Name Joe Wheelock What is your work and how did you end up focusing on the work you do? I am a program manager for the Heartland Tree Alliance at Bridging The Gap. We try to grow greener, more resilient communities through small actions. Working hand in hand with the communities impacted most by environmental...
Category: Collaboration and Leadership
Get to know CEC members Alej Martinez & Mata Townsend
Name Alej Martinez What is your work and how did you end up focusing on the work you do? My work is dedicated to building community resilience through the critical lenses of social equity and authentic community engagement. I was drawn to this field, and remain passionate about it, because I’ve consistently observed and been...
Regional Kansas City Climate Action Plan Update
MARC and project consultants have been spending the summer months updating strategies included in the 2021 Regional Kansas City Climate Action Plan. Based on feedback and requirements of the EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, it was clear that we needed to simplify, simplify, simply. The original plan included 66 strategies and staff worked to reduce...
Get to know Magpie Creative
Magpie Creative Reuse Collective was started in April 2024 with a mission to open a Creative Reuse Center supporting innovative uses for material waste. The founding board is a group of seven people familiar with the creative reuse model and sees the center as a way to prioritize artistic and educational aspects of creative reuse....
MARC participates in Teen Climate Summit
The Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium put on its first Teen Climate Summit on December 7, 2024 and invited MARC, along with staff from the City of Kansas City, Mo,, Missouri Department of Conservation and ScrapsKC, to share information about their respective work. MARC presented to students hailing from high schools all over the region...
Climate and Environment Council seeking new members for 2025
The Climate and Environment Council (CEC) is a collaborative, action-oriented committee that guides the implementation of the Kansas City Regional Climate Action Plan. This committee will be jointly supported by MARC and Climate Action KC.
Resilient Success Stories honors four key stakeholders and awards three pitch participants for regional climate work
On behalf of the MARC Climate Action team, Climate Action KC and the Climate and Environment Committee, we’d like to thank those who participated in this year’s Resilient Success Stories event. Nearly 150 attendees turned out for our year-end recognition of exemplary climate resilience work. Climate resilience expands the idea of sustainability and includes efforts to prepare...
Chiefs tackle landfill waste with help from MARC Solid Waste-funded compost biodigesters
According to industry experts, the average NFL stadium generates over 80,000 pounds of trash each game. And that doesn’t include the trash and waste from tailgating, a favorite pastime – it’s just from the interior concessions the organization and its vendors produce. Landfills release massive amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere. And over a...
Congratulations to our 2024 Resilient Success Stories Honorees!
Congratulations to our 2024 Resilient Success Stories Honorees Momentum is building throughout the Kansas City region to transform our community in ways that create greater levels of sustainability and climate resilience. To embrace and accelerate positive change, the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and Climate Action KC will highlight selected local and regional Resilient Success Stories at...
How much will our region grow by the year 2050?
Every few years, MARC updates its population and employment forecast. This work supports a large planning effort to develop the regional transportation plan, ConnectedKC 2050. Understanding the future growth of our region helps transportation decision-makers plan for future transportation investments. Employment and population forecasts (and ultimately, where we will see the most employment and population...








