Healthy Buildings, Healthy Planet

 

by Eric Diekhans

Working to stop climate change can feel like a Sisyphean task. A bold initiative like the Paris Climate Accords is enacted, only to see countries fall short of their promises or withdraw completely, as President Trump did in 2017 and 2025.

However, smaller, local steps can yield significant results, reducing greenhouse gases while serving as models for other communities. The proposed Healthy Buildings Ordinance in Evanston, Illinois is an excellent example of this “start local” strategy. The ordinance requires buildings over 20,000 square feet to be energy-efficient, free of on-site emissions, and powered entirely by renewable energy sources by 2050. The ordinance will likely reduce citywide energy use by 45%. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss called it “The single most important step the city must take on climate change.”

Data shows that buildings account for 80% of Evanston's emissions. The largest buildings are responsible for a significant portion of those emissions, making a targeted approach essential. Most properties affected by the proposed ordinance are large office buildings and structures on the Northwestern University campus. Condos and co-ops up to 50,000 square feet are exempt. Initially, only new buildings and those undergoing major renovation would be required to switch from natural gas to renewable energy sources. But by 2050, all fossil gas combustion would have to be phased out from these buildings to meet the ordinance’s requirements.

Currently, most buildings in the city are heated by natural gas. While natural gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide as coal and 30 percent less than oil, it is still a significant contributor to global warming. If all the targeted buildings switched to renewable energy, emissions would likely drop 45 percent between now and 2050.

Jack Jordan, Executive Director of Climate Action Evanston, said the ordinance “can model a successful approach for other cities and accelerate climate action at scale. Evanston would be the first community in Illinois and the second community in the Midwest with a Building Performance Standard, and this example can serve as the catalyst for others, including our big neighbor to the south, Chicago.”

Evanston is a politically progressive city of 75,000 people and is home to Northwestern University. Still, passing an ambitious ordinance that will affect thousands of people requires careful planning and consensus building. Climate Action Evanston is the local environmental advocacy organization that spearheaded this effort. They have spent months lobbying city council members and gaining the support of community members, building owners, businesses, schools, and churches.

Churches and other houses of worship have been involved in reducing building emissions since 2019, when Citizens for a Greener Evanston (which became Climate Action Evanston) launched the Celebrate Sanctuary program to help faith communities comply with an earlier city ordinance that requires certain buildings to track and disclose energy and water consumption.

Michael Drennan, who helped organize Celebrate Sanctuary, sees several advantages to churches switching to renewable energy. “They no longer suffer the vicissitudes of the gas market; electric appliances are far more efficient than gas; and they can source energy from a community solar market or panels installed to their roof.  Contracts for community solar electricity usually provide a 15 to 20% discount over the contract's life. Solar panels, while expensive to install, generate savings of over 80% annually over the life of the panels.”

While many residents support the Healthy Buildings Ordinance, some property owners worry about the cost. Switching from gas to renewable energy will likely result in lower energy costs, but it might take years to recoup the initial investment in technology.

 

Cambridge, Massachusetts faced similar challenges when green building requirements were introduced before the city council in 2013. A benchmarking ordinance was passed in 2014 for existing buildings, but performance requirements were not added until 2023. Run On Climate’s Policy Director Quinton Zondervan, who served on Cambridge’s City Council after helping to create the city’s Net Zero Action Plan, said, “Large commercial property owners, led by MIT & Harvard, and residential condo owners, were the primary opponents of the emission reduction amendments adopted in 2023.”

But, Zondervan continued, “Through long and difficult negotiations, we got the commercial building owners to accept the requirement of net zero emissions by 2035 for the largest commercial buildings (greater than 100,000 square feet), and net zero by 2050 for commercial buildings greater than 25,000 square feet, in exchange for greater flexibility in how to achieve the required emissions reductions. To me, being flexible is a no-brainer because, ultimately, we want them actually to do it, and so this creates both buy-in to the how and allows them to achieve the result, instead of just being punished for failing.”

Eric Diekhans’ fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and the anthology Uncensored Ink. He is the recipient of a local Emmy for Children’s Television and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in screenwriting. He is a member of Lake View Presbyterian Church in Chicago. (www.ericdiekhans.com)