Elizabeth Cisar, Crown Family Foundation
June 30, 2011
Elizabeth Cisar went to school for marine sciences and eventually went to law school at Northwestern University. She practiced law with a large commercial real estate company and realized she didn’t want to pursue this route further. Through networking, she secured a job raising Continue reading »
Lisa Nirgro, Inspiration Corp
June 29, 2011
Inspirational indeed, Lisa Nigro knows how to overcome inequality through social entrepreneurship. As a former police officer she became troubled by the power dynamic between officers and residents in the community, and fellow officers often referred to her as a “social worker” Continue reading »
Michael Berkshire, Dept of Housing and Economic Development
Michael Berkshire works for the Department of Housing and Economic Development. Departments are one of the three main power centers in the Chicago government, with the other two being city council (50 alderman) and the mayor’s office. The department strives to implement practices that promote sustainability but has to strike a delicate balance between pushing for progression while maintaining public safety. Also in terms of balance, those working within the department have to be Continue reading »
Harry Rhodes, Growing Home
June 28, 2011
Growing Home provides job training and urban agriculture, as well as transitional employment and training for those facing multiple barriers to full employment. Training is focused on urban organic agriculture and providing a valuable product to the community. Harry Rhodes gave us a tour of the facility in Englewood.
Englewood has experienced 30 years of undevelopment transitioning from a community of 100,000 to 65,000. This transition has greatly affected the quality of life in the community. One way to Continue reading »
John Edel, The Plant
Just East of Ashland on 46th street stands a large, four-story, decrepit -looking building. If you’re familiar with the neighborhood, you might be aware that the building used to house a Peer Foods meat processing plant and has been empty for several years. Looking around the outside of the building today, you’ll see signs of ownership – a small vegetable garden, cars, trucks and bikes Continue reading »
Burt Klein, Portion Pac
On Tuesday, June 28th, the Immersion team started the morning with a visit to Portion Pac guided by Burt Klein, President of Portion Pac. Portion Pac sells commercial cleaning products typically used by janitors of schools, office buildings, or other large commercial spaces. These products differ from traditional cleaning products in that they are made without harsh chemicals and generally Continue reading »
Kevin Pierce, Shaw Environmental
June 27, 2011
Kevin believes sustainability is not an end goal but rather a process for integrated design. As a student he studied architecture, landscape design, urban planning and more, and now focuses exclusively on sustainability projects as a Director for Shaw Sustainable Design Solutions. His projects range from green buildings, green neighborhoods and green infrastructure to sustainable Continue reading »
June 24, 2011
Carter O’Brien, Sustainability Coordinator, Field Museum
Carter O’Brien, in addition to his responsibilities at the museum, leads the museum’s Green Team. The Green Team researches and works toward implementing environmentally conscious practices throughout the museum’s internal operations. O’Brien also serves as the Field Museum’s representative on the Green Museum Steering Community, a committee composed of representatives Continue reading »
Sarah Elizabeth Ipple, Academy for Global Citizenship
June 23, 2011
Sara Elizabeth Ippel is the founder of a sustainability-inspired public school called the Academy for Global Citizenship, located on the South side of Chicago. In Sara Elizabeth’s mind, the community is the most important place to make improvements. The school demographic consists of 80% under the poverty line. 80% of the children are Latino while 10% are black and 10% are white. The children range in age from 5-11.
She has incorporated the inter baccalaureate curriculum, a completely different type of school curriculum for the U.S., where art and sustainability are a part of every activity. She believes the more hands-on and experiential the learning process, the more change can be made within the culture and communities.
Some of the activities the children participate in at The Academy for Global Citizenship are; maintaining and building an urban garden, looking after a chicken coop, a green house, vermi compost bin and composting in every classroom. In addition to these extremely cool and exciting things, Sara Elizabeth serves organic food to the children for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After school programs are being established and a summer program is starting this summer.
The children are bringing home what they learn and changing practices at home with family and community members. The most powerful thing Sara Elizabeth talked about was that the public education system needs to change as a whole. This needs a systemic approach and a change in policy; building numerous sustainability and alternative schools is not going to make the change.
Sarah Elizabeth is a pioneer of something incredible. There have been ups and downs, but she knows she’s on the right track now. She’s got the passion and has found the will and the way, has hit a great deal of turbulence but has created an enormous amount of change.
Jennifer Walling, Illinois Environmental Council
As a lobbyist, Jennifer Walling has people come to her with an idea that they want to address for her to turn into a bill. Her process starts with founding a task force to bring the bill together. They research other states to see if there are any existing laws that are similar, and then look for legislator that wants to carry the bill. Due to the timing of the legislature, the legislators must introduce the bill in January-February. It must be introduced and make it through the committee and chamber and get enough votes to get it to the other chamber of the legislature before the end of the session in May. While lobbying and approaching any groups that may oppose the idea, sometimes lobbyists can come up with a negotiation that may be better than original. It is good to recognize allies, opponents, and people you are unsure of in order to determine where to focus your attention. It’s smart to remember your past interactions with people and get invested but not attached to individual bills. Additionally, in Springfield during session, legislators don’t read the bills; staffers are in charge of reading and providing a synopsis, therefore Republicans and Democrats get different abridged analysis. If you’re interested in presenting an idea to a lobbyist, keep in mind the following: 1. Know their calendar (In session January through May). 2. Network to create a base of support 3. Know your stuff! Illinois Environmental Council hosts a “Lobby Day” in March where they bus people down to Springfield to meet with legislators to discuss various bills. One of the larger bills that Jen is trying to pass is dealing with CAFO or factory farms whose animal waste is going into the public water system when it rains. The proposed law states that if the company will be polluting, they must get a permit (currently they are exempt from permitting regulations). This year the votes were 47 to 50, not in favor (60 votes are needed to pass).