Green Infrastructure: The Windy City and Beyond
Saturday, October 18, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
1 day, 0.6 CEUs
Due to the format of this workshop, space is limited to 60 participants on a first come basis.
Today’s utility manager is already familiar with the concepts of green infrastructure and understands the benefits that can be realized from environmentally appealing and sustainable management practices. Knowing why green infrastructure is useful is a start, but the manager should also understand what different types of practices infrastructure might be available, and how to work through the many details of design, partnering, funding, and operation. This workshop focuses on the “what” and the “how” of green infrastructure so that attendees can make better decisions for their own implementations.
The workshop is divided into morning presentations and afternoon site visits. The morning begins with presentations about the practicalities of integrating green infrastructure into planning efforts. Speakers from the City of Chicago will discuss its success with incorporating green infrastructure into redevelopment with designs that incorporate nature and sustainable building methods, while the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District speakers will provide information on how green infrastructure plays into their stormwater control and watershed plans. Attention will be paid to the nature and success of partnerships formed to promote sustainable development and green infrastructure.
The morning will continue with a presentation from the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) that provides an overview of WERF’s green infrastructure efforts and reviews green infrastructure activities across the United States. The final presentation, presented by U.S. EPA, will discuss how green infrastructure may be funded. The morning will end with a moderated panel session in which the panelists will be invited to discuss points raised by the audience during the morning’s talks or posed during the session.
The afternoon session will focus on understanding the what, how, and why of several different green infrastructure installations in Chicago. Participants will travel by bus to the installations. While traveling, a box lunch will be available. During the drive, experts will provide overviews of the installations being visited, including descriptions of the technology, review of the logistics for implementation, and discussion of the performance of the installations. The itinerary calls for stops at three innovative installations that have extensive associated performance monitoring efforts:
• St. Mary Margaret Church and School (native gardens)
• North Side Water Reclamation Plant (rain gardens and native plantings)
• City of Chicago Center for Green Technologies (cisterns, green roofs, native landscaping, bioswales, and hardscape minimization)
The itinerary may be adjusted to reflect new data monitoring efforts or new installations.
The tour will finish with a Q&A session either at the Center for Green Technologies or on board the bus during which the workshop chairs will provide a summary presentation that recapitulates the important points and questions raised during the day. Attendees will be able to follow up with further question on themes exposed during the day’s presentations and tours, and should leave with a better idea of how to implement green infrastructure for their locality.
Chair
Theodore A.D. Slawecki, Limno Tech
Co-Chair
Brian Marengo, CH2M HILL
Speakers
Peter Mulvaney, City of Chicago
Richard Lanyon, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
Kevin Shafer, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
Leslie Shoemaker, TetraTech
Jim Van der Kloot, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Steven Wise, Center for Neighborhood Technology