On Tuesday, June 18th, Seven Generations Ahead’s (SGA) Zero Waste Schools (ZWS) team and partners held a webinar covering the ins and outs of waste reduction in school kitchens and cafeterias. The webinar, titled “School’s Out… Let’s Talk Trash!” gave 94 attendees from around the country insights into key waste reduction strategies for schools and […]
SGA Gets Firsthand Look at Cutting-Edge ...
Recently, SGA’s Zero Waste Schools (ZWS) staff had a behind-the-scenes tour of Lakeshore Recycling Services’s (LRS) Exchange Material Recovery Facility (MRF). An MRF is a facility that sorts, cleans, and packages materials that are then sold to be made into new materials. SGA was fortunate to have Joy Rifkin, LRS’s sustainability Manager, educate us about […]
SGA and Other Experts Share the How and ...
Photo credit: Hainesville, Illinois Last month, Seven Generations Ahead’s (SGA) Jen Nelson and Becky Brodsky, along with other composting experts, shared about the progress being made in Illinois around community, residential and school food scrap composting at Go Green Illinois’ May meeting. The meeting had 75 registrants from nearly 30 communities across Chicagoland and beyond. […]
Zero Waste Catches on in Three Chicago P...
Three more schools in Chicago Public Schools are ending the academic year by going green! John M. Palmer Elementary, Alcott College Prep Elementary, and Louis B. Nettelhorst Elementary all launched zero waste programs in the month of April. With this latest expansion, the Zero Waste Schools (ZWS) team at Seven Generations Ahead has now launched […]
Seeing is Believing, as Broadview and Ma...
Sometimes, seeing is believing. Beye Elementary School in Oak Park School District 97, has been implementing a zero waste program in the lunchroom for many years. As a school in the Cross Community Climate Collaborative (C4), it was the perfect place to bring other school districts in C4 communities to see a zero waste program […]
Bellwood School District 88 is Going Zer...
Seven Generations Ahead (SGA) believes that climate and sustainability solutions are most effective when they’re both equitable and scalable. That is why SGA, in partnership with the mayors of Broadview, Oak Park, and River Forest, as well as the Urban Efficiency Group, is co-leading the Cross-Community Climate Collaborative (C4). This award-winning initiative brings together 14 […]
Preventing Food Waste Helps the Planet a...
When hunger coexists with abundance, the issue of food waste becomes more critical than ever. Each year, staggering amounts of food are needlessly discarded, not only squandering precious resources but also exacerbating environmental challenges such as greenhouse gas emissions and landfill pollution. However, amidst this challenge lies an opportunity for change. As we approach this […]
More Schools Going Green and SGA can Hel...
K-12 schools are some of the most important institutions in a community, and also present a real opportunity for impactful sustainability initiatives. As a leader in providing sustainability support for K-12 schools, Seven Generations Ahead (SGA) has had a front seat to this growing trend. Around the greater Chicago area, and indeed the country, school […]
Five Tips for a Successful Plastic Free ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0jIH1fUqZU It may not be apparent, but school lunches are a huge source of plastic waste. That’s why the organization Cafeteria Culture has teamed up with the Urban School Food Alliance to bring us Plastic Free Lunch Day, which challenges schools to reduce the use of plastics in school meals. Seven Generations Ahead’s (SGA) Zero […]
New Year, Two New Schools Go Zero Waste ...
If January is any indication, this will be a good year for making schools more sustainable. Our Zero Waste Schools (ZWS) program had not one but two launches in January. The ZWS team was at Hawthorne Scholastic Academy and Deer Path Middle School to help reduce cafeteria and kitchen waste and get processes in place […]