July Chicago Green Events
News Room | 
Jun 30th, 2008 | 
Taste of Chicago (Grant Park, Now till July 6th)
If you haven’t made your way out to Chicago’s annual food gorge-a-thon, you’ve still got a week. While it may not be the greenest of festivals, there have been efforts to provide more recycling outlets for all the plastic cups and forks used. Cooking oil will also be recycled into biodiesel fuel, of which generators will provide power for some of the entertainment stages.
Household Chemicals & Computer Recycling Facility Open ( July 5, 8 am till 3pm., 1150 N. North Branch St.)
Rid your home of unwanted chemicals, paints, and computers and other household materials by bringing them in this Saturday to the City’s permanent facility at 1150 N. North Branch St., 2 blocks east of the Kennedy Expressway at Division St. For a complete list of accepted materials, visit www.cityofchicago.org/Environment and click on “Household Chemicals & Computer Recycling Facility” in the right-hand column.
Green Drinks (July 9, 2008, 5:30–8:30pm, Jefferson Tap & Grill 325 N Jefferson Chicago, IL 60661)
Don’t miss this Green Drinks meeting as they have a panel discussion with some of Chicago’s top green Entrepreneurs . The topic is Sustainable Chicago Entrepreneurs: After the Start-Up
L.A.T.E. Ride (Grant Park, July 12-13)
Friends of the Parks is sponsoring the twentieth anniversary of this all-night bike riding affair. Join 10,000 other bikers as you pedal 25 miles throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods and lakefront. Proceeds benefit the creation of new Chicago parks as well as better management of resources, not to mention your own cardiovascular system. Check out www.lateride.org to sign up.
Sustainability & the City: A Panel Discussion (Harold Washington Library, July 16th)
Stop in for a debate on Chicago’s sky-scraping architecture and its effect on the environment, as well as steps towards green architecture and green retrofitting in the city. Panelists include Gordon Gill of Smith+Gill Architects; Christopher Kennedy, President of Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.; Sundee Wislow, Director of Sustainability of U.S. Equities Realty and Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Commissioner of Chicago Department of Environment. Visit the Chicago Public Library for more information on this event as well as many others.
Green City Market Chefs’ Summer BBQ Festival (Green City Market, July 17th)
Buying fresh meats and produce from Chicago’s Green City Market is one thing, creating a delicious and tasty meal is another. For those of us whose culinary skills fall a bit short, this event features the dishes of over 50 of Chicago’s top chefs using the same foods you bought last weekend. For reservations, contact the Green City office at (773) 435-0280.
Summer Tree ID Walk (Garfield Park Conservatory, July 18th)
When you walk down the street to catch the el or grab a bite to eat, can you name the types of plants you see? Visit the Garfield Park Conservatory and take a tour with tree keeper Jim DeHorn of Openlands Project as he points out Chicago’s native plants. Dress appropriately for weather, as the walks take place rain or shine! For location and time, as well as many other events, check out the Garfield Park Conservatory online.
Chicago Green Home Fair (Chicago Center for Green Technology, July 19th)
Find out how to create a more environmentally-friendly home for your family at the Chicago Green Home Fair. The conference will include information on what’s new on the green building scene and will feature various vendors and retailers with sustainable products to help create a greener home. Call 312-746-9642 for more information. Make sure to stop by the GreenWerks table!
Chicago Green Drinks (July 23, 2008, 5:30–8:30pm, Jefferson Tap & Grill 325 N Jefferson Chicago, IL 60661)
Personal savings and checking accounts, retirement planning, mortgages, stocks, bonds, home equity loans, college loans, etc., what is a sustainability-minded person to do?! While socially responsible investing tends to get the most attention, there are a myriad of other personal financial management choices we make that, ideally, we’d like to keep in line with our values. This month we delve into as many of these areas as possible, exploring the issues, opportunities, and sometimes contradictions of pursuing this kind of alignment. Whether you’ve amassed a sizeable nest egg, or have just started repaying student loans, we’ll strive to provide something for everyone.
Chicago Solar Powerup! ( Wednesday, July 30, 11:30am – 1pm, Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St.)
Chicago Solar Powerup gives kids ages 9-11 the opportunity to design, build and race model solar cars while learning about renewable energy resources. Join us on Daley Plaza for the exciting finale and cheer on the contestants. Note: The event will be canceled if there is unfavorable weather. Call (312) 746-4155 for more information.
