The City of Milwaukee Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES) was created by Mayor Tom Barrett to position Milwaukee as a leader in environmental sustainability and performance in the 21st Century. The creation of such an office emerged from the community input received by the Milwaukee Green Team, commissioned by Mayor Tom Barrett in 2004.

The OES promotes overlapping economic and environmental practices, projects and initiatives that meet the common sustainability goals of our stakeholders. What does that mean in practice? It means working with City departments, the Common Council, area businesses, and academic, community, workforce and philanthropic organizations. The OES goal: to help each of these groups reach their sustainability potential and to create and promote a citywide strategic vision for making Milwaukee a more economic, environmental and socially sustainable place to call home.

We address citywide sustainability projects using the “triple bottom-line” approach: people, planet and profits. The OES works to ensure that the policies, programs, and initiatives it enacts or advocates, have a positive economic impact on those that are affected. The OES strives to demonstrate the value-proposition of environmental sustainability policies and the bottom-line impacts these policies can have if implemented in a thoughtful manner by policy-makers, businesses and community leaders.

The City of Milwaukee is doing great things to not only ensure future generations can enjoy our parks and natural resources, but also to improve city government resource efficiency. To learn more about the Office of Environmental Sustainability and how the City of Milwaukee is being more resource efficient or programs that help residents and businesses save money e-mail us at sustainability@milwaukee.gov. You can also sign-up for free automatic e-mail updates concerning City environmental sustainability issues.