There's Poop in the River!

House Warming Podcast, Episode 020: Human Composting: A Cleaner, Greener End with Illinois State Representative Kelly Cassidy. 

In this episode, Sarah talks with Rep. Kelly Cassidy about her bill to bring human composting to Illinois and an update on what to expect on environmental bills in the near future!

As an organizer, a legislative director and a mom, Kelly Cassidy has spent the past 20 years living her values. Whether fighting for the rights of women and the LGBT community as an activist, working for a smarter criminal justice system within the state’s attorney’s office, or ensuring that her three boys have safe spaces to play in our community, she has devoted the last two decades to making government more accessible, efficient and effective.

Those experiences, both inside and outside the system, have afforded her great insight into how to be a better, more responsive and effective State Representative for the 14th district.

Cassidy’s top goal as State Representative is to use the district office in the same manner — helping constituents address their needs, while also looking for ways to prevent problems from recurring.

Through the years, Cassidy has worked both as an advocate and as a professional on issues such as choice, equality, social justice, access to quality health care and child care.

Cassidy’s combination of non-profit sector, state and local government experience provides her with unique perspective, expertise, and understanding that empowers her to serve as an outstanding representative for the 14th district.

Cassidy lives in Rogers Park with her spouse and three sons.

Find her full bio here: https://www.repcassidy.com/background

Website: https://www.repcassidy.com/
Email: repcassidy@gmail.com

House Warming Podcast, Episode 019: Chicago Environmentalists and Cleanup Club Chicago with Katherine Tellock and Miranda Carrico, Co-Founders of Chicago Environmentalists and Cleanup Club Chicago.  

In this episode, Sarah talks with Katherine and Miranda about founding their group Chicago Environmentalists and Cleanup Club Chicago.  

Katherine Tellock is a citizen activist who wants to dedicate her life to fighting climate change. She strongly believes that an environmentally sustainable society is the best long-term economic and social decision, and is within reach for all people. Having grown up next to an EPA superfund site, she has always cared about the environment and been acutely aware of the impact of industrial pollution. However, she didn’t get heavily involved in environmental issues until spring 2020, when she started tackling litter through Friends of the Chicago River's Summer Challenge. She eventually started Chicago Environmentalists group with Miranda, as well as Cleanup Club Chicago. She took the CCC sustainability leadership training in 2021, and for her final assignment, she is running the Guerrilla Recycling Reporting (GRR) Project. It aims to hold property owners accountable for violating the recycling ordinance and change the way the policy is enforced. She also completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training, and wants to get more involved in environmental legislation.

She currently works as a Business and Brand Developer for Block Bins composting service, and has a bachelor's degree in Economics and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently lives in Irving Park with her very sweet cockapoo. In her free time, she enjoys true crime, volleyball, and comedy shows.

Over the past ten years, Miranda Carrico has transitioned toward a "Zero Waste" lifestyle and has become very familiar with Chicago's sustainability scene; especially related to recycling and waste reduction.  Miranda is passionate about educating individuals on actions they can take to lessen their environmental impact, as well as advocating for sustainable business practices and environmental legislation.  She became more involved in Chicago’s larger environmental scene after teaming up with Katherine on the first Cleanup Club event. This led to brainstorming ways to improve environmentalism in Chicago and the creation of Chicago Environmentalists. She is Co-Founder of Chicago Environmentalists, Assistant Director of Cleanup Club Chicago, and completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in 2021. 

Miranda works in healthcare and has been a Chicagoan for over 10 years, residing in Lakeview. When she's not finding creative ways to reduce waste, she enjoys traveling, exploring the city via bike and by foot, making "mixtapes," and spending time with her husband and dog, Greta von Goof.

Chicago Environmentalists provides a forum for discussing topics like zero waste living, recycling, composting, environmental justice, renewable energy, eco policy, local businesses, wildlife conservation, environmental news, events, and more. As of March 2022, the combined total membership of these groups was about 5,500 and growing. 