Environmental Resource Event (Saturday, August 9, 9am – 3pm, Northeastern Illinois University, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.)
Be safe at home. Participate in the Department of Environment’s third Environmental Resource Event of the year and take the opportunity to:
• properly dispose of your household hazardous waste
• recycle your old computers, monitors, laptops and cell phones
• bring in your expired or unused medications and keep them out of our water system
• pick up a free compact fluorescent light bulb (limit one per household)
• drop off your old gas-powered lawn mower and receive a $100 rebate towards an electric or push mower
• purchase a $30 outdoor compost bin to reduce your landfill waste (available to Chicago residents only, must pay with check or money order, limit 1 per household)
• purchase a $40 rain barrel (available to Chicago residents only, must pay with check or money order, limit 1 per household)
Call the Chicago Department of Environment at (312) 744-7606 for more
Information
Tax Credits and Incentives for Solar Panels
Residential Example:
Solar systems qualify for a 30% Federal Tax Credit - up to $2,000. A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the tax payment required by a person and typically has a greater value than a tax write-off. Learn more on the IRS website.
This is an example of a Residential Hot Water System:
Cost of Installation and Solar Unit- $10,000
State of Illinois Rebate: -$ 3,000
Federal Solar Tax Credit: -$ 2,000
$10,000 Solar Hot Water System now only cost 50% of orginal cost, $ 5,000, with the current government incentives.
Commercial Systems are another story:
Solar systems qualify for a 30% tax credit with no limit. A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the tax payment required by a person and typically has a greater value than a tax write-off. In addition, an accelerated 5-year tax write-off is available for businesses that have solar energy systems. Business can also take advantage of the 30% rebate from the state of Illinois. To learn more about the Federal Incentives, click here.
Some of the Additional Incentives:
• Exemptions from property tax for solar systems
• Additional grants available through the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation for municipalities and not-for-profit groups.
With this financial help from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Federal Government and other funding sources, solar systems are more affordable than ever!
What is a Zero Energy House?
Simply a house that produces more than it consumes, is what we consider a Zero Energy Home. In the Chicago area you can accomplish this with a tight building envelope, efficient mechanical systems and an alternative energy generating system. You can accomplish a tight building envelope with proper insulation around windows, walls and attic. Proper insulation will cut down on transfer of heat and cooling. Efficient mechanical refers to HVAC and appliances. You want to make sure they are have high energy efficiency to reduce utility bills. For alternative energy systems you can integrate a geo-thermal energy to heat and cool your building and use solar panels or wind to power the electricity of the home. Zero Energy can be achieved in the Chicago area. Estimated savings over a 30 year mortgage is over $90,000 for a 2300 sqft home. Let us show you how we can build a zero energy home for you!
Eco-Friendly Painting
With numerous choices for eco-friendly paints, it makes it difficult to understand the difference. The most common choice for an green paint is a standard latex. There are dozens of decorative paints, stains and sealers but we will talk about that in a future post.
When selecting a green paint look for a third party verification like Green Seal or Green Guard. These two non-profits have much stricter standards than what is required by the federal government. You should ask to see if the paint has formaldehyde and how many VOC’s are in the paint. While many paint bases are traditionally low VOC paint, the tints and colorants that are added to paint are the real cause. Many paint companies are starting to reformulate these colorants by creating color rich organic pigments. Paints that are great are LoVo, Co2, American Pride, Mystic and Yolo to name a few. Green Paint is applied slightly differently but these brands are just as durable and colors just as bold as traditional paints.
Eco-Friendly Kitchen
They have a green alternative option for almost every component of a kitchen. The canister lights can be changes to CFL or LED. LED’s can produce the same amount of light, full dimmable and only consumes 2 watts compared to a standard 75 watt bulb. Cabinets can be produced without any toxins in the wood and non-toxic finishes. Appliances can be converted to high efficiency, an appliance that is 93% or higher efficiency will pay for itself several times over compared to a standard 70 or 80% efficiency appliances. Tile for the backsplash can be made from recycled glass and the floor from recycled ceramic. You can also put in engineered hardwood or bamboo flooring as eco-friendly flooring options. Green Counters can be made from a recycled glass and concrete mixture from local manufacture glassi or ice stone. PaperStone makes a very cool countertop made from recycled paper that is even used in commercial applications. You could also install bigger windows to maximize the light intake. Solartubes can also be a great addition to a kitchen to bring in some natural light. You can change the water fixtures to low flow to conserve water and the list goes on and on.
