In 2017, President Trump removed the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. In response, many local jurisdictions who often deal with the brunt of the weather related impacts of climate change stood up and declared that they were going to “stay in” the agreement.
1000 Friends of Iowa agrees and believes that we can have the greatest impact working locally for solutions that can add up to real impacts.
Analyses done by ARUP for the C40 Initiative concluded that cities are essential actors in reducing emissions and that the 758 US cities with populations of 50,000 or more can deliver about on third of the US Paris commitment. Cities can deliver emission reductions that are additive to those of nations and states, ARUP concludes, because they control land use, transportation systems, and the attributes of buildings.
They further conclude that there is a deadline. They conclude that cities have until 2020 to get on a pathway to achieving future deep emission reductions. In other words, city action is urgent but harder to get our hands around because it requires hundreds of individual policy and programmatic decisions. To succeed, we must be able to achieve change at scale. We need to work together to figure out how to do that.
About 150 of the 758 cities are in the Midwest. We already know that in general, the core city in each of the largest metro areas is taking some action – often with the help of nonprofits and foundations, such as, Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, Cleveland. The ARUP analysis tells us that this is not enough.
We know that we need more of the communities across Iowa and the Midwest to take action. While we work with local communities in Iowa, we wanted to do analysis by identifying the status of clean energy, climate work, and sustainability efforts in these cities and to develop a plan of action for spurring all to action.
Partnering with organizations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, 1000 Friends of Iowa just completed a comprehensive mapping project looking at whether or not cities with a population of 40,000 or more were currently addressing these issues and what they were doing if they were. In Iowa, there are 13 cities that met the criteria. Eleven of those cities participated in the mapping project.
Of the participating cities, five of them have completed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories and four have set GHG reduction goals. Three cities have established an energy plan, climate action plan or resiliency plan. Two other cities are in progress of developing a plan. Five Iowa Cities have energy efficiency goals and Nine of the eleven cities that responded are participating in a sustainability program.
From anecdotal data gathered, the two most important factors that seem to drive a cities success in their efforts to address climate change and become more sustainable were: 1. a supportive city council and Mayor and 2. a staff person who acted as the sustainability coordinator or director for the city. Click here to view an interactive map with the results and Click here to see the raw data results.
People’s Climate Movement Des Moines, IA Event
Cherry Glen Learning Farm is the state’s first watershed mitigation f
The Alley had many organizations and companies involved in its transformation from an unwelcoming, litter-ridden space to an open corridor from the local mall to the historic Oskaloosa square. A grassroots group led the effort in a makeover that includes tables, umbrellas, seating, strings of LED ambience lights, planters (repurposed livestock tanks) with attached ‘walls’ for signage displays, and an artistic metal entrance archway. The signage allows for historic markers, artwork, and business and personal signs. 
The Green & Main project transformed a complicated site into a successful mixed use building with a health center on the bottom floors and a residential apartment on upper level. It was known that the vacant, commercial building was on the National Register of Historic Places, but work for the geothermal system revealed an additional two historic foundations — a nineteenth century laundry and a Victorian house.
Many regional and community organizations contributed to the success of Green and Main in terms of donations, support, and volunteering. State brownfield and historic tax credit programs were used. An I-JOBS Improved Green Urban Stormwater Best Management Practices grant helped bring soil quality restoration, bioswales, permeable pavers, subterranean retention, a green roof, rain gardens, and rain barrels to the project. Passive and active solar strategies are used, such as double paned windows for the exterior, transom windows for the interior, and solar panels augment power consumption while shading a rooftop deck. 
The Market One Building, located in Des Moines’ East Village, is on the National HIstoric Register and used state and federal tax credits to restore and repair 97.8% of the structure, floors, roof, and building envelope. It adaptively reuses a factory for commercial space. A glass-enclosed conference room and 3000 square feet of deck and shade canopy were added to the roof. 
The 130 year old building reused the original hardwood floors, tin ceiling, woodwork, lights, and cabinets, as well as four turn of the century glass display cases salvaged from the John Wayne Museum. Energy efficient elements incorporated into the project include high efficiency HVAC, LED lighting, and removal of canvas awnings to bring natural light into the gift store.
Very little environmental and economic construction impact was sustained because the building was repurposed, utilities already existed, and needed only minor tuckpointing on a rear exterior wall. The historic integrity of the building was maintained, thus the National Register designation was maintained. By adaptively reusing an existing retail space, the final cost was about $15 per sq. ft. as opposed to estimated new construction cost of about $250 per sq. ft. minimum.