Manufacturing is a driving force of the Illinois economy: approximately 580,000 Illinoisans are employed in manufacturing jobs, and the state was the fifth-largest exporter of goods in the nation in 2024. The industrial sector is also a significant source of climate pollution, comprising 18% of Illinois’s total emissions. To meet the climate and health targets mandated by the Illinois Climate Equity Jobs Act while maintaining the state’s manufacturing might policymakers must work to reduce emissions from its industrial sector in a way that allows businesses to stay regionally and globally competitive.

Many of Illinois’s industrial emissions come from burning natural gas in low and medium temperature ranges for which low-emissions technologies like industrial heat pumps, electric boilers, and thermal energy storage have already proven viable. The actions contained in this report can help Illinois policymakers ease the transition to clean manufacturing and production methods as these next-generation technologies continue down the cost curve and continue to improve in performance.

In this roadmap, we focus on solutions that are technologically and commercially ready for near-term deployment and fall into three main categories: energy efficiency, electrification, and geothermal heat. Despite the technological maturity of many of these technologies, nearly every facility in Illinois remains reliant on natural gas to fuel its operations. A series of informational interviews among facilities that have considered adopting low-emissions equipment cited three common barriers, including technology integration, equipment financing, and system-level capabilities.

There is no silver bullet to overcome these barriers, but the state can leverage its administrative capacity, funding resources, and input from its industries to unlock the greatest emissions reduction potential. In concert, a number of these strategies described in the report can be powerful levers to change Illinois’ industrial emissions landscape and drive private investment in clean technology.