Chicago Environmentalists Website: https://www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org/
Cleanup Club Chicago Website: https://www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org/cleanupclubchicago
Facebook: @Chicago Environmentalists
Instagram: @chicago_enviro

House Warming Podcast, Episode 018: Lobbying for Change: The Veto Session Explained with Jen Walling, Executive Director of Illinois Environmental Council  

In this episode, Sarah talks with Jen about the veto session, the lame duck session and her expectation for environmental legislation in those sessions.  

Jen Walling has served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Environmental Council since January of 2011, where she oversees the strategic direction and management of the organization and lobbies decision makers on environmental issues. Jen is dedicated to building the power of Illinois’ environmental community to secure policy outcomes that protect the environment.

Over the last decade, Jen has worked to grow IEC staffing five fold, increase the budget and member affiliates, all with a focus on serving and representing IEC’s over 90 affiliated organizations. With the board of directors, Jen worked to secure IEC’s partnership with the League of Conservation Voters, a national organization which has helped IEC network and build on a national level.

Jen has drafted, negotiated, lobbied and passed hundreds of bills in Springfield while working to build the power, expertise and relationships of the entire environmental community. On energy issues, she worked to fix the renewable energy portfolio standards and increase energy efficiency through the Future Energy Jobs Act, and as a steering committee member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, she is working to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Jen has been a statewide leader in composting policy since 2009, when she worked to pass the first commercial composting law in Illinois. She has fought to protect state parks and natural areas through increasing funding to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, increasing recreation liability protections and funding stewardship through the Natural Areas Stewardship Act. Through Jen’s leadership, Illinois was the first state to ban microbeads in personal care products in 2013.

Jen holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also received a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law and is an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois.

Jen loves to spend her free time with her rescued standard poodle, Sally. She enjoys baking and in 2015, she and Rep. Kelly Cassidy baked fifty different blondie recipes during May in legislative session. She is a compost enthusiast and loves running, yoga and sewing.

The Illinois Environmental Council works to safeguard Illinois—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Since our founding in 1975 by a group of dedicated grassroots environmentalists, IEC has led issue advocacy campaigns by allowing environmental organizations to pool their resources and create a higher profile for environmental issues.

Today, IEC represents more than 100 environmental and community organizations and nearly 500 individual members from throughout Illinois.

Website: https://ilenviro.org/
Facebook: @ilenviro
Twitter: @ilenviro
Instagram: @ilenviro
Youtube: @ilenviro

House Warming Podcast, Episode 008: Hungry for Change - General Iron and Chicago's Southeast Side   with Gina Ramirez, Co-chair of the Southeast Coalition to Ban Petcoke    

In this episode, Sarah talks with the Co-chair of the Southeast Coalition to Ban Petcoke, Gina Ramirez, about her community's fight for clean air generally and the battle against General Iron in particular.  

Read Gina's op-ed in the Chicago Tribune here: https://bit.ly/2Sqc8iM.  

Join and/or donate to the Southeast Environmental Task Force, which is the fiscal sponsor of the Southeast Coalition to Ban Petcoke, here:  http://setaskforce.org/get-involved-2/

Not sure who your alderperson is?  Go here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/iframe/lookup_ward_and_alderman.html

You can find contact information for your alderperson here: https://chicago.legistar.com/People.aspx

House Warming Podcast, Episode 017: Community Composting with Block Bins with Dane Christianson, Founder and CEO of Block Bins  

In this episode, Sarah talks with Dane about Block Bins, the importance of composting and the benefits of composting as a community.

Block Bins LLC is helping Chicago build an affordable curbside compost program by letting residents request compost bins, share them with neighbors, and drop-off their compost at one of over 600 existing locations. Chicagoans can visit blockbins.com to find a compost bin near them and bring composting to their block.  Dane Christianson is the founder and CEO of Block Bins, who created Block Bins out of frustration at Chicago's inability to create a scalable and affordable compost service.

