CHICAGO (Jan. 11, 2022) — Shedd Aquarium unveiled today a new, comprehensive strategic vision aimed at ensuring a more equitable, sustainable, and thriving future for people and aquatic life. Leading to the organization’s 100th anniversary in 2030, the multi-faceted Centennial Commitment is a transformational investment in Chicago communities and aquatic ecosystems around the world, requiring half a billion dollars and eight years to accomplish.

“Five years ago, we began to imagine a visionary future in response to the needs facing the aquatic animal world, our city, and our society in order to advance solutions to the biodiversity, climate, and equitable access to nature crises that exist around us,” said Dr. Bridget C. Coughlin, President and CEO of Shedd Aquarium. “To ensure a shared future where resilient ecosystems and communities thrive together, it is going to take everyone to create collective impact and change. This means engaging neighbors, schools and local businesses in authentic conversations, elevating science literacy, cultivating a shared environmental identity, and helping to inform conservation solutions that safeguard the most vulnerable species across the globe. The Centennial Commitment is our pledge to do the work that is necessary now, to ensure the next 100 years includes a world thriving with aquatic life that is sustained by people who love, understand and protect it.”