Community Development Archives

Delta Institute is working with Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative and community partners to steward community green space via workforce development in the Chicago neighborhoods of Washington Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore.

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Generating Critical Data and Methods to Support Nature-Based Green Infrastructure on the South Side

Delta is working with community partners to monitor the impacts of nature-based Green Infrastructure projects on Chicago's South Side.

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2021 City of Chicago Waste Strategy

The City of Chicago has the opportunity to implement strategies to tackle waste and materials management that impact our economy, environment, and citizens every day. These strategies offer opportunities to reduce waste; increase diversion through reuse, recycling, and composting; reduce costs; and increase economic and environmental justice opportunities. Delta Institute (Delta) was hired by the City of Chicago Office of the Mayor to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the entire municipal waste system and its directly related impacts on the community. As a core part of our efforts, Delta developed a holistic, pragmatic roadmap with short-term recommendations for 2021-2022 to re-envision what materials management in Chicago could look like, while ultimately turning waste into resource.

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Community-Led Brownfield Redevelopment in the Little Village Neighborhood

Through a robust partnership between the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Delta Institute (Delta), our efforts included a comprehensive mapping project of numerous brownfield sites in the neighborhood and the creation of sustainable redevelopment strategy. These efforts helped lead to a Chicago Prize Finalist (2020) project.

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Steel City Salvage: Deconstruction and Economic Opportunity in Gary

Delta Institute (Delta) has worked within Gary for years—decades even—with dozens of local community partners who are essential to our collaborative efforts’ success. Many of our supporters are familiar with Delta’s efforts to create Steel City Salvage, our deconstruction project that saves reclaimed materials from vacant buildings going to landfill—instead selling them to spur economic development within the City of Gary. We are committed to ensuring that materials from Gary benefit Gary, and that operations remain within the City to provide another route for ongoing economic development.

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Reimagining the Shenango Coke Plant Site outside Pittsburgh, PA

Delta Institute has worked with numerous communities who are faced with a closed--or closing--coal power plant. These sites have unique needs for redevelopment, ranging from environmental remediation to replacement of lost tax revenue and jobs. Delta facilitated a coalition of community groups located outside Pittsburgh, PA to create Guiding Principles for sustainable redevelopment of the closed Shenango Coke Plant property located on Neville Island, located on the Ohio River.

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Demystifying Midwestern Building Material Markets for Reuse and Revenue

Delta Institute’s Demystifying Waste report provides data to the private and public sector to decrease the disposal rate of reusable materials—and save these valuable supplies from landfills—and increase the capacity of local and state governments to adopt policies encouraging building material reuse and recycling with the recognition of local economic benefits.

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St. Louis Demolition and Deconstruction Technical Assistance

Delta Institute is an expert with construction and demolition waste reduction, recycling, reuse, policy and economic development. The City of St. Louis, St. Louis Development Corporation, the Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority, and Region 7 EPA selected Delta Institute to revise its demolition handbook, develop specifications for deconstruction, train contractors around building material reuse.

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Phytoremediating Vacant Industrial Land in Gary, Indiana

With support from the U.S. Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Legacy Foundation, Delta Institute partnered with the City of Gary and Greenprint Partners to transform the once thriving site of the five-acre Bear Brand Hosiery Co. stocking factory into a park by planting hybrid poplar trees to improve soil quality.

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Collaborating with the Illinois International Port District for Economic Growth and Infrastructure Expansion

Delta Institute is working with our long-term partner, the Illinois International Port District to implement numerous activities and achieve goals as laid out in the Port's 2030 Master Plan.

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Fisk and Crawford Coal Plants (Chicago, IL) Redevelopment Task Force

Delta and LVEJO partnered to create recommendations to guide redevelopment of the Fisk and Crawford coal plants in Chicago under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel using just-transition principles created through authentic community engagement and outreach.

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Nonprofit Venture Framework: Rebuilding Exchange (RX)

Delta Institute has long focused on deconstruction and waste reduction as ways to create a more economically vibrant Midwest. This focus led to the creation of the Rebuilding Exchange, a social venture that Delta spun off into it's own separate organization.

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Phytoremediation in Muskegon, MI

Delta Institute established a hybrid poplar tree farm by planting 3,000 trees on brownfield sites in Muskegon, MI.

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