Cedar Rapids Today

Cedar Rapids is introducing several avenues for its residents to get involved in climate action efforts. 

“The city has taken some important steps over the last few years, but we can’t really have an impact unless the community joins in that effort,”  Mayor Brad Hart said, according to Little Village Magazine.

At the beginning of the year, the City of Cedar Rapids developed the iGreenCR action plan, focusing on the city's efforts to practice sustainability in its operations.

“The purpose of this plan is to lead by example, engage all staff and all departments and really work on that triple bottomline decision-making process, which is just to say that all decisions that we make have environmental, social and economic impacts and we should be considering those in all of our decisions,” Eric Holthaus, the city’s sustainability coordinator, said.

The iGreenCR 2020 fiscal update is available online. It lists each categories' goals and objectives as well as a schedule of the projects and their statuses.

Three opportunities for community input will begin this month. There will be Zoom panel discussions on the topics of community resilience, social justice and climate change on Thursday, Oct. 22 and 29. Information will also be provided about completing the community survey and applying to join the Climate Advisory Committee. Registration is required for the panel discussions.

The third piece of engagement will come in the form of ground teams. 

“We will be going into neighborhoods — practicing safe social distancing — and we will set up pop-up tents,” Holthaus said, in order to make connections with residents, hear concerns and answer questions.