Brian Platt

Kansas City Manager Brian Platt has an ambitious goal to make the city a nationwide leader in sustainability, including an effort to build the largest municipally-owned solar farm in the country. "We've got too much to lose at this point with health and quality of life issues that we're seeing around here," Platt said.

The city’s new on-demand transit service, IRIS, will now serve riders across the entire metro — with the intention of filling in the gaps of existing bus routes. The expansion is happening at the same time that KCATA hikes the cost of providing bus service to surrounding municipalities, causing concerns about accessibility.

Leaders point to the surveillance of Andrea Dorch, the former head of the civil rights department, and her subsequent resignation as evidence of a City Hall administration that "oppresses Black people."

Kansas City officials hired a private investigator to surveil the city's then-Civil Rights director — something she said was retaliation for raising alarms about a massive development project in the Northland. A report from the Civil Rights office says Kansas City officials let Meta, the parent company for Facebook, ignore the city's diversity hiring rules when constructing a Northland data center.

The sprawling data center campus was hailed as a project that would bring jobs and investment to Kansas City's Northland. But a new report alleges Turner Construction, the general contractor behind the Meta campus, skirted city rules on hiring minority businesses — and that city officials tried to silence the Civil Rights office director when she sounded the alarm.

Kansas City is looking for ways to reduce the amount of trash it generates. Officials say a composting program could keep 52 tons of food waste out of landfills.

A recent feasibility study found that if crews cleared trees and other environmental features, the site could produce 500 megawatts, enough to power about one-third of the city’s homes.

A small college in Kansas City, Kansas, is teaching its students about the role they can play in reversing climate change. Plus, the city manager of Kansas City, Missouri, talks about what's being done to improve road conditions and fight climate change.

Kansas City Manager Brian Platt shares the some of the work being done on the "transformational issues and projects and challenges" Kansas City faces.

Officials for decades have been talking about building a deck to heal the “Kansas City cut." Now, Mayor Quinton Lucas says, that’s finally going to happen.

The city says its Climate Protection and Resilience Plan is a living document that will be shaped by future public input. But some wonder if environmental justice will drive the outcome as promised, and if those who often suffer excessive utility bills and flooding will see changes.

Kansas City’s new snow removal process has been tested as the city experienced several snowy days in recent weeks.