2025 Sustainability Wins!

I'm grateful for the many leaders throughout the City of Madison who achieved meaningful progress toward our sustainability goals. As you read about our collective successes from the past twelve months, I hope you'll join me in recognizing why local action matters and that you too feel energized about what we'll accomplish together in 2026!  

1. Building Energy Savings Program completed a successful second year 

In December 2025, the City of Madison completed the second year of its Building Energy Savings Program (BESP). Over 340 commercial buildings benchmarked their energy use, helping the City achieve an impressive 91% compliance rate among required buildings, aligning the program with leading peer cities nationwide. BESP requires large commercial buildings to report their annual energy consumption and complete building tune-ups every four years. More than one quarter of participating buildings reported energy performance that places them among the top performers nationwide, while 43 buildings voluntarily completed early building tune-ups demonstrating strong commitment from property owners. The City of Madison received a Dane County Climate Champions award in 2025 for BESP.  

2. Madison adopted stronger protections for trees via a Tree Protection Ordinance 

In September 2025, the Common Council adopted a new Tree Protection Ordinance developed by the City’s Urban Forestry Section. The updated regulations include three major improvements: expanding protection zones around street trees during construction, granting the city authority to suspend or revoke street occupancy permits for contractors who violate tree protection rules, and establishing a Street Tree Replacement Fund that requires developers to pay the assessed value of any necessarily removed trees so the city can invest in canopy growth elsewhere. These changes align Madison's rules with current best management practices. 

3. The Engineering Division began construction of $8 million project to improve flood resilience on the west side  

In March 2025, the Engineering Division began a major project in the Pheasant Branch watershed to provide flood resilience and ecological restoration. This area was devastated by catastrophic flooding in 2018 that caused millions in property damage. After securing $6 million in federal FEMA funding that covers 70% of project costs, the City is expanding stormwater infrastructure with larger pipes and channels while simultaneously restoring native ecosystems by replanting over 200 trees and 370 shrubs, including oaks, serviceberry, and hickory. The City will replace shallow-rooted invasive species with deep-rooted native plants that better infiltrate water and support biodiversity. This project is expected to be completed by November 2026. 

4. Fleet led an innovative Renewable Diesel Pilot program 

Renewable diesel is an emerging sustainable fuel product that replace diesel fuel in existing vehicles without the costly equipment upgrades required for traditional biodiesel.  In 2025, the City grew its use of renewable diesel to 95,000 gallons with overwhelmingly positive results, fueling more than 385 diesel vehicles across nine city departments plus dozens of smaller equipment pieces like mowers and groundskeeping tools. Renewable diesel will continue to play an important role in our fleet transition strategy, because it reduces emissions from the City's largest and most demanding diesel-powered vehicles, while ensuring our essential services run smoothly until fully electric heavy-duty models become viable. For these efforts, Madison Fleet received a Dane County Climate Champions award and a Wisconsin Clean Cities Forward Fleet award. 

5. Monona Terrace kicked off a geothermal energy study 

In February 2025, the Facilities Section began exploring geothermal heating and cooling solutions at the Monona Terrace. The City secured a $50,000 grant from the Wisconsin Office of Energy Innovation to help fund a study to understand the potential for using geothermal to heat and cool this iconic Madison building. Geothermal presents an opportunity to modernize the aging infrastructure with a sustainable solution that could serve as a model for large community spaces and convention centers across Madison and the State of Wisconsin. Monona Terrace's unique attributes, surrounded by Lake Monona, built over railroad tracks, and clad in historic architecture, presents significant constraints for conventional geothermal systems. The study is investigating creative alternatives which should highlight the potential to use renewable energy solutions even in challenging locations. 

6. Madison Metro secured $17 million in federal funding to modernize the bus fleet 

In November 2025, Madison Metro secured over $17 million in federal funding to modernize its fleet with fuel-efficient hybrid buses. The grant will replace some of the system's oldest vehicles that have reached or exceeded their useful life, improving service reliability for daily riders while reducing maintenance costs and environmental impact. This investment is part of a $2 billion initiative to upgrade transit infrastructure across the country, and it represents a wonderful opportunity in Madison to replace our oldest all-diesel buses with hybrid buses. 

