The Caucus won an American Planning Association (APA) Sustainable Communities Division award for its Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the Chicago Region. Pictured is Caucus Director of Environmental Initiatives Edith Makra (center) and CAP contributor Ashish Sharma (second from left), Illinois Research Climatologist at Illinois State Water Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with other award winners and attendees at the awards reception.

The Caucus received an award for its Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region from the American Planning Association (APA) Sustainable Communities Division (SCD). The Caucus and co-author of the Climate Action Plan, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), won the Merit Award in the State or Regional category. The award recognizes efforts to plan for sustainability and resilience at a state or regional scale. The APA SCD announced the winners of the ninth annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability at the 2022 National Planning Conference on May 2nd in San Diego. The awards honor projects, plans, policies, individuals, and organizations whose work is dedicated to supporting sustainable communities.

The winners represent extraordinary achievements in seven sustainable planning categories. The other winners and categories include the following:

  • State or Regional Award: Kansas City Regional Climate Action Plan, Mid-America Regional Council (Kansas City Metropolitan Region)
  • Community-wide Award: Green Worcester Sustainability and Resilience Strategic Plan, City of Worcester and Larissa Brown + Associates (Worcester, Massachusetts)
  • Sub-area Award: Riverlife: Completing the Loop, evolve environment :: architecture, Fourth Economy Consulting, and Thread Strategies (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
  • Environment, Climate, & Energy Award: TransformTO Net Zero Strategy, City of Toronto and Sustainability Solutions Group (Toronto, Canada)
  • Quality of Life Award: Southern Nevada Extreme Heat Vulnerability Analysis, Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (Southern Nevada)
  • Policy, Law, or Tool Award: Edmonton Carbon Budget, City of Edmonton and Sustainability Solutions Group (Edmonton, Canada)
  • Student Award: Equity Lenses – Targeting Equitable Community Investment Across Southern California, University of California Los Angeles Luskin School of Public Affairs and Southern California Association of Governments (Southern California)
  • State or Regional Award (Merit Award): Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability Plan: Charting a Course for the Decade of Action (2020-2030), State of Hawai‘i Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Statewide Sustainability Branch (State of Hawai‘i )

The Caucus’ award is the second national award received for the Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the Chicago Region. In October of 2021, the Caucus and partners that contributed to the CAP earned the Innovative Partnership Certificate at the 2021 Climate Leadership Awards. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and The Climate Registry (TCR), in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and America is All In, presented the award virtually to the Plan’s co-authors, the Caucus and NOAA, as well as the Plan’s other collaborators: Argonne National Laboratory; the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP); the European Union; the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM); the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Urban Resilience and Environmental Sustainability (CURES); and the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit team.

About the American Planning Association (APA): APA is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization that provides leadership in the development of vital communities. APA includes a professional institute for certified planners, 47 chapters, 23 divisions, and special memberships for students and new planners. Find out more about APA at https://www.planning.org/.

About the APA Sustainable Communities Division: The Sustainable Communities Division (SCD) provides resources, information, and best practices to support planners in creating sustainable, resilient, and equitable communities. Through its forums for dialogue, collaboration, advocacy, and professional development, the SCD engages planners in innovatively addressing the evolving ecological, social, and economic factors that shape our communities. More about the Division can be found at apascd.com and planning.org/divisions/sustainable/.