Block Bins: www.blockbins.com

House Warming Podcast, Episode 016: Allies in Environmental Justice: Frontline Communities and Anthropocene Alliance with Sheelah Bearfoot, Program Manager at Anthropocene Alliance  

In this episode, Sarah talks with Sheelah about a grassroots efforts of communities to address environmental justice concerns in both the built and natural environments and how Anthropocene Alliance amplifies and facilitates their work. 

Sheelah Bearfoot is a program manager at Anthropocene Alliance (A2) for communities in EPA regions 5,8,9, and 10 and for A2's Rights of Nature initiatives. She graduated with a degree in Genetics and Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2016. She's Chiricahua Apache, and worked at the Native American Health Center in SF for two years as a diabetes educator before starting a master's in Environmental Health Science at Hopkins, where she continued her focus on Indigenous health disparities. In her spare time, she loves reading scifi, hiking, and undermining colonialism.

On its website, Anthropocene Alliance describes itself thusly:

Anthropocene Alliance (A2) has 125 member-communities in 35 U.S. states and territories. They are impacted by flooding, toxic waste, wildfires, and drought and heat — all compounded by reckless development and climate change. The consequence is broken lives and a ravaged environment.

The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.

Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.

We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst  environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latinx, Native American and other underserved communities.

A2's website: https://anthropocenealliance.org/
Donate here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/donate/

During the episode, Sheelah refers to Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT).
CRAFT's A2 page can be found here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/citizens-resistance-at-fermi-two/
CRAFT's own website can be found here: https://www.shutdownfermi.org/

House Warming Podcast, Episode 015: Saving A Drowning Town: Fighting Flooding in De Soto with Susan Liley , Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief  

In this episode, Sarah talks with Susan about De Soto and the Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief, a group that is working to fight flooding in the historic portion of De Soto.   

Susan is Co-Founder of Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief and a passionate community activist. Susan is dedicated to implementing sustainable flood solutions and disaster readiness plans to protect her beloved, historic hometown of DeSoto, MO, which has suffered repeated flooding.  She was a member of Anthropocene Alliance's Leadership Council and is an Advisor for Climitgration.

How Susan describes herself: 

I have raised my children in De Soto. While being a stay at home mom, I decided to go back and pick up a few college courses. I then worked in several grocery stores and then for the school.  My most important job ever was being a mother and grandmother. Then I decided to tackle the problems of other people's flooding. I have fought long and hard to fix this problem, and as I look around the world, it just becomes more intense and I tell myself to fight harder. My years are numbered but my grandkids will have to suffer from mine and others years of neglect.

Check out the following groups:

Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief: https://anthropocenealliance.org/citizens-committee-for-flood-relief/

Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/609613372545223/

Anthropocene Alliance: https://anthropocenealliance.org/
 
Climigration: https://www.climigration.org/

House Warming Podcast, Episode 014: Giving Sustainability Entrepreneurs a BOOST with the Delta Institute with Patrick Murphy and Ashley Bakelmun   

In this episode, Sarah talks with Patrick and Ashley about Delta Institute, its Associate Board and their event, BOOST, an event that offers sustainability entrepreneurs the opportunity to win a $5,000 grant to support their idea, project or business.   

Patrick T. Murphy is the Senior Lead for Development and Communications at Delta Institute, and in that role he serves as Staff Liaison to the Delta Emerging Leaders associate board. He has devoted his career to serving Chicago-area nonprofits, having recently served as Director of Development and Alumni Relations at the George M. Pullman Educational Foundation and as Board Chair of Pangea Educational Development. He holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management with a Concentration in Fundraising Management from the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. His hobbies include reading, gaming, creating music, and genealogy.

Ashley Bakelmun is a Managing Director at RW Ventures, LLC, an economic development firm specializing in technical analysis of urban assets and markets, and in creating the products and enterprises necessary to inclusively grow urban and regional economies. Prior to joining RW Ventures, she led design and construction teams to deliver sustainable master plans on education/corporate campuses and achieve LEED certification in new construction projects. Ashley has a BSA in Mathematics and Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Urban Development and Design from UNSW Sydney.

