Midwest Carbon League

Chicago and St. Louis Metro Areas

Ongoing Projects

Chicago Clean Energy Workforce Week

Creating a responsive workforce ecosystem in Chicagoland centered around people, partnerships, and education/training to deliver measurable impact via a growing job pipeline. Including CEJA partners, this includes a database of jobs and workforce partners to make it easier to access resources at every level of the pipeline. This work will culiminate in the Chicago Clean Energy Workforce Week in 2026Q2 to bring employers, workforce trainers, and future employees together for matching/development.

Clean Bus for All of Us

Partnering with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and ComEd, the Carbon League has identified three areas in South and West Chicago in need of improved bus access and electrification support. Using ESRI mapping tools, these areas were selected based on indicators such as limited existing bus access, lower income levels, poor health outcomes, employment accessibility, and low-income housing accessibility gathered from industry, city, state, county, and federal data. One corridor will be selected to launch the first phase of development with the support and leadership of area stakeholders. This work is part of a broader effort to enhance short-term ridership experience, encourage mid-term mode-shifting, and support long-term beneficial electrification in Chicago.

Transparent Community Climate Dashboard

The "Transparent Community Climate Dashboard” seeks to create an interactive, visualized dashboard that tracks a community’s progress on climate, health, energy, and equity initiatives. The dashboard aims to provide transparent metrics that stakeholders, including public officials, private organizations, and community leaders, can use to monitor progress and accountability. It integrates real-time data to support collaborative decision-making and highlights successes and gaps in achieving the city's sustainability goals. This tool is a centerpiece of The Carbon League’s strategy to drive high-impact, measurable outcomes.

New Building Performance Standards Scoreboard

Centered on developing a stakeholder-informed building scoreboard and scorecard that measures health, wealth, and emissions impacts to accelerate the adoption of new Building Performance Standards (BPS) in Evanston, IL. This includes engaging community voices to ensure equitable input, identifying data sources and baselines, and aligning with city-wide climate and equity goals. Over the following 12 months, the Task Force aims to produce a replicable and transparent scoreboard model and case study to drive accountability and measurable progress in building decarbonization across Greater Chicago.

Community Driven Collaboration - East St. Louis

Building a collaborative framework for measurable progress in enhancing East St. Louis' health, prosperity, and resilience. This includes emphasizing the need for resident-driven clean energy initiatives, transformation of underutilized land into an Ameren clean energy industrial park, and tackling food insecurity through community-led efforts.

Completed Projects

Illinois Solar for All Expansion Support

Supported Illinois’ Solar for All Program Expansion IPA Logistics, Lending, Storage and Enabling Upgrades, Municipal, and Program Intake Portal. This program is intended to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy or benefit from zero-emission technologies, such as solar energy. The Carbon League provided communities of focus and data-focused equity analysis to assist Illinois in designing the next chapter of this program.

Partners of the International Illinois Port District

The Partners of the Port coalition led to the successful Clean Ports Program Grant Application ($92 million) at the International Illinois Port District (IIPD). The Carbon League worked with the IIPD to bring in key partners, community members, and private partners/investments to expand the impact of the grant. This had a key focus in supporting the environmental justice community with jobs, education and awareness, while bridging key gaps between the planned infrastructure and local energy/environmental problems.

EJTC Program Support

Worked to support environmental justice communities in pursuing the Great Lakes Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program.

Meet the Team - Fellows and Support Staff

Meet the Team - Undergraduate Volunteers

  • Darya Dubinina

    Undergraduate Volunteer

    Northwestern University

    LinkedIn

  • Karo Harutyunyan

    Undergraduate Volunteer

    Northwestern University

    LinkedIn

  • Maria Monroy Lopez

    Undergraduate Volunteer

    Northwestern University

    LinkedIn

  • Gabrielle Walthour

    Summer Unpaid Intern

    Northwestern University

    LinkedIn

2025 Maps and Reports

Prior Fellows - 2024

  • Mary Skillcorn

    Chicago Fellow - 2024 Grid Modernization Task Force Support

    Northwestern University

    LinkedIn

2024 Maps and Reports