Progress Illinois

While there have been -- and continue to be -- numerous obstacles to greening the Chicago Public Schools system, Suzanne Carlson, the woman hired by the district to oversee its new Environmental Action Plan, tells us not to rule her out.

Carlson recently unveiled a framework for changes that include composting food waste, bolstering recycling efforts, better managing stormwater, and changing everyday behavior to cut back on energy consumption by millions of dollars each year.

Her biggest outside ally is the Healthy Schools Campaign, which knows a thing or two about working for change within a bureaucracy. The nonprofit was the muscle behind the new Illinois Green Clean Schools Act, which last spring required districts across the state to use toxic-free cleaners. Aside from improving air quality in thousands of classrooms, the bill has led other industries and households to begin throwing their purchasing power behind such solutions.

The CPS action plan hopes to spur similar policy changes at the local level. Carlson clued us in on a few things that are at the top of her long to-do list:

- Double the amount of materials recycled across CPS to 20 percent;

- Cut the district’s $88 million energy bill by 5 percent through behavior changes;

- Develop on-site composting as a pilot to encourage city-wide regulatory changes;

- Develop pilot organic food, or other healthy lunch programs;

- Invest in reusable lunch trays that can cut out one of the district’s largest sources of trash.

“My role is making change here,” Carlson told us from her office, which is strategically located down the hall from CPS chief Arne Duncan and the district’s procurement department.

As the plan takes off, its leaders see reshaping the district’s culture as a first step in growing a robust green movement across the city.

“When it starts in the schools, the children learn and bring the habits home,” she said. “And they develop habits that they’ll keep.”