Planning Archives - Delta Institute

Innovative Municipal Green Infrastructure ESG Financing

Delta Institute is piloting an innovative financing and service delivery approach to support small-to-mid-sized Great Lakes municipalities to implement GI at scale—with the opportunity to transform GI financing in our home region.

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Restoring The Duck Creek Tributary In Northwest Indiana

Delta Institute is restoring a key waterway in Hobart, Indiana, that flows throughout the entire watershed and ultimately into Lake Michigan. Currently the waterway, the Duck Creek Tributary, overflows with pollution, sediment, and toxins—impacting the water quality downstream for many communities, including multiple that are designated Environmental Justice (EJ) communities.

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Protecting Water Quality on Chicago’s Southeast Side via Stormwater Wetlands at the IIPD

Delta Institute is working with our long-term partner, the Illinois International Port District to assess and evaluate the placement and creation of two new wetlands that will capture stormwater on IIPD's land--keeping pollutants from entering the Calumet River and traveling through dozens of downstream communities.

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Expanding and Stewarding Regional Forest Canopy via a Tree Planting Consortium in Northwest Indiana

Delta Institute (Delta) is working with municipal, business, and community partners in Lake County, Indiana to expand regional forest canopy acreage via an innovative multi-community approach to comprehensive canopy mapping; forest planning, installing 2,240+ trees, and expanding maintenance and capacity building. These efforts will be achieved via a collaborative tree planting consortium structure with foundational inclusive community engagement throughout the entire process.

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Generating Critical Data and Methods to Support Nature-Based Green Infrastructure in Chicago Communities

Delta Institute (Delta) is working with community partners to install and monitor the impacts and benefits of nature-based Green Infrastructure projects in the BIPOC-majority Chicago neighborhoods of Washington Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore in concert with Emerald South’s Terra Firma project to develop replicable resources for communities throughout the region. Our goal is to streamline green infrastructure implementation, maintenance, and assessment strategy.

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Community-Led Planning to Reduce Shoreline Flooding in the South Shore Neighborhood of Chicago

Delta Institute (Delta) is working with local groups and public agencies to complete in-depth community engagement centered around shoreline resilience planning and implementation for the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. For years this community has been buffeted by extreme weather and Lake Michigan events, and a comprehensive, cohesive community planning process is essential.

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Forest Preserve District of DuPage County – Developing a Clean Energy, Resiliency, and Sustainability Plan

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has partnered with Delta Institute (Delta) and ECT to develop a plan to advance sustainability, climate action, and resiliency. We are developing a plan that will be comprehensive, equitable, partnership-driven, actionable, fundable, and measurable. Ultimately, we believe this plan will position the District as a regional leader in advancing sustainability.

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Village of Skokie (IL) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory

Delta conducted a baseline greenhouse gas inventory for the Village of Skokie (IL) to assess current emissions and provide recommendations for reductions across all municipal departments and sectors.

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Overcoming Barriers to Municipal Green Infrastructure Implementation

Delta Institute (Delta) is examining the barriers preventing Green Infrastructure from being installed across the Great Lakes at the scale needed to address climate change. Delta’s research will inform the development of potential support services that will help municipalities overcome these barriers and improve local water quality, reduce flooding, and improve quality-of-life for their residents.

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McHenry County (IL) Solid Waste Strategy

Delta Institute has partnered with McHenry County, IL, to create both a county-wide solid waste management strategy (2012) and provide a 10-year update in 2022.

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Proactive Municipal Climate Planning: Delta Institute and the Resilience Innovation Hub

Delta Institute (Delta) joined the Resilience Innovation Hub, focused on increasing community adaptability while lowering insurance premiums. We are undertaking activities focused on understanding the barriers to implementing resilience activities at the local and regional scale while creating innovative solutions to assist communities to implement projects and initiatives to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

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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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Catalyzing Private Sector Investment on Chicago’s Southeast Side for Sustainable Revitalization

Delta Institute is working with our long-term partner, the Illinois International Port District to assess and evaluate the placement and creation of two new wetlands that will capture stormwater on IIPD's land--keeping pollutants from entering the Calumet River and traveling through dozens of downstream communities.