To submit applications or buy tickets to the event: https://delta-institute.org/boost

For the full roster of winners and finalists: https://delta-institute.org/delta-emerging-leaders/

House Warming Podcast, Episode 013: Putting Reuse Back into Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with Ecoship with Aleksandra Plewa, Co-founder and CEO of Ecoship   

In this episode, Sarah talks with Aleksandra Plewa about her non-profit, Ecoship, which collects and distributes used mailers and other packing materials to divert them from the waste stream.  

Aleksandra is a Chicago native with a biology and environmental background. While studying at Drake University, she became involved in conservation work and hoped to continue it in Chicago. Not being able to find anything, she began working on a project that would extend the life of shipping materials. That is how EcoShip began. They now collect gently used shipping materials from Chicago neighborhoods and nearby suburbs and distribute them to small businesses and individuals who need them.

Find Ecoship's website here: https://ecoship.org/

Follow Ecoship on Facebook (general page: EcoShipChicago /  group for gathering materials in your neighborhood: Ecoship Chicago OFFICIAL) and Instagram (ecoship_chicago).

Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

House Warming Podcast, Episode 012: Building the Foundation for the Future City that We Need to Be with Maria Hadden, Alderwoman of the 49th Ward    

In this episode, Sarah Bury talks with Alderwoman Maria Hadden about the environmental legislation she has supported, including an order to assess the cost of bringing back the Chicago Department of Environment. 

Alderwoman Maria Hadden was born in Columbus, Ohio, and her parents Skip and Toni taught Maria  two foundational lessons. 1) Be curious and ask questions. It’s important to understand how things work and why. 2) Problems that affect any of us, affect all of us. And that if you see something wrong and you’re able to help, you should do what you can to make it right.  After graduating from The Ohio State University with a BA in International Peace and Conflict Studies, she moved to Chicago. She chose Rogers Park because of its affordability, welcoming community culture and proximity to the lake. A weekly regular at The Heartland Cafe, in Rogers Park, Maria found community.

Rogers Park was the first place Maria lived in Chicago, where she purchased her first home and where her activism blossomed. When the housing bubble burst in 2007, and the developer of her building fled the country, Maria helped organize her neighbors to save their homes. Maria has been organizing with the community ever since.

Maria has been a leader in the 49th Ward through her advocacy, her art, and her work with Participatory Budgeting in Chicago. She lives with her partner, Natalia, and their rescue dog. Maria is a photographer and artist who leads screenprinting workshops for young people. She took over The Art Patch Project from longtime Rogers Park activist Chris Drew and believes art is an important medium for activism and personal expression.

Before becoming Alderwoman, Maria Hadden was the Executive Director of Our City Our Voice, a national nonprofit organization she founded to enable communities and government across the country to redesign democracy for more empowered and equitable participation. Her expertise in public participation is grounded in grassroots organizing efforts for social change.

Before launching her own organization, Maria was a founding board member of The Participatory Budgeting Project, where she worked for 8 years with communities and government officials in the Midwest and South to create and facilitate democratic processes around public budgets. In this role, Maria has also worked with Aldermen throughout Chicago to design participatory budgeting processes around Aldermanic menu money, school budgets and TIF funds.

​Maria currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Black Youth Project (BYP) 100, and Voqal. BYP is an organization of activists aiming to create justice and freedom for all Black people through the principles of leadership development and inclusivity using  Black, queer, feminist lens. Voqal is a nonprofit that uses technology and media to build an educated, empowered and engaged public. Maria also:

• Participated in a cohort on inclusive innovation in America’s Cities for The Aspen Institute where she worked to bridge the gap between innovation in cities and marginalized and underserved communities.
• Is an active member of the New Economy Coalition helping to create deep change in our economy and politics.
• Serves on the Social Capital Committee of the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation.
• Works on the local level with organizations fighting for progressive causes like Network 49 and United Working Families.

The Illinois Environmental Council 2021 City Council Scorecard can be found here: https://ilenviro.org/chicago-scorecard/