7. The Stormwater Utility’s new Vegetation Management Plan charts a path to flood resilience and biodiversity 

In January 2025, the Stormwater Utility Section’s comprehensive Vegetation Management Plan was adopted. The plan provides a framework for managing the over 1,500 acres of stormwater ponds, greenways, and wetlands throughout Madison. It prioritizes native plant restoration, biodiversity enhancement, and climate resilience while ensuring that vegetation continues to perform its important stormwater duty. Native plants help reduce flooding, improve water quality, and increase infiltration. One of the plan's major strategies has already been successfully implemented: ensuring that developer agreements for private development include better native planting and in ponds and greenways. Moving forward, this plan will support pollinators in Madison, while helping the City adapt to the challenges of increased precipitation and extreme weather events. 

8. Madison joined the Love My Air Wisconsin partnership 

In late 2025, the City of Madison officially joined the Love My Air Wisconsin network, a growing collaboration led by the Children’s Health Alliance (CHA) to provide air quality information and education to students and families in Wisconsin. In 2026, air quality data from Madison’s city-wide network of 67 air quality sensors will be added to the Love My Air Wisconsin website, which already displays air quality information from CHA’s the sensor network in Milwaukee. Through this partnership, the City will make air quality information from our local community easily accessible, understandable, and supportive of statewide efforts to improve air quality. City of Madison sensors measure concentrations of particulate matter (PM 2.5), small particles that can cause heart and breathing problems like asthma, bronchitis, and strokes. 

9. The Farmer’s Market Food Scrap Collection Program Continued to Grow 

Throughout the farmer’s market season in 2025, Madison residents demonstrated their commitment to composting by diverting an impressive 40,427 pounds of food scraps from the landfill. This ongoing partnership with Sustain Dane enables community members to drop off their food scraps at the South Madison or Eastside markets on Tuesdays and the Westside Community Market on Saturdays. While the farmers' market collection season has ended, residents can expect the program to return in 2026, so keep an eye out for announcements next spring. 

10.  The Engineering Division and GreenPower Program added solar at eight more City facilities 

Throughout 2025, the Facilities Section installed another 766 kW of solar generation at eight City buildings. This included projects at the Door Creek Park Shelter, Madison Public Market, East Maintenance Shop, Rennebohm Splash Pad, Truax Apartments, Warner Park Community Recreation Center Expansion, Bartillon Shelter, and the Water Utility’s Paterson Vehicle Storage. GreenPower program trainees played a key role in installing many of these solar arrays. GreenPower provides early career trainees with hands-on experience working alongside the City’s journey electricians and lead workers. Trainees have gone on to work in the solar industry, the trades, for the City, and more. 

11. The Efficiency Navigator program delivered home energy upgrades 60 families 

Throughout 2025, the City’s Efficiency Navigator Program continued its important work improving energy efficiency in affordable housing. This partnership with Sustain Dane, Elevate Energy and local building owners improved the units of 60 families in our community through free energy efficiency upgrades. The program addresses common challenges faced by renters in small- and medium-sized multifamily buildings, including poor insulation, drafty windows, outdated heating and cooling systems, and health hazards like mold and natural gas appliances. All of this was achieved while maintaining affordable rents. 

12. Interdepartmental Sustainability Champions team came together to advance the Sustainability Plan 

In 2025, more than 40 City staff from 16 divisions joined the Sustainability Champions team to collaboratively advance the City’s Sustainability Plan. Each of the plan’s 24 goals now has an internal champion working to turn the aspirations of this guiding document into reality. Champions gathered for the first time in July 2025 to launch their work together, share current efforts to implement the Sustainability Plan, and create a framework for tracking and reporting on progress. An annual memo will be released later in 2026 to share the City’s progress so far.