formerly citizens' greener Evanston
We accelerate local community-driven climate action.

OUR KEY CONTRIBUTION

Ramped up, well-organized, and robust community participation.
Climate action doesn’t just happen on its own!

MUCH ACCOMPLISHED

Ambitious goals set, and many already reached.
Accelerated by Climate Action Evanston.

2008

Evanston is one of the first communities in the U.S. to adopt a climate action plan

2012

The city meets its greenhouse gas target through a grassroots campaign

2016

Evanston implements a second climate action plan adopted in 2014

2018

Evanston adopts the Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP), with a focus to 2050

2019

Evanston becomes the 1st city in Illinois to secure NWF Community Habitat Certification

2020

Evanston Environmental Justice Resolution passed

2024

D202 passes a Green New Deal policy: our high school becomes the 3rd in the US to have one.

2025

Big year! Both the D65 Sustainability Plan and the city's Healthy Buildings Ordinance pass.

TAKE YOUR NEXT STEP!

Join with us in helping our town extend its climate leadership. We’ll help you find tangible ways to contribute, tailored to your interests, circumstances and skills.

AND BY THE WAY...

Our influence extends beyond Evanston.
We share best practices with partners in support of regional action.

We are speeding our city's progress in addressing the climate crisis through our programs:

Beyond Waste Program symbol

Beyond Waste

In nature there is no waste: outputs from living things circle back to become useful inputs to other living things. This program works to speed up progress in extending the useful life of items and making more of Evanston's outputs valuable inputs.

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Edible Evanston symbol

Edible Evanston

Regenerative agriculture practices produce an abundance of nutritious foods, sequester carbon in soil, and heal ecosystems degraded by industrial agriculture. This program creates local community around adopting these practices and equitably sharing the resulting bounty.

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Energy Program symbol

Energy

Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced through improved energy efficiency, reduced fossil fuel consumption, and the use of renewable energy. This program works to speed the transition to more efficient use of electricity to cook food, heat spaces, heat water, dry clothes, and power vehicles.

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Environmental Justice Evanston symbol

Environmental Justice Evanston

The harms caused by climate change and ecosystem degradation and the benefits derived from taking action to address them tend to be unfairly distributed. This program seeks to make them accrue equitably throughout Evanston.

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Go Evanston program symbol

Go Evanston

Personal vehicles typically are infrequently used and transport a single passenger. All fossil fuel powered vehicles accelerate climate change. This program works to reduce reliance on personal vehicles and increase sustainable transportation options.

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Natural Habitat Evanston

Conventional lawns and garden practices waste water, emit carbon and poison birds and pollinators whose populations are in dramatic decline. Natural Habitat works to return vibrant, buzzing life to Evanston public and private-owned landscapes.

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Calendar of upcoming events

Nurturing Nature Speaker Series. Crane Migrations: Securing critical stopovers across political borders

Since times untold the departures and arrivals of cranes inautumn and spring have heralded the changes of seasons. During these journeysacross continents, cranes stop at traditional sites, known as staging areas, torest and build up fat reserves for the next flight. In central Asia, cranesmigrate at astounding altitudes over the Himalayas.  Festivals and cropplanting in some cultures are associated with the migration of cranes.  Inrecent years, extensive new information about the migration of cranes has beensecured using telemetry devices attached to cranes that communicate withsatellites and cell phone towers. Dr. George Archibald, Co-Founder and SeniorConservationist of the International Crane Foundation, will summarize what isknown about the migrations of cranes across Asia and North America and how ICFworks to secure these stopovers.  

RegisterRegister
Oct 15
Wed
6:30 pm
7:30 pm
Zoom

Nurturing Nature: Cities Are For Songbirds

Tim Beatley willpresent the contours of an emerging vision of cities, Biophilic Cities,that at once emphasizes the health and ecological benefits of nature forhumans, but also the inherent moral worth of nonhuman life. Cities must bedesigned as multispecies habitats and with coexistence and biodiversityconservation as priorities. A special focus in the talk will be given to birdsand the important ways that cities can be designed and planned to be bird-safeand bird-friendly (building on the ideas and stories presented in his recentIsland Press book, The Bird-Friendly City). Beatley will alsodiscuss the creation of the international Biophilic Cities Network, now morethan a decade old, and provide examples of innovative practices, policies andprojects that aim to include nonhuman life.  

RegisterRegister
Nov 19
Wed
6:30 pm
7:30 pm
Zoom

Nurturing Nature: A Light Proposal: Restore the Nights of Evanston

As the cost oflighting has become cheap, our nights are paying the price. We are generating anever-brightening world while failing to grasp the dramatic ramifications ofturning night into day has on our lives and our world. Thankfully, there ishope. The simple act of awareness is the first step to meaningful change. Andawareness is growing. Still, one of the greatest hurdles to a solution remains:how to achieve it. Join me in an exploration of the importance of naturalnights and learn actionable ways you can preserve this vital resource.

RegisterRegister
Dec 17
Wed
6:30 pm
7:30 pm
Zoom

You're Needed! Here Are Some Involvement Opportunities

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Volunteer

Our programs are always seeking volunteers. Visit their home pages to learn more about the opportunities they offer.

Newsletter coordinator needed

Learn more Learn more

On a monthly basis we are seeking someone to gather content from our team of providers, use editorial judgement to clean up and sequence submissions, and prepare them for uploading to our newsletter template. See details in this position posting on VolunteerEvanston.

Although we’re a volunteer organization, we have expenses. Increasing our revenues allows us to budget to do more. Help us build the capacity to better support all our programs, or target your donation to a specific program.

More about Climate Action Evanston

Climate Action Evanston volunteers and staff collaborate with the city, local businesses, faith communities, other environmental organizations and residents to accelerate climate action to meet our city's CARP (Climate Action and Resilience Plan) goals throughout our inner suburb just north of Chicago. Formerly Citizens' Greener Evanston, we started in 2008 and worked with the City on its first climate plan.

Some Successes

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