What will rising heat cost Cook County?
Most economic forecasts leave out what environmental change costs. We build local models that put a dollar figure on it. Our first project estimates what extreme heat will cost Cook County in deaths, illness, and lost work through 2060, and ranks the adaptation measures that would save the most.
Environmental costs don't show up in the books.
Extreme heat, flooding, and the loss of natural systems like tree canopy and wetlands impose real costs on public budgets, businesses, and households. Those costs rarely appear on a balance sheet or in a city budget forecast. Climate research has the numbers at a national or global scale, but rarely in a form a county health department or city budget office can act on. Chicago knows what that gap costs: the July 1995 heat wave killed an estimated 739 more people than normal in a single week.
How we close the gap.
Three steps on a loop. What decision-makers ask for tells us what to measure next.
Measure the risk
We combine climate projections with health, labor, and economic data to estimate what environmental change costs a place today and what it will cost in the decades ahead.
Price the fix
We calculate what a specific policy or investment would save, in concrete numbers: dollars, acres, and lives.
Put it in front of decision-makers
We bring the numbers to the agencies, organizations, and communities that can act on them, then ask what they need next.
The real cost of rising heat in Cook County.
Our team
Founded by five UChicago students in economics, environmental science, public policy, and engineering.
Want to help build this?
We need faculty advisors, partner organizations, and early funding. If this work is relevant to you, get in touch.