🌱 City of Milwaukee's Climate and Equity Plan

For years, scientists and concerned citizens sounded the alarm about the major threats that global warming and climate change pose to our planet, economy and children’s futures.  Extreme temperatures, drought, and famine will push people to migrate to cooler climates in search of a better life.  July 2023 was the hottest on record. The heat index in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hit 144 degrees Fahrenheit last month.  The good news is that the City of Milwaukee adopted a Climate and Equity Plan in June 2023 and we are acting on every major strategy in the Plan. In fact, the City of Milwaukee’s Environmental Collaboration Office (ECO) is part of the largest mobilization to address climate change in U.S. history. 

Under the Biden Administration, the US government has allocated hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits, grants, and rebates to accelerate the transition to clean energy, plant trees, make our homes and buildings more energy efficient, and encourage more people to purchase electric vehicles to reduce our dependence on foreign oil for gasoline.  These climate investments are being coordinated with other massive investments in traditional infrastructure like streets, bridges, lead-pipe replacements and more.  They also support the rebuilding of America’s manufacturing muscle and good-paying construction jobs. Through Biden’s Justice40 executive order, “40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution” including Milwaukee.

We are at just the start of this major transition.  Mayor Johnson has fully mobilized ECO, the Department of Public Works, and other agencies to pursue these federal opportunities to activate the Climate and Equity Plan and to rebuild our neighborhoods in a more equitable way. This involves taking the high-level goals and ideas of the Climate and Equity Plan and turning them into operational plans with community input; applying for federal grants; negotiating plans and metrics with federal agencies; hiring new staff; training workers on the new skills needed; and then hiring contractors to implement the work.  We expect that residents will really start to feel the benefits later this year and especially in 2025 and beyond.

Here’s a few examples of the exciting progress:

• ECO and partners were awarded a $12m urban forestry grant to support the “Nature in the City” idea in the Climate and Equity Plan

• Over $90 million in funding for pedestrian and bike-friendly street improvements spearheaded by the Department of Public Works that supports the “People-Centered Transportation” idea, including major renovations on 6th street, Villard Ave, Lisbon, Vliet, Sherman Boulevard, and more.

• $450 million funding from US EPA to remove pollution from the Milwaukee River Estuary

• $1 million to support environmental justice and community-based Resilience Ambassadors

• $1.6 million to WRTP-Big Step to train installation workers for EV infrastructure

• $400,000 to develop plans for doing energy efficiency in rental properties and houses of worship.

• The City has approved over 10 MW of new solar projects that will allow us to achieve our 25% by 2025 renewable energy goal for City operations. That’s enough renewable electricity to fully power over 80 city buildings, including all of our police and fire stations, libraries, port buildings, and more. 

• $400,000 to develop Food Waste Reduction systems and more.

• ECO supported the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in developing a regional Preliminary Climate Action Plan based on Milwaukee’s Climate and Equity Plan and applied for a $10m regional grant that will allow suburban communities to hire shared sustainability staff for the first time.

Erick powering the stage a past Earth Day Celebration

In short, we are working as hard and as fast as we can to wisely use these funds to transform our City and country for the better.   I hope you are as excited and supportive of this transformation as I am. Please help us spread the word to give hope to our residents and children. Climate action is important and we are acting boldly now. Please continue to stay engaged and help us make Milwaukee a world class eco-city!

With gratitude,

Erick Shambarger

Environmental Sustainability Director

City of Milwaukee

Learn more about the City of Milwaukee's Climate & Equity plan at ECO's booth at Rock the Green's 13th Annual Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, April 20th from Noon-3pm at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

ECO staff at Rock the Green Sustainability Festival