Special Reports

Meeting the Challenge: Opportunities for Midwest Action on Climate Change
Midwest Climate Change Leadership Inventory

April 2007

Published with a grant from the Energy Foundation, these reports grew out of a Midwest Climate Change Workshop in December 2005 that brought together a group of business, civil society, government and union representatives from across the region to consider what a regional approach to climate change might look like and to identify areas of greatest convergence. That Workshop (sponsored by the Joyce Foundation and the British Consulate General of Chicago) noted that the American Midwest is the source of almost 5% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While its governments, corporations, and civil society groups have taken some action, the Midwest lags far behind the coasts in coordinated programs and policies to reduce GHG emissions. In the absence of federal action, states and cities must take – and are taking – the lead. A strong regional voice united around a set of climate and energy policies will be the most effective action of all.

"Assets of recent Mexican immigrants to Chicago detailed in study"

November 2006

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study finds that recent Mexican immigrants in Chicago possess a wealth of artistic, cultural, and networking assets and that those assets contribute to the social, cultural and economic well being of many Chicagoland neighborhoods, organizations and institutions.

Andrea Lynn, Humanities Ediitor
News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Branding Chicago in China"

November 14, 2006

By The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, World Business Chicago, and the Kellogg School of Management.

"Public Opinion Survey: The United States and the Rise of China and India"

October 2006

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs released the findings of its 2006 Public Opinion Study on Wednesday, October 11, 2006. The study, which the Council conducts biennially, was conducted in partnership with the Asia Society. In addition to polling in the United States, the study included nationally representative polls of China and India. The study presents a unique comparison of international attitudes on how the emergence of China and India as economic dynamos and claimants to great power status will affect the global economy, international security, and politics.  The study also provides an understanding of how the Chinese and Indian publics view their nations’ international challenges and opportunities and their respective roles as emerging great powers.

"Modernizing America's Farm and Food Policy: Vision for a New Direction"

September 2006

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has released the findings of its independent Task Force on U.S. Agriculture Policy on September 27, 2006.  The Agriculture Task Force was convened in October 2005 and cochaired by Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the UN World Food Program, Gus Schumacher, former undersecretary of agriculture for farm and foreign agricultural services,  and Robert Thompson, Gardner Chair in Agriculture Policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  It assembled a group of thirty prominent leaders and policy specialists from Chicago, the Midwest and the nation.  The goal of the Task Force was to develop a report of findings and recommendations on how to achieve meaningful, sector-wide reform focused on ensuring the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the U.S. agriculture and food systems. 

"Branding Your City"

March 2006

Cities have always been brands in the truest sense of the word.
As international place branding authority Simon Anholt writes, “Unless you’ve lived in a particular city or have a good reason to know a lot about it, the chances are that you think about it in terms of a handful of qualities or attributes, a promise, some kind of story. That simple brand narrative can have a major impact on your decision to visit the city, to buy its products or services, to do business there, or even to relocate there.

By CEOs for Cities

"The State of Latino Chicago"

November 2005

Metropolitan Chicago is undergoing a profound transformation from a region dominated politically and demographically by European Americans to one in which no single racial or ethnic group the majority. Long a preeminent center of manufacturing and trade, Chicago is known as a city that works. In The State of Latino Chicago, we examine the status of the region's fastest growing and, arguably, hardest working population.

by Timothy Ready and Allert Brown-Gort
Institute for Latino Studies
University of Notre Dame

"Rebranding Chicago"

March 2005

By World Business Chicago, Kellogg School of Management, and Prophet