Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Coca-Cola announced Monday that the Blue Cart Recycling Program will be expanded to all 50 wards with the help of a $2.59 million grant.

A Seattle office building billed as the greenest in the world and powered entirely by a massive solar paneled roof is celebrating its grand opening Monday under the city's usual threat of cloudy skies.

If the clouds hold up, they'll provide an appropriate backdrop for the official unveiling of a project that aims not only to abide by the world’s strictest environmental standards, but also prove that anyone, anywhere, can heed its example.

"We wanted to show that you could in fact harvest enough sun beams on the roof of a six-story structure in Seattle to give all of the energy that is needed by a super-efficient building," said Denis Hayes, CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, the lead backer of the Bullitt Center. "In Seattle, most people don't think they can power their one-story houses with the sun that hits their roofs, so doing a multi-story office, I think, is an important demonstration."

Proving that sunshine can take the place of the fluorescent light bulbs that hum above the heads of most office-bound Americans, the building is also equipped with floor-to-ceiling windows that provide natural lighting to 82 percent of the 50,000-square-foot building.

For the last month, Hayes points out, the Seattle skies have been filled with clouds, and still, no one at the Bullitt Center has found the need to flick on a light switch during normal business hours.

"We've never had to turn on even task lighting inside," he said. "From 7:30 in the morning until 6:30 at night, it's perfectly well lit."

Nature also fills the building’s ventilation needs. Rather than rely on a power-draining air conditioning system, the Bullitt Center is equipped with operable windows that automatically open and close to adjust to temperature changes, both inside and outside.

But the building's smart design and technology alone are not enough to achieve its ambitious energy goals. To qualify for the Living Building Challenge, the most rigorous sustainable building certification in the world, the building must produce as much energy (and water) as it uses, among a host of other requirements.

To meet the energy goals in particular, tenants are required to stick to a strict power quota and pay overage charges if they don't. They’re also encouraged to choose the stairs over the elevator and anything over driving to work. As an incentive to consider those transportation alternatives, the Bullitt Center does not provide onsite parking for cars, though it does provide a garage for bicycles. It also  highlights the number of bus lines and Zipcars available within a half mile of the building (21 and 24, respectively).

Living Proof: Building the Bullitt Center from Brad Kahn on Vimeo.

So far, the stringent requirements have not appeared to scare tenants away. As of Friday, the building was 80 percent occupied and Hayes predicted that it would be filled by summer.

"The now-completely outdated concept of environmentally-sound buildings as a little bit granola-ish, dark, cramped and uncomfortable, is just wrong," Hayes said. "What you have here is the healthiest building in which we will have incredibly happy people surrounded by daylight."

However the experiment plays out will play out transparently so observers mulling similar projects will be able to learn from the Bullitt Center's endeavor. The first two floors of the building will be open to students, policy makers, and the plain curious, who are interested in learning more about green living and construction. The Bullitt Center will also make public a database it researched and compiled that lists suppliers of toxic-free building materials and may guide others working on similar projects.

Hayes and his team didn’t set out to be role models. Initially the Bullitt Foundation, which was located in what was previously a carriage house, simply wanted to revamp their space so they could "walk” the environmentally-conscious talk. But since the structure was historically protected, they ran into roadblocks and decided it would be more reasonable to build a new structure from scratch so they could have the flexibility to be more innovative.

"We considered doing a small [project] that just would be suitable for us, but then we decided — no. Proving that an environmental foundation could be comfortable in an environmentally goal-oriented building doesn't prove anything,” Hayes said. “We had to build something and lease it out like a commercial person would. We invested a third of our total endowment. This is not a grant that we made. This is an investment and it has to perform for us.”

As of Monday, the foundation was advertising space for just two remaining units: A 2,077-square-foot space that boasts 11-foot ceilings with operable windows, and a 7,949-square-foot suite with an outdoor terrace and showers for bike commuters in need of a rinse.

Hayes, one of the founders of Earth Day who has seen major environmental victories over the course of his four-decade career, acknowledges, but is undeterred by the obstacles to green building. There are zoning and building code challenges, as he encountered when attempting to modify the historically protected carriage house. There are appraisers who often incentivize features that leave a larger environmental footprint over those that do not.

But he's optimistic that over time, pure demand will force the laws to change, incentivize banks to give loans to green projects and transform what is now a niche experiment into the norm.

