As a proud Chicagoan I’m thrilled with today’s announcement that we’re the U.S. contender for the 2016 Olympics (yes, summer). With Chicago’s new reputation as a green city, complete with its own Chicago Standard for green building, I’m very curious about what the environmental issues will be. It would be wonderful if Chicago used this platform to do everything as eco-friendly as possible, much like London is doing for 2012. The new building construction should practice recycling and reuse. Carbon offsets should be purchased for energy consumption. The city’s public transportation system is fairly comprehensive, but is lacking in one of the neighborhoods where a key stadium is to be built so they need to figure that out, etc. I know that an environmental impact study was part of the bid, and I’m sure the City is working on these details already. I’m looking forward to their being made public.  Go Chicago!