Green Construction
This seems to be the second most popular question about GreenWerks. As we mentioned about the post on how we are green as a company, we focus on three areas for eco-friendly remodeling.
Energy Efficiency of the home is first. We begin by assessing how we can reduce the consumption of the house. We achieve this through energy audits, blower door tests, better insulating around windows and doors, these fix the envelope of the home. The building envelope refers to the four walls on the outside of the building. These are the barriers to entry for the cold winter air and hot humid air that we have in Chicago. Then we analyze the inside of the home to see how we can increase the efficiency of appliances and the heating and cooling systems. You would be amazed of the difference in a home’s energy savings by switching to LED lights or CFL light builds if the LED is cost prohibitive.
Health interiors is the second pillar that we use when analyzing a potential project. We look at all the products that will be used in the remodeling project. We want to ensure that the finishes, stains, paints and dyes are toxic free. The top products in a home, that off-gas toxins like formaldehyde and VOC’s is carpet, paint and cabinets. All of these products have healthy alternatives. For paint you can visit GreenMaker Supply (2500 N Pulaski), Colori (2243 W North Ave) and Green Home Chicago (224 N Morgan). They have competitively priced eco-friendly paint. For carpet you have a lot of options for alternatives from most of the major manufactures, they should be available at any carpet supplier. For green cabinets and eco-friendly cabinetry you can visit GreenMaker or Whitney Wood Works (445 N Sacramento).
Sustainability is the third and final pillar we look at when choosing products for a project. We look at how a product is produced, where is comes from, the life cycle of the product and what is it made out of. An example would be bamboo floors, we look at the life of the product which is usually a hundred years or longer, it has a non-toxic finish and is made out of a renewable resource. The product comes from China, which is the only place it can be produced sustainable because in other parts of the world it would be considered an invasive species. You can make the floor a little greener by purchasing a carbon neutral floor. That means that the carbon produced in the production and transportation is off-set by investing in renewable energy and planting trees. This is some of the ways we look at every project GreenWerks works on, want to learn more on how to green your project, give us a call!
How we are a Green Company
We often get the question, How are you a green company?
We are a triple bottom line company- meaning we look at Social responsibility, the Environment and Profit. Social responsibility by giving back to the community, over 500 hours of community service to date, creating scholarships for students and paying our employees a fair wage. Environment is an obvious one with our construction practices, energy reduction and by using non-toxic products. Our office is powered by certified wind energy and we are currently in the process of becoming a carbon neutral company. Our transportation is usually the CTA or bike, but soon our trucks all be running on bio-diesel or vegetable oil. This is how we consider ourselves green as a company, we will talk about our green construction practices in a future post.
Zero Energy House in Oak Park
GreenWerks and 2 Point Perspective have teamed up to build a a Zero Energy Home, which is also pursuing LEED Platinum certification! (See the attached renderings, click to download)
As a finalist, we are moving forward to begin specifying the materials, systems, and labor that will make this home spectacular. Please consider submitting your your product or service for consideration.
There is a designated six week ‘educational series’ at the end of the build, when all those who have contributed have a chance to be recognized and to educate the public (and other building professionals) about their product or service. Thousands of local Chicagoland residents will be experiencing the home through seminars, workshops, and tours. In addition, our PR firm will be reaching out to publications- local and national- to create a significant ‘buzz’ for the project. There is also potential to be included on all signage and in brochures. In short, your potential exposure is substantial.
We hope that you will be interested in joining our team on this exciting project. Please contact us by Friday, June 6 to let us know what contribution you may be interested in making. I look forward to hearing from you, thank you for your consideration. Have a great week!
Chicago Green Events June 08
- June 7: Household Chemicals & Computer Recycling Facility Open
- June 9-11: NeoCon at Merchandise Mart
- June 13: Bike to Work Day Rally
- June 21: Environmental Resource Event at U.S. Cellular Field
- June 30: Registration Deadline for Solar PowerUp! for Kids
What: Household Chemicals & Computer Recycling Facility Open
When: Saturday, June 7, 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Where: 1150 N. North Branch St.
