Specific concepts and proposals in the DeCarbonization Plan include finishing and linking a below-grade pedway system to make the Loop more walkable in extreme weather conditions; creating a green corridor and below-grade intermodal axis across the width of the Loop; adapting the Loop's underground tunnels to provide a pneumatic waste disposal system; extending existing pedestrian and bicycle paths; and publishing The Green City, a textbook that would enter school curricula as a primer on urban design and decarbonization, just as a school text accompanied the Plan of Chicago in 1911-1927.

The DeCarbonization Plan has been well received. The challenge now is implementation. "It feels like one of those wooden puzzles with the piece that holds it all together missing," says Borthwick. "That's the funding peg."

Funding is a significant barrier to retrofits at all levels of scale. The commercial retrofit market, according to a recent study from Pike Research, is small compared to its potential. An owner may be convinced of a retrofit's merits but, as Silverstein at ESD observes, "nobody has any money now who didn't already have it two years ago." Says Borthwick at AS+GG, "building owners are looking for a return on investment in two to four years. For a major retrofit, it's going to take longer than that."

Over his twelve years with DNR Windows, Tom McElherne has talked to a lot of homeowners. In his experience, a few are weatherizing to achieve energy savings, but "most of the time it's because people are very uncomfortable in their house." Residential energy retrofitting programs have achieved market penetration of less than 1 percent of eligible buildings, confirms Lee Deuben of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

CMAP has identified three key barriers to the retrofitting boom: access to information, access to finance, and access to skilled workforce. "There are a lot of moving pieces," says Deuben, "a lot of barriers to information that make it hard to navigate." To address this, CMAP has received a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to facilitate green retrofitting's transition from an emerging, fragmented market to a fully functioning economic sector capable of achieving the retrofit rates Chicago's energy and emissions objectives need.

Over the next three years, CMAP's Chicago Region Retrofit Ramp-up (CR3) will be working with communications and public relations firms to develop a comprehensive information system to educate building owners on their options, facilitate their decisions, and connect them with the retrofit services they select. The program will be working with financial institutions to develop innovative and accessible financial products to facilitate retrofitting across income levels and building types. And it will be working with work force training organizations, such as universities, colleges and work force boards, to develop a qualified, skilled work force to fill retrofit jobs. Says Deuben, "the real intent of the program is market transformation.

Katharine Logan is an architecturally trained and LED-accredited writer based in British Columbia.