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Our Platform

EEC serves as a community advocate on environmental issues. This platform represents what we stand for: it informs the positions and efforts we support, and what we hope our elected officials will support too. We believe that these environmental principles and practices are inextricably linked to the broader health and prosperity of our community.

 

Read our comprehensive document here, our focus areas here, and our coalition topics here.

For the Natural Environment

Conserve and expand natural areas

  • Principles: Restore, maintain, and expand native habitat

  • Practices: Continue Beach Stewardship programs, tending, seeding and planting.

  • Protect wildlife and native habitats.

  • Extend Parkways for Pollinators.

  • Build the Last Four Miles of the lakeshore trail.

Maintain and improve water quality for all

  • Principles: Protect the lake. Ensure clean potable water. Deal responsibly with wastewater and stormwater runoff.

  • Practices: Protect beachfront using strategies that mimic natural systems. Eliminate lead water pipes.

Ensure good air quality

  • Principles: Improve air quality by changing those practices that degrade it, both indoors and outdoors

  • Practices: Promote transit, walking and biking.

  • Control pollution generators, ensuring environmental justice and permitting. Mitigate point sources: cars, trucks and gas leaf blowers. Promote best practices in indoor air quality.

Expand green waste treatment

  • Principles: Reduce, re-use, recycle, compost

  • Practices: Make sustainable waste management widely accessible. Coordinate with the municipal waste strategy.

  • Promote and support local waste diversion projects by business and nonprofits

Increase green energy

  • Principles: Hasten the clean energy economy. Decarbonize.

  • Practices: Support Chicago Climate Action Plan.Increase neighborhood wind, solar and geothermal. Retrofit and insulate; create tool sharing initiatives - for renters and owners. Democratize ComEd and Rein in IL Gas Utility Overspending.

For the Built Environment

Make neighborhoods green

  • Principle: Maximize trees, flowers and art

  • Practices: Continue to plant trees and flowers,

  • Expand Parkways for Pollinators, Support Edgewater Garden. Control idling vehicles. Install permeable pavement.

Prioritize streets for people

  • Principle: Make cars lowest priority in transport hierarchy

  • Practices: Maintain sidewalks,

  • Expand and enforce bike paths; discourage idling vehicles. Expand traffic calming, especially on busiest roads

Promote good urban design

  • Principle: Maintain Edgewater's historical character

  • Practices: Continue existing pattern, avoiding sprawl on commercial corridors, and encouraging infill. Create inviting community spaces, indoors and out. Engage the community in zoning and funding decisions. Increase public art.

Retrofit and build green

  • Principles: Respect Edgewater’s land & community by building for the future and respecting the past

  • Practices: Use recycled and green new materials. Replace lead pipes. Pursue funding to support green retrofit initiatives. Reduce percent of household income spent on energy bills.

Make Edgewater’s economy green

  • Principle: Grow a model sustainable economy.

  • Practices: Promote companies that make green products,

  • Use recycled and local materials. Build solar parking lots. Encourage businesses to use sustainable practices. Support green job creation/ training by establishing pilot green job projects.

For the Human Environment

Solidarity

  • Principle: Following the lead of BIPOC and EJ communities, acknowledge the wrongs of the past and seek to right them in the future.

Sustain a just and tolerant neighborhood

  • Principle: Promote tolerance, care and justice for all

Keep Edgewater safe

  • Principle: Support economic and social justice to increase peace and reduce crime

Grow a better future

  • Principle: Invest in education at all levels to strengthen the next generation

Maintain the health of the community

  • Principle: Ensure that all our neighbors have access to physical and mental health services

Champion economic equality

  • Principle: Make certain that all people have secure incomes and decent housing

Good governance, transparency, and accountability

  • Principle: Collaborating openly within the organization and ensuring elected reps and representatives of the community engage thoroughly and openly.

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