"I really genuinely believe that during my daughter’s lifetime, this sort of building is going to be commonplace,” Hayes said.

Earth Day is here and there is no shortage of opportunities to do something nice for the planet.

The Environmental Protection Agency published a list of events that are taking place across the country to help us honor and celebrate Earth Day.  But for those who are less interested in planting trees and more interested in saving the green in their wallets, here are some great deals that also happen to be great for the earth.

The Body Shop - Use coupon code 3MINUTE for any online or in-store purchase and receive a free 8.4 ounce Earth Lovers shower gel. Valid on April 22 only.

Disney Store: Recycle five plastic shopping bags at the store on April 22 and receive a free "Brave" or "Cars 2" reusable shopping bag.

Caribou Coffee - Bring in your own travel mug and fill up with a free cup of coffee on April 22.

EVOS - The healthy fast food chain is giving out free organic milkshakes on April 22.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores - The first 50 customers at every store will receive a free tote bag.

Pottery Barn -  Visit the store between April 20 and 22 and kids get a free packet of seeds to plant at home.

National Parks - National Park Week comes right on the heels of Earth Day, which means earth lovers can enjoy all that nature has to offer for free. National parks are offering free admission from April 22 to 26.

H&M - This isn't billed as an Earth Day deal, but the planet will thank you: Bring in a bag of used clothes and receive a voucher for a discount on your next purchase. The donated clothes will be recycled or used for raw material for new products.

Best Buy - Save up to 25 percent on appliances until April 27.

Travelocity - The travel site is offering earth-friendly vacations that start at $76.

Twenty years ago, if you showed up at the supermarket with your own bags, you'd elicit eye-rolling and mockery. These days, however, failure to bring your own bags is seen as a moral failing that can inspire a different flavor of eye-rolling. There remain several similarly easy lifestyle changes we could all be making that could have just as big an impact. We've identified five:

Turn off your computer
According to the Department of Energy, if you're walking away from your computer for more than two hours, you should turn it off. Over the course of a year, you can save nearly $100 by some estimates. Now imagine if you turned off both you work and home computer every day? And you might as well turn off your iPad while you're at it.

Pay your bills online
You hate writing checks, you hate opening bills, you hate buying stamps, you hate forgetting to go to the mailbox… What part of paper bill paying do you like? Spare us this nonsense about how you don’t trust computers: They’ve had access to your money since ATMs appeared 40 years ago. Think of all the bills you get each month: cable, credit card, cellphone, mortgage, electricity, heat, gas. If everyone went paperless for all their bills, it could add up to a lot of trees.

Keep a fork and spoon at your desk
We get that disposable cutlery can come in handy in many situations — picnics, parties and the like. But, according to WorldCentric.org, Americans use roughly 40 billion plastic utensils every year, which translates to roughly total of 275 million pounds of plastic. It's a problem that's easily fixed: Bring metal cutlery to work and stop throwing away those plastic utensils. People wash their hands and brush their teeth at work. Would washing a fork or knife be so difficult?

Use the short cycle on the washing machine
For most white-collar workers, the regular cycle on your washing machine is probably a little more firepower than you need on a day-to-day basis. Honestly, how dirty are you getting sitting at your desk? Try the short cycle on your washing machine. You'll save water and electricity, and you probably won't even notice the difference. Using cold water and a little less detergent will help, too. The average home does about 400 loads a year, so these small changes can add up.

Update your thermostat
Yes, this one requires a little time and money, but has the potential for huge savings. According to the DOE, properly setting your thermostat can shave as much as 15% off your home heating and cooling bills — with a programmable thermostat, you don't need to think about it. The programmable thermostat has been around for a few years now, but setting them was so complicated that most people didn’t bother. Newer models, however, don’t require an engineering degree. Among the easier to install is one from a company called Nest. In about 30 minutes you can have the thing mounted on your wall and set to change the temperature multiple times a day. Nest estimates (PDF) they can save you an average of $173 annually, which means the unit pays for itself in about 18 months. Another great feature of the Nest is that you can control it remotely, via smart phone, tablet or computer. Forgot to turn off the heat before going on vacation? Pull out your phone. Flying home on a cold winter day? Pull out your phone and your home will be nice and warm when you there.

Now that President Barack Obama’s so-called “two-year silence” on climate change has given way to new promises, a question hangs over Washington: What exactly is he going to do?

One of the few things that appear certain is he won’t go to Congress for help. Obama seems to have given up on that strategy, which failed in his first term, when lawmakers refused to adopt more stringent limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.

