Delta Institute (Delta) created a market and performance-based agricultural incentive program to reduce phosphorus loading in the Kalamazoo River Watershed associated with agricultural sources. Participating farmers entered bids to achieve phosphorus loading reductions at the lowest cost by implementing conservation practices. Farmers whose bids are accepted are paid to achieve those reductions.
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.
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.
Delta Institute created the StoryWood Toolkit as a guide for designers to identify, evaluate, and share the most interesting parts of a certain type of wood’s back story, and, more specifically, it will help to align material choices to achieve certifications, such as LEED or Living Building Challenge.
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.
Traditionally, conservation land trusts have protected land, often restored it, and later transferred it to government entities for long-term ownership, which effectively transfers the responsibility of land stewardship to those governmental entities. The project consisted of three phases, each aimed at considering the new approaches to conservation finance and building capacity to enable and enhance land stewardship.
Delta Institute released Soil Wealth: Investing in Regenerative Agriculture across Asset Classes, the most comprehensive look to date at investment opportunities in regenerative agriculture. The report provides an in-depth analysis not only of investments in farmland, but also of investment opportunities across asset classes that support regenerative agricultural value chains and food systems.
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.
Delta Institute (Delta) led Merchandise Mart through initial LEED Operations and Maintenance Certification at the silver level in 2007 and recertification at the gold level in 2013. These efforts included assistance for the LEED Commercial Interiors Certification for the Designer Lounge.
Agricultural land management decisions are situated within a complex and interconnected system, influenced by a suite of social and economic factors, many of which are difficult to control. Landowners can, but often don’t, take it upon themselves to drive stewardship of their land. This report focuses on land ownership and tenure as levers to increase conservation and rebuild soil health in the Midwest, where over 50% of the agricultural land is leased.
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