Until Sunrise, Earth Day, 2050

Our Mission

Humanity faces three simultaneous crises: (1) the pandemic and its economic fallout; (2) the urgent demand for social and economic justice; and (3) the Climate Emergency. Carbon Free Chicago sees these crises as interwoven and believes it is essential that all upcoming societal initiatives be designed to address all three.

 

Carbon Free Chicago maintains that ending our dependence on fossil fuels will create a healthy and more prosperous future for all Chicagoans.

 

Our Vision

People of conscience all know that in order to leave our children and grandchildren a healthy planet, we have to eventually stop burning fossil fuels. But eventually is criminally slow. Every year of inaction perpetuates pollution and sickness, irretrievable expense, and mounting sunk costs. In response, Carbon Free Chicago approaches its work with this end in mind:

 

At Sunrise on Earth Day 2050, we Chicagoans will no longer burn fossil fuels to heat or power our buildings, vehicles, industry, or grid.

 

Our History

The Carbon-Free Chicago 2050 campaign was founded by Farr Associates, an architecture and urban design firm in downtown Chicago dedicated to creating beautiful, equitable, carbon-free places. Led by founding principal Douglas Farr, the firm is an ambitious group of thought leaders pushing the boundaries of what it means to be sustainable in the Midwest and beyond. Through a broad portfolio of planning and architecture work, the team works to implement long-lasting, on-the-ground change wherever possible, as soon as possible.

The CFC campaign was the brain child of The Pattern Project, which is a Farr Associates initiative to accelerate change. The Pattern Project is an effort to support people who want to see positive change in their communities, which we call “local actors”. The idea is that by combining urban design and architecture rules of thumb - also known as “patterns” - with a few research-tested concepts called “accelerants”, we can mobilize an army of local actors to bring about the kind of sustainable change needed to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, and provide people with a beautiful, hopeful, happy future. In addition to CFC, The Pattern Project is also working on a sister campaign, National Neighborhood Days 2030.


ABOUT US

Founded by Douglas Farr and Sydney VanKuren, the campaign includes countless key members. Our core group of organizers include Katrin Klingenberg, Katie Kaluzny, Gary Cuneen, Jennie Eber, and Lille van der Zanden.

Learn more about us, and the Farr Associates firm that models this campaign every day, here.

General Inquiries
sydney@farrside.com