For a long time after that, including his re-election campaign, the president dropped climate change from his talking points, angering the environmental community. That silence didn’t end until he made it safely back to office.

Obama threw down the gauntlet in his inaugural address, and again in his February State of the Union speech, saying that if Congress didn’t move on a “bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change,” he’d manage on his own, by pushing rule changes at the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and other regulatory offices under his control. He nominated new members of his cabinet to press for those changes.

But Obama hasn’t said much since then. Much of that has to do with a barrage of more pressing concerns: gun control, immigration reform, and, now, the bombings in Boston.

But while the silence on climate change may be disconcerting to environmental activists, it doesn’t necessarily mean the issue is returning to the depths of Obama’s domestic agenda.

That’s because Obama’s new strategy doesn’t require him to take his case to lawmakers, or the public, for that matter. This time, he’s working behind the scenes.

“The president has put a very visible take in the ground in his State of the Union and inauguration speeches, and so he’d be hard-pressed, and his people would be hard-pressed, not to take a host of actions allowed under the law,” said Philip Sharpe, president of Resources for the Future, a non-partisan environmental think tank.

So, as Obama rushes from one crisis to another and spars with Congress on all sorts of contentious issues, he’ll be free to work within his administration on new regulations to control heat-trapping pollution from power plants, to tighten emissions standards on cars and to set new efficiency standards for appliances.

Guns, immigration, terrorism — none of those ongoing issues should derail the environmental effort, Sharpe said.

“Is all this public activity detracting from the issue? Of course it detracts from the president’s ability to make it a big public agenda item, to educate the public and bring along more groups,” Sharpe said. “It is a diminished opportunity, but not a deal killer.”

But there is a limit to the president’s power. And there remain political and economic considerations he has to make. So Obama’s regulatory push is expected to be more modest than what environmentalists hope to see — and what is needed to slow global warming.

Another big test will be the president’s decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver oil derived from the tar sands of Canada to Texas. Environmentalists oppose the plan because it would produce more greenhouse gases. But the project would also lead to new jobs and create a new source of oil from a friendly source.

Obama is widely viewed as leaning toward approving the pipeline.

“A lot of environmental groups are making it a litmus test for the administration on whether they’ll take action on the climate,” Sharpe said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how the administration handles this.”

Denis Hayes dropped out of Harvard's Kennedy School in 1970 to help organize the first Earth Day—an event that mobilized more than 20 million Americans and helped pave the way for the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

That day, some planted trees and cleaned up parks as a rowdier set took to the streets to demand reform from corporations they accused of recklessly harming the planet. In Minneapolis, protestors crashed a General Electric stockholders’ meeting; others in Washington delivered dead, oil-soaked ducks to the steps of the Department of the Interior. Congress adjourned for the day as lawmakers from both parties capitalized on what NBC News characterized then as the “most popular and least risky election issue” of the time. 

Over the next two decades, Earth Day continued to evolve. In 1990, Hayes, who had been pursuing a host of other enviornmental endeavors, returned to push it internationally. Two years later he was tapped to lead the Bullitt Foundation, a Seattle-based environmental company that is slated to formally open one of the greenest corporate buildings on the planet this Earth Day.

Leading up to the anniversary of one of the hallmarks of his career, Hayes looks back at the birth of popular environmentalism, the progress of the movement, and the challenges of addressing a threat that “dwarfs earlier perils”: climate change.

Here are his thoughts on key environmental issues, in his own words:

On the success of the first Earth Day:
At the time, the vast majority of people, 95 percent of Americans, could not have given you a coherent explanation of what the word "environment" meant. We were really taking this huge array of issues that did have constituencies—people worried about DDT, people worried about endangered species or the American military dropping Agent Orange on Vietnam—and we lumped them all together under a new banner.

We were hoping it would be successful and had no expectation that it would be three or four times larger than the largest anti-war rally back then.

Why climate change is a tougher adversary than the environmental villains of the 1970s:
The most important thing is visibility. When the first Earth Day came in 1970, for much of the year if you walked around Los Angeles it was like walking around Beijing today—the air pollution was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. Pollution was a visible thing that you could taste and you could smell and was linked to rivers catching on fire and very serious warnings that unless we reverse course, the Great Lakes would become biologically sterile. So this visible tangible kind of thing was something  that you could mobilize people around much more easily than you can an invisible gas that has no smell, has no taste.