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Waukegan Beneficial Use of Dredged Material Project

Recreational beaches around the Great Lakes have experienced significant erosion due to high water levels, more intense storms, and other conditions. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recently selected six sites within four municipalities to be eligible for pilot participation and receiving sand for restoring beaches. Delta Institute and GEI Consultants are supporting these efforts.

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Stormwater Tree Planting on the Hart Montague Trail in Oceana County, Michigan

Stormwater runoff from parking lots, roadways, buildings, and other impervious surfaces carries oils, grease, pesticides, sediment, and excess nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen into groundwater and nearby natural bodies of water--including to Lake Michigan through watershed tributaries. Delta Institute and our partners planted more than 700 trees in Oceana County, Michigan along the Hart Montague Trail, and on roadways within five adjacent communities.

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Creating a Green Infrastructure Plan for Gary, Indiana

Delta Institute's Gary Green Infrastructure Plan was a two-year project focused on assisting the City of Gary with planning and implementing Green Infrastructure designs, identifying 61 Priority Projects to install 26 acres of rain gardens, permeable pavements, street planters, and other GI designs.

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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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Cheney Run Wetland Creation, Stormwater Design and Installation in Michigan City, Indiana

Delta Institute partnered with the Michigan City Sanitary District (MCSD) and the Alliance for the Great Lakes to make stormwater, ecological restoration, and recreation improvements at Michigan City’s Cheney Run. A 40-acre site surrounded by wetlands, Cheney Run is a primary source of stormwater-related pollution that ends up in the Trail Creek, a major tributary that feeds into Lake Michigan.

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City of South Bend (IN) Carbon Neutral 2050 Planning

Delta provided the City of South Bend and then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg's Administration with an actionable municipal plan to reduce emissions, called Carbon Neutral 2050. Strategies were prioritized for their ability to provide the most substantial emissions cuts while maximizing benefits to residents and businesses.

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Stormwater Management Installations throughout Hobart, Indiana

Delta Institute and the City of Hobart, Indiana have implemented four GI installations throughout the city, including a courtyard rain garden at Hobart Middle School, a parking lot rain garden and permeable pavement in the front and backsides of Hobart City Hall, and a large bioswale in the city’s Hillman Park. These installations will collectively provide an additional 800,000 to 3.5 million gallons of stormwater management capacity.

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Reducing phosphorus runoff in Green Lake, WI

In 2016 Delta assisted the Green Lake Association (GLA) for Green Lake, Wisconsin, in developing an effective long-term approach to reducing phosphorus loading into the Green Lake watershed by leveraging existing research and tools, with a goal of demonstrable water quality improvement, watershed health, and sediment/nutrient reduction.

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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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Innovative Municipal Green Infrastructure ESG Financing

Restoring The Duck Creek Tributary In Northwest Indiana

Protecting Water Quality on Chicago’s Southeast Side via Stormwater Wetlands at the IIPD

Expanding and Stewarding Regional Forest Canopy via a Tree Planting Consortium in Northwest Indiana

Generating Critical Data and Methods to Support Nature-Based Green Infrastructure in Chicago Communities

Community-Led Planning to Reduce Shoreline Flooding in the South Shore Neighborhood of Chicago

Forest Preserve District of DuPage County – Developing a Clean Energy, Resiliency, and Sustainability Plan

Village of Skokie (IL) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory

Overcoming Barriers to Municipal Green Infrastructure Implementation

McHenry County (IL) Solid Waste Strategy

Proactive Municipal Climate Planning: Delta Institute and the Resilience Innovation Hub

2021 City of Chicago Waste Strategy

Catalyzing Private Sector Investment on Chicago’s Southeast Side for Sustainable Revitalization

Waukegan Beneficial Use of Dredged Material Project

Stormwater Tree Planting on the Hart Montague Trail in Oceana County, Michigan

Creating a Green Infrastructure Plan for Gary, Indiana

St. Louis Demolition and Deconstruction Technical Assistance

Cheney Run Wetland Creation, Stormwater Design and Installation in Michigan City, Indiana

City of South Bend (IN) Carbon Neutral 2050 Planning

Stormwater Management Installations throughout Hobart, Indiana

Reducing phosphorus runoff in Green Lake, WI

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

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