Bring Back Chicago's Department of Environment
It’s long past time to reestablish Chicago’s Department of Environment. Join the campaign to #BringDOEBack.
Take Action
Join us for a social media power hour this Wednesday, July 20, at 10 am. We'll be live tweeting the Chicago City Council meeting and posting about the DOE on our social channels. You can too!
Use this toolkit to spread the word about what happened to Chicago’s DOE & why we need to bring it back.
Sign up to make a public comment during an upcoming City Council meeting.
Sign up for one of the three budget engagement forums happening over the next two weeks.
Tweet at Mayor Lightfoot & your alderperson why we need a DOE.
What You Should Know
A decade ago, the City of Chicago under the Emanuel administration dissolved its Department of Environment, leaving a broad range of environmental issues to be dealt with across scattered and, at times, understaffed city departments.
Since the dissolution, we’ve seen a broad range of environmental justice and other environmental issues spring up only to be met with mismanagement. From the botched demolition of the Crawford Coal Plant on the Southwest side, to increasingly concentrated industry and warehousing in environmental justice communities, to a broken recycling system, the cracks left behind by the absence of a Department of Environment are evident and widespread.
From $188 million in the City budget to the Climate Action Plan and the We Will initiative, it's clear Mayor Lightfoot wants to invest in climate mitigation, but Chicago deserves a permanent DOE to carry out these investments.
Thank you for taking action!