I mean heavens—every time we breathe, we emit carbon dioxide. It’s hard to cast it as a villain the way you could with the components of smog, for example. So it's just a much more nuanced issue and yet with incredible capacity to change the world into a type of environment that has not existed since the evolution of Homo sapiens. That’s a tough issue.

On the public's interest in environmental reform:
I think that [the public has] the same level of concern now for things that immediately affect themselves and their families, their neighborhoods and their nation that are easily identified, which is what we were able to capitalize on back then. But with regard to the climate issue, it is much more difficult to get people to get their arms around intellectually and it’s much more difficult to come up with a solution or series of solutions in the current anti-tax, anti-regulatory environment.  

Remember, in 1970 we had a Republican president who was okay with signing a Clean Air Act and creating an Environmental Protection Agency, and that has just dramatically changed. Richard Nixon, for all of his conservatism, was arguably more progressive than the majority of the current democratic members of Congress.

On getting climate change legislation passed after President Obama's first and only attempt—the American Clear Energy and Security Act—was squashed by Congress in 2009:
The climate legislation that was proposed was 1,400 pages long, breathtakingly complicated, laced with tons of loopholes that were put in there by various special interests in order to get a vote here and there and it was based on a cap-and-trade premise that had already pretty much failed when applied in Europe. So that’s kind of a tough thing to mobilize a vast constituency around.

If we had a solution that was two pages long—I'll be realistic, twenty pages long— that was very clear, that had provisions in it that people can comprehend, had a straight-forward solution to a problem and we did not have the relentless drumbeat of Fox News and the anti-science folks who manage to command the airwaves and the digital sphere today, there is no question in my mind that two-thirds or three quarters of the American public that cares about this issue and wants to get it solved could be mobilized.

The movement has not put together the right kinds of vehicles … we’re beginning to see some of that, the 350.org organization—but we need to get vastly more of that to people with the large constituencies. 

On the legacy of Earth Day:
[Earth Day has] been hugely vibrant in that sense all the way through the United States, something on the order of 90,000 schools still annually participate in it. Then in 1990 we took it internationally and is now out there in more than 170 counties and serves each year as what I genuinely believe is the largest secular holiday in the world.

If you were in the human rights field or the anti-war field I think you would love to have an instrument like Earth Day that every year gives people pause—a chance to reflect upon the values that you’re promoting.

Climate change could dampen spirits. Literally.

That's according to a new worldwide analysis of global warming on wine production, which appeared this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers found the area suitable for wine production will shrink by as much as 73 percent by 2050 in certain parts of the globe — about 70 percent in California — with high potential for stress on rivers and other freshwater ecosystems, as vineyards use water to cool grapes or irrigate to compensate for rising temperatures and declining rainfall. 

Scientists, including those at Stanford University, have long known that land suitable for winegrowing was in deep trouble because of the heating of the Earth.

But the new study suggests wine production will shift to new areas — such as the Rocky Mountains near the Canadian-U.S. border and New Zealand — as climate change makes the existing ones less hospitable.

The move, the scientists say, puts other species, such as the grizzly bear, gray wolf and pronghorn, at risk.

"Climate change is going to move potential wine-producing regions all over the map," Lee Hannah, the study's lead author and senior scientist for climate change biology at Conservation International's new Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Ecosystem Science and Economics, said in a statement.

"These global changes put the squeeze on wildlife and nature's capacity o sustain human life in some surprising places," Hannah said. "Consumer awareness, industry and conservation actions are all needed to help keep high quality wine flowing without unintended consequences for nature and the flows of goods and services it provides people. This is just the tip of the iceberg — the same will be true for many other crops."

The researchers looked at nine major wine producing areas: California, Western North America, Chile, Mediterranean Europe, Northern Europe, Cape Floristic region of South Africa, parts of Australia with Mediterranean climate, parts of Australia with non-Mediterranean climate and New Zealand.

Most American wine comes from the West Coast — Napa and Santa Barbara Counties in California, Yamhill County in Oregon's Willamette Valley and Walla Walla County in Washington's Columbia Valley.

California alone, according to Stanford, produces on average more than 5 million gallons per year, accounting for about 90 percent of the nation's total wine production, according to the Wine Institute, a trade organization representing California winemakers. The institute estimated the retail value of the state's wine industry in 2010 at $18.5 billion.

