VIRTUAL: Green Tuesdays in the Village: State of the Environment 2021

Green Tuesdays in the Village is an annual public educational series on current environmentally sustainable topics and issues specifically relevant to the Village of Oak Park and environs. This year’s theme, trajectory, is based on the dynamic course of sustainability through time, expressed as a function of village policy and individual choices. Our trajectory tells us how accurately we should move along an intended path, as well as what time we should be at what point along the path.

About session 3
‘State of the Environment’ is an annual report of key performance indicators and metrics concerning the state of environmental sustainability of the Village of Oak Park. This year’s report for 2021 presents Oak Park as a complex, dynamical system based on scoping, inventorying and assessing the flux and cyclic processes of energy, climate change, materials, and costs. The 2021 findings are reported relative to baseline metrics in the form of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. The outcomes from this objective and independent analysis are intended to support an informed decision- and policymaking process, prioritized within the municipal budget’s allocation of finite resources.

Michael Iversen, Architect, Planner, Urban Ecologist & Educator
For the past 25 years, Michael Iversen has been actively engaged in academics (teaching, research) and practice (architecture, planning), with applied urban sustainability being the common thread. Over the course of his polymathic career, Mr. Iversen has recognized the need to rethink conceptual and operational sustainability approaches and practices. As such, his focus is on transformational change, so as to support a community’s transition to the next level of urban sustainability. Mr. Iversen is principal of Michael Roy Iversen Urban and Campus Sustainability Consultancy, as well as Adjunct Lecturer Professor with the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.