News

Tuesday, August 27, 2019 Sustainability Lab Agenda

Details

Published on Monday August 12th, 2019

The Lab will be held in three locations including St. Louis, Alton, and St. Peters. 

---

 

---

St. Louis Location

(T-Rex, 911 Washington Ave, 5th Floor, St. Louis, MO 63101)

Open networking will take place from 3:30 to 7 p.m. in the T-Rex common area on the 5th floor.

3:30 - 3:45: Check-in
3:45 - 5:00: OneSTL Listening Session: Outreach and Messaging

In June, the Sustainability Lab was an engagement blender focused on developing messaging related to the OneSTL Working Groups. The volunteer Communications Strategists Team began implementing what was discussed at the blender through a social media campaign. Aaron and Gena will review the progress of the campaign thus far and look to gather your input and feedback on future messages and strategies as they continue to develop a more robust communication plan.

Presented by Aaron Young, Sustainability Planning Manager, East-West Gateway Council of Governments and Gena Jain, Sustainability Planner, East-West Gateway Council of Governments

5:00 - 5:30: Break and Networking

5:30 - 7:00 Session A: Green the Church

Green the Church (GTC) is a national initiative designed to tap into the power and purpose of the African American church community, and to explore and expand the role of Churches as centers for environmental and economic resilience. Reverend Burton will discuss the activities of Green the Church in the St. Louis area including the upcoming summit on October 4 and 5.

Presented by Rev. Rodrick Burton, Pastor New Northside Missionary Baptist Church

5:30 - 7:00 Session B: The Business of Upcycling

Two local entrepreneurs will present on the business of upcycling, social enterprise, and the potential of a circular economy.

Katie from Perennial will present on the Perennial community workshop and store in St. Louis, which offers educational programming, DIY kits and tools for reuse projects, and sells upcycled goods. Perennial offers educational programs to the public and partners with area social service agencies to engage women in transition in outreach programs. 

Eric with Refab will discuss how Refab is making jobs not waste. Refab programs include deconstructing, refabricating and reselling of materials. Refab utilizes the opportunity for waste diversion to bring people up out of poverty through creating employment opportunities for veterans and other community members including recently homeless men. 

Presented by Katie Carpenter, Executive Director of Perennial and Eric Schwarz, Executive Director and Founder of Refab 

Alton Location

(The Old Bakery Beer Co. 400 Landmarks Boulevard, Alton, IL 62002)

5:00 - 6:45: Grow Solar Metro East Power Hour

Grow Solar Metro East is a grassroots program that combines volume discounts with community education to make solar power more affordable for property owners (homeowners, farmwes, other businesses, etc) in the Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair Counties. The discounts will be achieved by pooling buying power combined with the current state and federal incentives make now a great time to go solar! The Power Hour is an information session teaching the basics of solar, its financial implications for participating households, and how the solar group buy program works.

Brought to you by The Midwest Renewable Energy Association, Madison County Planning & Development, Lewis and Clark Community College, Piasa Palisades Sierra Club, and the Glen Carbon Cool Cities Committee.

St. Peters Location - NEW LOCATION

(BeerSauce Shop 318 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, Suite C, St. Peters, MO 63376)

5:00 - 5:30: Check-in and Networking
5:30 - 6:45: Eco Park and iNaturalist

Peter will briefly discuss the history of how Eco Park came to be, what the ecology was naturally. He will discuss the development of the park's surrounding area, and the native and non-native species and interactions occuring in the area. He will share on the environmental services provided by Eco Park/Parks in general and the potential benefits of those services as well as the problems that might occur without those services. Leading into the discussion about iNaturalist lead by Leslie Gittemeier (St. Louis Zoo) he will end his talk on what cities and communities can do to help sustainability within parks/nature areas.

Presented by Peter VanLinn III, Superintendent of Parks, City of St. Charles