PlanItGreen grew out of the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation’s Communityworks initiative, designed to enhance the vibrancy and quality of life of Oak Park and River Forest. PlanItGreen is a collaboration between the OPRF Community Foundation, Seven Generations Ahead, and multiple institutions, and is guided by the OPRF Community Foundation’s Communityworks Advisory Board and the PlanItGreen Core Team. Through PlanItGreen, Seven Generations Ahead is directing the ongoing implementation of the Environmental Sustainability Plan for Oak Park and River Forest. The Plan – completed in 2011 through a 10-month community engagement process – continues to be implemented and a metrics-based Community Sustainability Report Card is regularly produced to evaluate progress and areas for focus. 

PlanItGreen Sustainability Plan

The PlanItGreen Sustainability Plan reduces the environmental footprint and advances common sustainabil­ity objectives of Oak Park and River Forest. Phase 1 of PlanItGreen began in August, 2010 with the aggregation of baseline metrics on community resource use conducted by the Center for Neighborhood Technology. 

Phase 2, led by SGA in collaboration with the Delta Institute, included a multi-faceted commu­nity engagement process resulting in the development of a final plan with goals, targets, and strategies in nine sustainability topic areas. 

Most recently, PlanItGreen released its 2021 Implementation Work Plan. The plan focuses on equity, clean energy, waste reduction, and youth engagement, and can be viewed here

PlanItGreen Report Card

The Oak Park River Forest Community Sustainability Report Card provides a snapshot in time of progress against sustainability goals. Baseline metrics – dating back to 2007 – were created and used as a basis of comparison. Reports include activity highlights, challenges and strategy snapshots. Over time, the sustainability report cards illuminate trends, highlight successes and shortcomings, and ultimately help support decisions on future policies, strategies, and resource allocation needed to achieve the 10-year plan’s goals by 2020.

Please click the following links to past report cards for 2012, 2014, and 2016

PlanItGreen Newsletter

PlanItGreen sends out a quarterly newsletter to keep our community updated on the latest projects and progress toward our sustainability goals.

We invite you to check out our Winter 2021 and Spring 2021 newsletters.