With nearly 1,100 sea lions found ill and stranded on Southern California beaches this year, rehabilitation facilities are full, and newly sick marine mammals must be treated on the sand, a federal scientist said Thursday.

The stranding epidemic — mostly affecting sea lion pups born last year — began in January and has not ceased since, said Sarah Wilkin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on a conference call with reporters Thursday.

The pups, which are part of a broader "robust and healthy" sea lion population in California, are being found underweight, suffering from starvation and dehydration, she said.

"You can see bones through their skin," Wilkin said.

Wilkin, who is the coordinator for NOAA's stranding program in California, said an initial hypothesis is that the high number of sick young sea lions is due to "environmental factors that would limit prey availability for the pups."

Pups are being likely disproportionately affected because they're not as experienced in foraging for alternate prey, and they can't swim as deep or as far as older animals, Wilkin said.

Last week, after a review of the evidence by an international scientific panel, NOAA declared the stranding epidemic an "unusual mortality event." The title comes even though most of the animals stranded are still alive when found, Wilkin noted.

About 20 to 30 percent of those sea lions that have entered facilities have died – a figure that's fairly low for wildlife rehab work, Wilkin said.

With the "unusual mortality event" designation, NOAA is forming a team of scientists to investigate the causes of the illnesses. In addition to looking at prey-related causes, researchers will also consider infectious diseases, parasites, and toxins and pollution in the water as causes of the strandings.

The 1,100 figure is for sea lion standings from Santa Barbara County south to San Diego County, she said.

In Northern California, 83 strandings have been reported. The numbers correspond to animals that have entered rehab facilities, she said.

Those figures will likely go down as facilities are unable to accept new sea lions, she said.

Those pups being found going forwarded will be triaged at the beach, sometimes being moved away from the public, and left under observation, Wilkin said. Lifeguards began helping out last month.

Rescuers will try to find rehab spots for the worst cases, she said.

The first puck of the 2013 NHL season finally drops Saturday after a 113-day labor dispute wiped out 510 games -- nearly half the entire season. But now that labor peace has been restored, something a little more surprising -- and much more difficult to solve -- threatens the long-term future of hockey: climate change.

Hockey was born more than 150 years ago in Canada, where the defining image of childhood is kids playing hockey on a frozen pond. Those kids serve an important purpose to the NHL: From the ponds come the next generation of hockey players and fans.

But as the average temperature across the globe has risen, the outdoor skating season in Canada and the northern U.S. has begun to shrink, as temperatures cold enough to keep the ice safely frozen becoming rarer and rarer.

David Phillips, a senior climatologist at Environment Canada, says the message from the data is loud and clear.

"It's not as cold and white as it used to be," he said. "If you look across the country, the one season that has shown truly dramatic changes in the last 65 years are winters."

The NHL is aware of the threat posed by climate change, and players have tried to raise awareness. In 2006, the Boston Bruins' Andrew Ference spearheaded a carbon-neutral movement with the David  Suzuki Foundation, getting more than 500 players to buy carbon offsets for all the travel they do during the season.

The NHL runs NHL Green, a web site dedicated to raising awareness of issues such as global warming. Headlines on the site warn of impending doom: Canada's Rinks Now Need Cooling, and Pond Hockey in Peril.

Across the whole of Canada, the average winter (December through February) temperature has risen  about 5 degrees, said Phillips. The increase has been most severe in Northern British Columbia, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, where the temperatures have jumped more than 9 degrees — making a frozen pond much rarer.

The rise in temperature has shortened the outdoor hockey season by as much as 15 days, according to a study released last year by Nikolay Damyanov at McGill University's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

The Suzuki Foundation in Canada has been fighting climate change since its inception almost 20 years ago, enlisting NHL players like Ference to help promote its cause. It's been a difficult fight -- even though 98% of Canadians believe climate change is real, the government was recently ranked fourth-worst in the world in terms of environmental policy.

"Here in Canada we're quite strong in natural resources," said Jean-Patrick Toussaint, head of science projects at the Suzuki Foundation, who noted that Canada was the first country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. "Not only water, but we've also got the tar sands, and this has become a top priority for our current government, to make sure that there's continuous economic growth."

The problem does cross the border. Outdoor hockey is popular in America, too, as evidenced by the the NHL's Winter Classic, an annual outdoor showcase.  Five of the top six-rated regular season games since 1975 have been Winter Classics.

