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Milwaukee Building Decarbonization Coalition 

A grassroots organization seeking to create more awareness on the need for focused remediation of vacant buildings, green/clean development, and building decarbonization in Milwaukee's central city. 

Urban Decay Scene

Deteriorating Buildings

A dilapidated building isn’t just an eyesore—it becomes a multiplier of environmental and public health risks, especially in already vulnerable neighborhoods.

Modern Building
Water Intrusion → Mold & Air Toxicity
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When roofs fail, windows break, or walls crack, moisture gets in and stays.

What happens:
  • Mold colonies grow behind walls, ceilings, and insulation
  • Spores spread through the air into nearby homes and streets
  • Persistent dampness increases bacteria and allergens
 
Health impacts:
  • Asthma attacks (especially in children and seniors)
  • Chronic respiratory illness
  • Headaches, fatigue, and immune system stress
 
In tight urban corridors like parts of Milwaukee, this doesn’t stay contained—it affects adjacent buildings and shared airspaces.
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Building Under Construction
Structural Decay → Dust, Debris, and Toxins
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As materials break down, they don’t just disappear—they become airborne or spread into soil.

Common hazards:

  • Lead dust from old paint

  • Asbestos fibers from insulation and ceiling materials

  • Silica and particulate matter from crumbling masonry

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Health impacts:

  • Neurological damage (lead exposure)

  • Cancer risk (asbestos)

  • Lung disease from fine particulates

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This is particularly dangerous when buildings sit vacant for years without stabilization.

Pest Infestation → Disease Transmission
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Vacant, deteriorating buildings become perfect ecosystems for pests.

 

What they attract:

  • Rodents (rats, mice)

  • Mosquitoes (standing water in basements/roofs)

  • Cockroaches and

  • flies

 

Health risks:

  • Hantavirus, leptospirosis (rodents)

  • West Nile virus (mosquitoes)

  • Allergens that worsen asthma (cockroaches)​

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These pests don’t stay put—they spread into surrounding homes.

Soil & Groundwater Contamination

Neglected buildings often leak or expose hazardous materials into the environment.

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Sources:

  • Old fuel tanks or oil residues

  • Lead paint chips entering soil

  • Chemical storage left behind

 

Consequences:

  • Contaminated soil in nearby yards and gardens

  • Polluted stormwater runoff into city systems

  • Long-term “brownfield” conditions that block redevelopment

Psychological & Community Health Effects (Often Overlooked)

Dilapidation also shapes how people feel and behave in their environment.

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Impacts:

  • Chronic stress and anxiety from unsafe surroundings

  • Reduced outdoor activity → worse physical health

  • Increased crime perception (and sometimes actual crime)

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This contributes to overall health inequity, not just isolated physical illness.

Deteriorating Buildings Are A HAZARD!

A deteriorating structure is not just a “property issue”—it’s a public health system failure point:

  • It degrades air, soil, and water quality

  • It spreads disease vectors and toxins

  • It amplifies health disparities in already under-resourced communities

What is Building Decarbonization?

If you’re asking this question, you’re not alone! Decarbonizing our buildings is one of the biggest climate actions you may not have heard of. In it’s simplest form: building decarbonization entails converting appliances like furnaces, water heaters, and stoves from burning fossil fuels to running off of clean, carbon-free electricity.

 

Transitioning Midwestern buildings to carbon-free, renewable electricity has the potential to reduce utility costs, increase housing affordability, improve residents’ health and safety, and help state and local governments achieve climate goals. The Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition (Midwest BDC) supports equitable deep decarbonization strategies to address the regional challenges of cold climates and purple state politics.

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10 Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the U.S. 

The Environmental Justice movement has demonstrated that pollution’s effects often fall disproportionately on the health of people of color, Indigenous Peoples, and low-income communities. The effects of global climate change, which is caused in large part by fossil fuel emissions, are no exception.

 

Climate change, in fact, could have broader and more severe impacts.

 

For example, people of color, Indigenous Peoples, and low-income communities are the first to experience negative climate change impacts like heat death and illness, respiratory illness, infectious disease, and economic and cultural displacement. Climate policy must protect our most vulnerable communities.

 

Here are 10 PRINCIPLES FOR JUST CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES that will ensure the protection of our livelihoods:

1. Stop Cooking the Planet
Global climate change will accelerate unless we can slow the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. To protect vulnerable Americans, we must find alternatives for those human activities that cause global climate change.
2. Protect and Empower Vulnerable Individuals and Communities
Low-income workers, people of color, and Indigenous Peoples will suffer the most from climate change’s impact. We need to provide opportunities to adapt and thrive in a changing world.

3. Ensure Just Transition for Workers and Communities
No group should have to shoulder alone the burdens caused by the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a renewable energy-based economy. A just transition would create opportunities for displaced workers and communities to participate in the new economic order through compensation for job loss, loss of tax base, and other negative effects.

4. Require Community Participation
At all levels and in all realms, people must have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. Decisionmakers must include communities in the policy process. U.S. federal and state governments, recognizing their government-to-government relationship, must work with tribes as well.

5. Global Problems Need Global Solutions
The causes and effects of climate change occur around the world. Individuals, communities, and nations must work together cooperatively to stop global climate change.

6. The U.S. Must Lead
Countries that contribute the most to global warming should take the lead in solving the problem. The U.S. is four percent of the world’s population but emits 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. All people should have equal rights to the atmosphere.
7. Stop Exploration for Fossil Fuels
Presently known fossil fuel reserves will last far into the future. Fossil fuel exploration destroys unique cultures and valuable ecosystems. Exploration should be halted as it is no longer worth the cost. We should instead invest in renewable energy sources.

8. Monitor Domestic and International Carbon Markets
We must ensure that carbon emissions and sinks markets are transparent and accountable, do not concentrate pollution in vulnerable communities, and avoid activities that harm the environment.

9. Caution in the Face of Uncertainty
No amount of action later can make up for lack of action today. Just as we buy insurance to protect against uncertain danger, we must take precautionary measures to minimize harm to the global climate before it occurs.

10. Protect Future Generations
The greatest impacts of climate change will come in the future. We should take into account the impacts on future generations in deciding policy today. Our children should have the opportunity for success through the sustainable use of resources.

 

This and other environmental justice documents can be downloaded from: www.ejnet.org/ej/

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