Entering a fourth year of a groundbreaking and ambitious Strategic Plan, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is striving to meet new goals and share them with the public it serves.

The MWRD has developed a revamped and interactive dashboard for its 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. The new dashboard enhances user experience with updated data and visuals to track MWRD progress across the Strategic Plan’s five goals, including: resource management, stormwater management, workforce excellence, community engagement and enterprise resilience. Here, visitors to the MWRD website can learn about the water the MWRD releases back into the environment after converting it from wastewater, how the MWRD is expanding its presence throughout the county to mitigate flooding, the demographics of its workforce, how the MWRD is meeting new audiences in its community engagement goals following a pandemic, and how the MWRD sustains strong financial stewardship.

“The new dashboard monitors our progress in meeting measurable outcomes outlined in our Strategic Plan, while giving users an inside look at the important work of the MWRD,” said MWRD President Kari K. Steele. “We are striving to meet new goals while presenting them in a transparent manner for our taxpayers who entrust us with the major task of protecting our region’s water environment.”

The new dashboard provides several interactive and user-friendly navigation and information options to give visitors a better understanding of MWRD initiatives. Under the primary strategic goals on the top title bar, corresponding strategies are listed for easy reference. On the left navigation bar, users can filter for specific years or other parameters to extract more detailed information as needed. Progress “bubbles” give the status of MWRD progress on Strategic Plan targets. Information icons located in the upper right corner of the pane provide more substance to the visuals. 

Since the plan was adopted on June 3, 2021, the MWRD has been working to reach many new, exciting, and challenging goals built out of as many as 30 strategies, 50 success measures, 140 initiatives and 360 activities. While the dashboard does not highlight every activity, it gives audiences a firm grasp of ongoing work at the MWRD and its aspiration to meet its Strategic Plan initiatives.

Following an elaborate planning process utilizing public input, a steering committee and engagement with local partners and consultants, the MWRD utilized the public input to develop the plan and then sought a way to track its progress. The plan is designed to articulate the mission, vision, and goals for the MWRD which identified a set of strategic initiatives to achieve those goals; and provided a framework for measuring progress and reviewing and updating the plan on an annual basis. 

All aspects of the strategic planning process were informed through an equity lens. The MWRD Steering Committee remained cognizant that the plan has an impact on all residents, no matter where they live or work in the MWRD’s 882-square-mile service area. As a result, the Strategic Plan focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion to guide engagement with all communities across Cook County.

“The Strategic Plan presents us with a blueprint to follow as we address water management and resource recovery through innovative, equitable and sustainable measures,” said MWRD Chairman of Finance Marcelino Garcia, who was a member of the Steering Committee. “Now with this dashboard, we have a new tool at our disposal to track this progress and meet 21st century challenges.”