Last year, though, even the Winter Classic was threatened. The NHL had to delay the game between the Rangers and Flyers at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park until later in the day to ensure temperatures were low enough to keep the ice frozen

Rising temperatures have endangered the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships in Minnesota since their inception in 2006, founder Fred Haberman said.

"Last year was one of the worst winters we've ever had for outdoor hockey," Haberman said. "If we'd tried to have the tournament last week, we would have had to cancel because it rained — it was 40 degrees.

"When I arrived in the Twin Cities (24 years ago), I was playing a minimum of 10 to 12 weeks outside. Today, we're lucky if we get eight."

Not only does the shortened outdoor hockey season deny aspiring NHLers countless hours of practice time, it also stunts their development because they grow accustomed to the perfectly groomed ice of indoor rinks, and so are less adept at handling bad hops.

"It's on these outdoor rinks where kids can just play and experiment, develop their skills without even realizing it," said Joe Pelletier of Greatest Hockey Legends. "Minor hockey is so structured nowadays that kids are essentially taught the game. But out on their own on the frozen ponds, kids actually learned the game. And the game was better off for it."

Ultimately, framing global warming as a hockey problem may be what forces Canada to confront the issue. If Canadians realize that climate change is slowly corroding not only the quality of hockey and the amount of hockey they can play in their backyard, they might force the government to act.

"The threat from climate change... Canadians are not worried about skinny polar bears," said Phillips, the climatologist at Environment Canada. "It's about, 'Gee -- will we have a white Christmas and will we be hockey players?' When it comes right down to it, it would probably drive us to action if people understood it in that way."

A Chinese businessman agitated by a polluted river devised a plan to address the problem. He is offering an environmental official $32,000 to swim in the dirty water, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Jin Zengmin, chief executive of a eyeglasses retailer, will reward the official if he remains in the water for 20 minutes. His plan is to bring attention to the environmental concerns in China's eastern province.

He announced the dare on Sina Weibo, a China microblogging site similar to Twitter.

“If the environmental protection bureau chief dares to swim in [Ruian's] river for 20 minutes, I will pay  200,000 yuan [$32,062],” Jin wrote.

Jin also posted three photos of a river in Ruian, a small town in the east coast of China. In the photos, trash can be seen blocking the river's flow. Jin claims a rubber overshoe factory is to blame for refuse and industrial waste. 

Villagers used to use the river to wash vegetables and clothes during his childhood, Jin said to Chinanews.com.

When asked for a comment, Ruian’s environmental protection bureau chief, Bao Zhenmin, reportedly said that there was in fact a problem with pollution with the river, however he placed blame on the villagers, not the factories.

“Overpopulation of this region is the main reason behind the pollution…[The population] has largely exceeded the local environment’s capacity,” Bao told Chinanews.com.

Apparently there will be a new water recycling system put in place within three years that includes proper facilities for trash disposal, Bao said.

This past week was Earth Week, and were all supposed to spend all seven saving the planet. Earth Week, going green, carbon credits, LEED certified, it can all be a bit daunting. The Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce hosted a panel discussion this past week that featured speakers from all different aspects of “going green” and what quickly became evident is that "going green" can mean something different for everyone and that's okay, and probably a good thing.

We hosted four speakers: David Yourd of JDY Gourmet, John Hamilton of Onyx Distribution, Collene Wells of the Compost Office, and Dr. Jason Fenema of Ravenswood Health Center. As you may have guessed from the company names, the speakers represented many different aspects of being green. In each of their respective areas, though, they're still making a big difference.

A message that came through in each of their presentations is consumers can drive the green movement. John Hamilton noted that conversations with clients about using eco-friendly products have historically focused on encouraging them to buy it because it was the right thing to do. He stated that now his clients are also buying the products because their clients are demanding it and in the long run it is now good for their bottom line. David Yourd echoed that sentiment. While many of the chefs he works with are buying meat that's been raised humanely and without antibiotics or hormones, some chefs still needed convincing due to the price point being higher.

The “convincing” has come from the restaurant patrons asking their waiter where does the meat come from. Chris Dallas, owner of HarvesTime Foods, recently changed out his traditional awning and replaced it with a solar panel awning that produces energy for all his exterior LED lighting. He has always been concerned about the environment and doing his part, but it was discussions with his customers that encouraged him to go in this direction.

