purchasing Network to provide technical assistance for facility and purchasing managers who want to reduce their adverse environmental impacts. Charter members include the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, and several companies that belong to the National Association of Purchasing Managers.

The Network will build a technical support system to help facilities identify green products that meet price and performance criteria and produce measurable environmental benefits. Pilot projects from each Network member will serve as examples of how green purchasing can be incorporated into procurement systems.

Delta is also working to strengthen policies to support widespread adoption of green purchasing. We are collaborating with the City of Chicago on a green procurement ordinance that will provide the needed mandate for city departments to buy green. The objectives of the policy are not only to reduce toxic materials, but also to promote more efficient use of resources and to reduce waste through purchases of best-in-class products and services.

In Michigan, Delta is collaborating with the Sustainable Research Group to form the Western Michigan Sustainable Purchasing Consortium. The Consortium’s goal is to identify and stimulate more widespread purchase of green products and services, and to expand market opportunities for companies that manufacture or supply sustainable products.

The Consortium was created when businesses, academic institutions, and a municipality in the Grand Rapids area convened to discuss impairments to the ecosystem in the Lower Grand River Watershed. Participants wanted to develop voluntary programs to reduce toxic loadings, minimize waste, and curtail discharges of stormwater and waste to local wastewater treatment systems. The group identified sustainable purchasing as a viable strategy that could be readily adopted by all participants.

The Western Michigan Sustainable Purchasing Consortium has now become a project of the Community Sustainability Partnership. Consortium members are expected to make their first purchases of green products in mid-2007.

Lead Abatement

In Chicago alone, approximately 88,000 units of lead-contaminated housing are poisoning children and impairing their futures. Window frames in older buildings are often coated with layers of lead-based paint; every time windows are raised or lowered, fine particles of contaminated dust scrape off and poison indoor air quality. Children are especially susceptible to contamination from lead dust or peeling paint. In low-income communities especially, the lack of financing for lead abatement poses a major barrier to addressing the problem.

The Delta Redevelopment Institute (REDI) is working with the City of Chicago Department of Public Health and the Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force to expand resources for lead abatement in low-income housing units. Our model combines $6 million of private capital raised by Delta Redevelopment Funds through the federal New Markets Tax Credits Program with a $6 million grant from the City of Chicago. This strategy has generated a total of $12 million to replace windows in more than 1700 affordable housing units.

Through this program Chicago Lead Safe Window Services will provide and finance lead abatement services for owners of multi-family buildings (four or more units) in low-income Chicago communities. Half the loan amount comes from private sources through the New Markets Tax Credit fund and half from the City of Chicago grant. If a building owner borrows $100,000, once half the loan plus interest has been paid back, the Fund forgives the other $50,000. Thus, building owners receive lead abatement services and energy efficient windows at half price, and the City of Chicago leverages its $6 million grant to double the number of units that receive abatement services.

Delta REDI is seeking other potential sources of public and private money to leverage for increased lead abatement throughout Illinois.

Ecosystem-Based Environmental Management Systems (Eco-EMS)

Despite significant regulatory progress on reducing industrial pollution, factory emissions continue to take a heavy toll on environmental and public health. Industrial facilities in five Great Lakes states (MI, IL, WI, OH, IN) legally emit more than 1 billion pounds of toxics each year.

Corporate environmental management systems (EMS) are a promising tool for strengthening commitment to cleaner operations. Besides the environmental benefits, certification by the International Standards Organization (ISO 14001) can lower operating costs and improve ratings by financial services firms that track environmental performance.

Still, environmental management systems do not automatically benefit local ecosystems. Most corporate plans focus on facility-specific issues, with an eye toward meeting regulatory requirements. The Delta Institute’s Eco-EMS program enables companies to understand what they can do, not only to comply with regulations, but also to lessen burdens on the local ecosystem.

Delta Eco-EMS assessments begin by profiling impairments in the watershed where the company is located. Delta then reviews company environmental performance data and compares it with ecosystem needs. The final report spells out easy-to-implement components of an environmental management system that will measurably benefit the local ecosystem.

The Delta Institute’s Eco-EMS program is available in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Widespread implementation of Eco-EMS could make Midwest manufacturers more competitive and enable companies to play a larger role in local watershed stewardship.

7256 S. South Chicago Avenue

Underneath the Chicago Skyway on the city’s southeast side, the once-thriving neighborhood served by Revere School is today plagued by poverty and blight. The Comer Science and Education Foundation has partnered with the Delta Redevelopment Institute (REDI) on a variety of initiatives to revitalize the neighborhood.

One challenge is to redevelop the main commercial street, South Chicago Avenue, home to several vacant stores and brownfield properties. Through a grant from the Comer Science and Education Foundation, Delta REDI has acquired a pilot brownfield site at 7256 S. South Chicago Avenue, one of several properties targeted for redevelopment. Delta REDI is handling the pre-development work, which includes managing the environmental assessment, clean-up and demolition; and assessing the feasibility of various reuse options. Once this work is completed and a redevelopment plan has been formalized, Delta REDI will market the site.

Delta Revere Housing

Home ownership—the cornerstone of the American dream and a key strategy for building the assets needed to lift a family out of poverty—is increasingly out of reach for many low- and moderate-income people. Not only have purchase prices skyrocketed in recent years, but energy costs have mushroomed, too. The Delta Redevelopment Institute (REDI) is combating both these problems in partnership with the Revere Community Housing Development LLC.

With funding from the Comer Foundation for Science and Education, the Delta Institute helped design and is responsible for implementing a subsidy program for first-time low- and moderate-income housing buyers in the community served by Revere School on Chicago’s southeast side. In the project’s first phase, 30 new homebuyers will each receive a subsidy of $80,000 to purchase a home constructed by Revere Community Housing Development LLC. Delta REDI will determine homeowner eligibility and monitor compliance with the subsidy terms over a ten-year period.

Delta REDI also worked with the developer, the architects and builders to ensure that the housing models are energy efficient and as green as possible. Delta REDI has identified grant funds to pay for these green features and is training the development team on how to build green, reduce toxic inputs, and safeguard indoor air quality.

Delta Weatherization Program

The Delta Institute Weatherization program is funded by the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. The program currently serves the Grand Crossing and West Garfield Park neighborhoods in Chicago, and the City of North Chicago. Eligible low and moderate income homeowners will receive up to $4,700 in weatherization services which will include air sealing and weather stripping, attic and sidewall insulation, furnace and radiator regulator repair, window and door replacement, water heater blanket installation, programmable thermostat installation, duct sealing and repair, and distributing CFL light bulbs. With matching funding from the Comer Science and Education Foundation, the program will weatherize 15 homes in North Chicago, 32 homes in West Garfield Park, and 37-39 homes in Grand Crossing in its first year. Each home will receive a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) audit from a qualified HERS Rater to determine the scope of work, and energy bills will be monitored for up to two years following the program. Eligible homeowners are also required to attend a workshop to learn about the program and energy efficiency and are encouraged to contact program staff with questions. More information and application packets are available at the weatherization page.