City Series: Climate Resiliency and Equity in the City of Chicago

In this episode of ESG Talks, Karen Daly, a Senior Managing Director on KBRA’s Public Finance Team interviews Gavin Taves, the Climate and Energy Program Manager for the City of Chicago. In his role, Gavin focuses on built environment decarbonization policy for Mayor Lightfoot, program managing Retrofit Chicago (a voluntary building retrofit challenge) and the City’s benchmarking ordinance. Gavin also spearheads the industrial decarbonization strategy, which aims to bring industrial facilities into alignment with broader climate goals for the region. Further, Gavin is one of the architects of Chicago’s historic $188 million climate investment strategy, which will accelerate the City’s just transition while building community resilience to climate shocks and stressors. Karen and Gavin talk about Chicago’s vulnerability to climate change and how the city is working to mitigate its effects.