An innovative collaborative effort has launched in the Village of Oak Park to build a more sustainable community. The Cross Agency Sustainability Exchange (CASE), a project funded by the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation’s PlanItGreen initiative, brings together Oak Park River Forest High School District 200 (D200), Oak Park Elementary School District 97 (D97), […]
Zero Waste Schools in Action
The Zero Waste Schools (ZWS) program has had a busy fall working with numerous school districts across the Chicagoland area to help move composting, recycling, and other waste reduction initiatives forward. Recently, the ZWS team has been everywhere from lunchrooms to baseball fields with the goal of providing education and increasing waste reduction practices. […]
Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in B...
Contact: Becky Brodsky, becky@sevengenerationsahead.org Release Date: September 26, 2024 Bellwood, IL – On Thursday, September 19th, 2024, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Bellwood took going green to the next level. They launched a composting program that will help them significantly reduce food waste in their cafeteria and kitchen. This is the next step in their […]
Preventing and Reducing Food Waste in Sc...
At the most recent Wasted Food Action Alliance meeting held on August 28, SGA’s Zero Waste Schools team presented about share tables and Offer vs. Serve (OVS) to a group of food waste reduction enthusiasts. While the strategies presented were school-specific, they can be adapted to a variety of institutional kitchen and cafeteria settings. Share […]
SGA and Partners Talk Trash
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 […]