Leaving a Positive Impression
2010 Chicago Legacy Community Project
Since 2003, when Greenbuild sponsored the construction of a straw-bale playhouse in conjunction with a local nonprofit in its host city of Pittsburgh, Greenbuild has sponsored a legacy project in each of its host cities. While the nature of these projects has varied greatly, the Legacy Project is always meant to complement USGBC’s mission and serve as a means of service, education and thanks to the local community that graciously hosts the Greenbuild conference.
This year, with the help of generous matching funds from ComEd, the Legacy Project funding totaled $20,000. In an effort to build new relationships with other local organizations, the Greenbuild Chicago Host Committee solicited for micro-grant proposals relating to a wide range of environmental and social equity criteria—with emphasis on projects that would help connect green building with the next generation—resulting in support for six extraordinary local projects.
Greenbuild and the grant recipient projects are especially grateful to ComEd for its support of their efforts and its commitment to matching the total budget amount offered by Greenbuild toward the Legacy Project. ComEd has a long history of engagement with USGBC, and that involvement continues today: ComEd is a member of the Greenbuild Chicago 2010 Host Committee Leadership Circle and an active participant in both the USGBC-Illinois Chapter and the Greenbuild Legacy Project. This involvement is a natural extension of ComEd’s broader environmental mission through its participation in Exelon 2020, an aggressive environmental strategy by ComEd’s parent company, Exelon, to reduce, offset, or displace more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020.
The YouthBuild Lake County and Goodcity's Food Desert Action projects are highlighted below. Learn more about the 2010 Chicago Legacy Project »
YouthBuild Lake County Awarded $5500 to help purchase equipment for job training in residential weatherization and energy retrofits.
YouthBuild Lake County (YBLC) has been providing education and job training services to minorities and underrepresented populations for over five years. As a community-based organization, YBLC specifically works to promote social equity and services to at-risk and disadvantaged youth in Lake County. YBLC supports local youth ages 12 to 24 in obtaining their high school diploma or GED, and provides valuable construction job training. Recently, YBLC began to engage students on job training related to home efficiency and weatherization, and is planning to improve and expand its offerings in this area.
In 2009, YBLC launched its first green building project to educate students on energy efficiency and weatherization in a Chicago home. This summer (2010), with the addition of a thermal imaging camera and blower door test equipment supported by the Legacy grant funding, YBLC will train 30 to 40 students in these technologies and applications. Currently YBLC uses the Green Home Builder’s Institute (HBI) curriculum but it will now be designing and implementing its own educational program for students on home weatherization and certification.
Goodcity’s Food Desert Action Awarded $3000 to help reconstruct a CTA bus into a mobile food market to serve areas of the city with little or no access to fresh produce.
Over 600,000 Chicago residents, primarily on the south and west sides of the city, live in food deserts—communities with little or no access to grocery stores, fruit or vegetable produce. With the help of the Legacy grant funds, Food Desert Action is retrofitting a city bus into a one-aisle, mobile store specializing in fresh and sustainable foods. The mobile food market will be accessible to low-income residents, especially the one-third of neighborhood residents relying on food stamps. The bus also has a substantial educational component focusing on dietary health and nutrition, and highlighting the green design elements of the vehicle.
A recent charette with Architecture for Humanity produced a green design which will repurpose seats and poles as part of the mobile market, convert the bus to biodiesel to allow the bus to be fueled by vegetable oil, and mount solar panels on the roof of the bus to provide renewable energy for the market. The drivers and staff will be trained as community ambassadors to give presentations about the vehicle and healthy eating options. The bus will be routed to neighborhood schools, churches, community centers, and senior buildings.
This food justice project is based in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood and is part of the U.S. Surgeon General initiative Building A Healthier Chicago. Food Desert Action is also partnering with the Umoja Student Development Corporation, a neighborhood high school youth leadership program, to engage youth involvement as volunteers in the project.