Brief Overview of What We’re Doing
As part of Delta’s work with iconic buildings, we have partnered with Chicago’s landmark Field Museum of Natural History on a series of projects that improve the building’s energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste diversion, and building operations since 2013. Projects have improved restaurant waste diversion through composting, replaced thousands of incandescent bulbs with LED lighting, and expanded the rooftop solar array. Through these initiatives, Delta continues to partner with the museum to achieve its sustainability goals.
Additionally, Delta Institute secured funding from Cook County to perform an energy audit and LEED assessment of the Museum. As a non-standard building type, the Museum was one of the most challenging LEED projects Delta Institute has pursued. It achieved LEED Gold certification and received the Governor’s Sustainability Award in 2015. Among its achievements was increasing its waste diversion to over 60% from under 20%, reducing its electricity use by 10% in one year and 25% over five years, and converting grass and hardscape to natural landscaping to mitigate stormwater.
Delta has supported multiple heritage buildings to meet modern ratings systems and sustainability goals, and is proud and grateful for our many partnerships.