Celebrate summer by ridding your home of unwanted chemicals, paints, and computers. Bring in your old computers, monitors, cell phones and household chemicals this Saturday to the City’s permanent facility at 1150 N. North Branch St., 2 blocks east of the Kennedy at Division St. for proper recycling and disposal. For a complete list of accepted materials, visit www.cityofchicago.org/Environment and click on “Household Chemicals & Computer Recycling Facility” on the right-hand column.
What: NeoCon
When: Monday June 9 - Wednesday June 11 at the Merchandise Mart
Where: Hours: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
At NeoCon® World’s Trade Fair, discover thousands of innovative products and resources for corporate hospitality, healthcare, retail, government, institutional and residential interiors from more than 1,200
showrooms and exhibitors. Stop by the Chicago Center for Green Technology’s booth to learn about their programs and check out green product samples. For more information on NeoCon, visit www.neocon.com.
What: Bike to Work Day Rally
When: Friday, June 13, 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Where: Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St.
Riding your bike can help displace more than 238 million gallons of gasoline annually and reduce the amount of volatile pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, released by vehicle emissions. Choose the healthy alternative and become a bike commuter. The Bike to Work Day Rally challenges commuters to put down the keys, step off the bus and bike their way to work! Join fellow cyclists, local media celebrities, live bands and the City of Chicago at Daley Plaza for a day full of activities from 7:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Cyclists will enjoy live music and receive a free continental breakfast and T-shirt while supplies last. For more information, visit www.bikechicago.us or call (312) 744-3315.
What: Environmental Resource Event
When: Saturday, June 21, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Where: U.S. Cellular Field, 333 W. 35th St.
Be Safe at Home: Exchange household hazards for environmental resources. Participate in the Department of Environment’s second Environmental Resource Event of the year. Take this opportunity to:
- properly dispose of your household hazardous waste
- recycle your old computers, monitors, laptops and cell phones
- keep medicines out of our water system by bringing them for proper disposal
- pick up a free compact fluorescent light bulb (limit one per household)
- drop off your old gas-powered lawn mower and receive a $100 rebate towards an electric or push mower
- reduce your landfill waste by purchasing a $30 outdoor compost bin and reuse rain water by investing in a $40 rain barrel (both are available to Chicago residents only, must pay with check or money order, limit 1 per household)
Questions? Call the Chicago Department of Environment at (312)
744-7606.
What: Chicago Solar Powerup! For Kids
When: Session 1: July 14- 18; Session 2: July 21-25. Hours are from 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, 445 N. Sacramento Blvd.
Where: Registration ends June 30
The Chicago Center for Green Technology wants future scientists, engineers, and designers for the 3rd annual Chicago Solar Powerup! Solar Powerup gives students ages 9-11 the opportunity to design, build, and race model solar cars while learning about renewable energy sources. Students are give instructions in various design factors and then work in teams to build their car. Following testing, these workshops culminate in a series of one-on-one races in a tournament on Daley Plaza on Wednesday, July 30, to determine champions.
Please note: Registration is limited to 20 students per session and will be admitted on a first come, first serve basis. Spots may only be reserved by the receipt of payment ($75, check only) no later than 2
weeks prior to the first class. Before mailing in payment, please call (312) 746-4155 for availability. Limited scholarships are available.
Spring Clean with Green Cleaners
We collected some of our favorite recipes to create green and natural cleaning products that are simple to make at home.
Green All Purpose Cleaner
1/2 teaspoon washing soda, a dab of liquid soap and 2 cups of hot water
Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake until the washing soda has dissolved. Apply and wipe off with sponge or rag.
Natural Wood Furniture Polish
3/4 teaspoon olive or mineral oil, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (optional).
Mix throughly in a squirt bottle. Shake well and squirt on furniture or rag and rub into the wood.
Eco-Friendly Glass Cleaner
1/8 cup Vinegar, 1 cup water.
Mix ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake and apply, wipe clean.
Green Tub and Tile Cleaner Recipe
1 2/3 cup of water, 1/4 cup liquid soap, 1/4 cup baking soda, 2 tablespoons vinegar and a few optional drops of essential oil.
Add soap to water and let dissolve. Stir in baking soda and then add vinegar. Store in a squirt bottle and shake before using. Rinse throughly.