It's exciting to me that we as consumers don’t have to feel helpless in our desire to improve our environment. A consumer can choose to shop locally, ask where their food is coming from, walk or take transit instead of driving. Each choice sends a powerful message and when communities embrace that message the change can be incredible. For business owners who want to be greener it is nice to know that many customers are watching and appreciate the efforts you are making. So go out there and save your corner of the planet -- and not just next week.

Melissa Flynn is passionate about her community and passionate about her job as the executive director for the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce. For the past seven years she has been creating a sense of place that has helped to transform the Lincoln Square community. Flynn is a skilled and experienced executive with a proven track record of creating a successful business climate balanced by strong values of sustainability and community. Under her leadership in 2011, the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce achieved the highly coveted three-star Accreditation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Living more sustainably is THE thing to do.

For those who have been a bit slow to jump on the “green” bandwagon, be warned, very soon you will feel an irresistible pull to amp up your efforts. On April 22, everyone around the globe will be doing their best to be kinder to our planet in celebration of Earth Day. There is no pressure like global peer pressure.

Most would agree being kind to our planet is a good thing. Many small business owners would love to provide a sustainable working space their employees (and clients) can be proud of -- but cost is always a concern. Fear not entrepreneurs, creating a greener office can be achieved without draining the coffers. By making these few simple, inexpensive changes you can simultaneously be kind to the environment and your bottom line:

1. Slow down on the printing. Help save trees and cut down on waste by requesting employees read emails and share information predominately online. Implement a policy that corporate emails include an auto signature that encourages recipients to avoid printing emails. Use free or inexpensive software like Dropbox or Google Cloud to store or share documents. Instead of a file cabinet, set up files on your desktop.

2. Reuse and/or maximize it. If you have to print a multiple-page document, chose the double-side option or recycle one page documents by flipping them over and printing on the blank side. Provide reusable dishes and a dishwasher to encourage people to slow down the use of disposable dining products.

3. Incentivize use of mass transit and biking to work. Offer the Transit Benefit Fare Program to your workforce; it allows employees to make pre-tax paycheck deductions of up to $125 a month for transit (and employers get a tax deduction for every employee dollar spent). Check out lesstaxingcommute.com for more information. Work out a relationship with a nearby gym to provide showers and a full bathroom perfect for sprucing up for those employees willing to bike to work.

4. Cultivate a green thumb. Improve air quality and beautify the office by buying green plants.

5. Work from home days. Working from home means zero emissions and typically a more productive workforce. I know this girl gets more done when I’m able to roll out of bed and begin work in my pajamas.

Jetta Bates-Vasilatos is founder of Twist Communications and a life stylist with 10+ years of award-winning consumer engagement/strategic planning experience for luxury and global brands like BMW and Coca-Cola. She also serves as an on-air correspondent and writer with a focus on luxury and experiential tourism, lifestyle, sustainability, and personal finance (how to be chic yet savvy). Jetta has appeared on stations such as WCIU-TV, KBS-TV(Korea), ABC-7, CLTV and KBC-TV (Kenya), writes for national print publications such as Essence, Recommend, Ebony and HomeStyle Design and is the host of the Jettasetting segment on WVON radio.

Visit her website jettasetting.com, find real-time tips on her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter: @jettaset.

Three Illinois public schools were nominated Friday for a Green Ribbon Schools award during the 2012 Go Green Schools Symposium in Chicago.

Thomas J. Waters Elementary School and Academy for Global Citizenship, both in Chicago, and Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake were recognized in the U.S Department of Education’s inaugural Green Ribbon Schools award program.

The program recognizes achievements in environmental awareness, student and staff health, and the environmental literacy of graduates in schools.

“These schools are leaders in the green movement and proof that if everyone does a little, we can accomplish a lot towards our goal of making Illinois the greenest state in America,” said Gov. Pat Quinn in a statement.

Among the topics discussed were green school construction and renovation, energy usage in the classroom, environmental education and health, and ways to finance future sustainability projects.

The symposium also provided workshops for participants to brainstorm new ideas for making schools across Illinois more sustainable.

“A central focus of our sustainability efforts is to build a better environment for our children,” said Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago Karen Weigert. “We are proud that Chicago schools are leaders in this effort.”

Illinois is among 33 states participating in the Green Ribbon Schools award program, and the winners will be honored locally and nationally after the winning announcement is made on April 23.

For information on the program and the school finalists visit www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools.

With Earth Week upon us April 16, we looked at what Chicago and Illinois have done to promote a more sustainable city and state.

Citywide Curbside Recycling

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced this month that curbside recycling will be extended to roughly 340,000 Chicago households currently without recycling bins.

The expansion for Chicago recycling is possible thanks to $2.2 million in savings acquired through what Emanuel called “managed competition” between private recycling and waste managing companies and Streets & Sanitation employees.  

The recycling project will be put into effect by the end of next year, according to the mayor’s office.

$10M to Restore Chicago River

Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel  on Aug. 12 announced the state committed $10 million to clean up the Chicago River, disinfect sewage flowing into the river and make the water clean enough to swim and fish in.

Quinn and Emanuel said they hope the necessary project will boost tourism to the city.  

Last year, the mayor announced the construction of four boathouses along the river to provide kayaking and concessions. He said a cleaner river could motivate tourists and residents to participate in recreational activities in Chicago.

Greener Cabs for Chicago

The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection announced on April 12 a program promoting cab companies to buy hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles.

The program will use $1 million in funding from a Clean Cities grant, helping Chicago reach their carbon emission goals set out in the Chicago Climate Action Plan.

Electric Car Charging Stations on Tollway Roads

Quinn announced March 30 that Illinois will begin building the nation’s largest network of fast-charging electric vehicle stations along all seven Tollway Oases.

Quinn said he wants Illinois to be the greenest state in America and is pursuing the project to promote Americans to be more sustainable.

Chicago Earth Hour

Chicago buildings, landmarks and institutions participated in this year’s Earth Hour on Saturday, March 31, shutting off their lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Earth hour was started by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 and is a global event encouraging individuals to turn out the lights for one hour and become more environmentally aware.

Chicago’s City Hall, the Cultural Center, the Chase Tower and Willis Tower, the Capitol Building and more participated in the event  to show their support towards protecting the planet.

Last summer, I took a kayak trip up the Cuyahoga River, through Cleveland. When we reached the spot where a famous fire started in 1969, my guide pointed out the charred timbers on the railroad bridge. A spark had fallen from there, igniting a flammable stew of oil, paint, acid and animal blood.

I dipped my finger into the river, and licked the water. Yes, the Cuyahoga River is now that clean. And the Chicago River can be, too. The $10 million that Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel committed for sewage treatment is a great start to rescuing an urban waterway.

When the great cities of the Great Lakes were founded, the waterfronts and waterways were reserved for industry. Steel mills, slaughterhouse and oil refineries got the best lakefront and riverfront property, and were allowed to excrete their effluent into bodies of water that functioned as sewer drains. Now, the mills are gone. Water is more valuable as a lifestyle amenity than an industrial resource.
 
Thanks to the foresight of Daniel Burnham, Chicago is the model for maintaining an open lakefront. But the river is another story. It was reversed to divert sewage from the lake, thus preventing epidemics of disease, and to raise the water level for barge traffic on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, helping Chicago defeat St. Louis as the trade hub of the Heartland. These functions helped Chicago become a great city, but they’re no longer necessary. We’re stuck with a river flowing away from its natural outlet, even though it has no sanitary or commercial reason to run backwards.
 
The best example of an urban river’s recovery is the Cuyahoga, in Cleveland. The city was shocked into cleaning up the river after it caught fire in 1969. As the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, on the 40th anniversary of the fire:

the Cuyahoga has become a river teeming with fish and other aquatic species. And how more and more people in Northeast Ohio are using the Cuyahoga as a playground as it runs its 100-mile, U-shaped course from rural Geauga County down through Akron and back north to Cleveland.

The Cuyahoga has come a long way from the waterway that a Cleveland mayor in the 1880s (Rensselaer R. Herrick) described as “a sewer that runs through the heart of the city.”

Chicago is 40 years behind Cleveland in cleaning up its river, because we never had an event as dramatic as the fire to motivate us. But we can have an even freer, even cleaner river than the Cuyahoga.

At one point during my trip down the river, I was forced to duck my kayak behind a metal retaining wall, to avoid a passing freighter. The Chicago River isn’t troubled with freighter traffic. We have the Calumet River for shipping. Once we get it cleaned up, we’ll have the best urban river in the Midwest.

Buy this book! Ward Room blogger Edward McClelland's book, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President , is available Amazon. Young Mr. Obama includes reporting on President Obama's earliest days in the Windy City, covering how a presumptuous young man transformed himself into presidential material. Buy it now!