Green ERA Chicago

09/06/2024

Thanks to and Atavia Reed for this journalism It's hard to explain all the things we can accomplish with circularity and following nature's lead and you captured it! Also for the great photojournalism 🙌🏽

The project is led by Urban Growers Collective, a nonprofit she co-founded in 2017 to advocate for food equity and community healing through urban agriculture. Green Era Educational NFP is the land owner and site developer.
The 9-acre campus will soon have a vertical farm and community food and education center where the next generation of farmers can learn to grow and scientists can study soil production. The project will be complete by the end of 2027, Allen said. 
The Green Era Campus is a “circular system” that will help mitigate the harmful impact of landfills and produce more nutrient-dense food in the city, Allen said. The compost will help grow food at the vertical farm. Neighbors can then buy food from the farm at the community center. 
“Typically, people go to Home Depot or big-box stores and purchase top soil, expensive material, when we can create that in our own communities and we know what’s going into that soil,” Allen said. “Think of all the lots, contamination and trees that we need to grow.”

08/10/2024

Come on out!!! August 17th!!
Thanks to bringing the good greens and passion for the environment!

We are looking forward to our campus partner and its mobile farmers market coming out for the market

08/10/2024

Future site for vertical farm!

06/21/2024

🌱 Thank you, Village Leadership Academy, for visiting our Green Era Campus last month! We’re so excited to invite the next generation into the work of making a green future together. 💚

06/21/2024

06/19/2024

🎉 ♻️ We’re honored to receive a 2024 Outstanding Partnership Award from the Illinois Recycling Foundation! 🏆 Thank you, Illinois Recycling Foundation, for recognizing our work, and Anthony Tindall, Solid Waste Coordinator for Cook County, for the nomination! Here's to paving the way for a greener future together! ​

06/17/2024

📣 New announcement! On June 3rd, Green Era joined forces with Argonne National Laboratory by signing a historic MOU to pursue research opportunities in sustainability in agriculture, renewable energy generation, and food equity and access.

Erika Allen, co-founder and CEO of Urban Growers Collective, president of Green ERA Educational NFP, and co-owner of Green Era Sustainability Partners, said at the signing commemoration, “This partnership will allow us to engage in and model research that is non-extractive towards people and the environment, while listening, uplifting, and investing in our communities.”

Both organizations will apply jointly to funding opportunities to advance collaborative research projects. These projects will address climate change at the nexus of water, energy and food, and support workforce development and community engagement initiatives.

Read more in the official press release! https://www.anl.gov/article/green-era-campus-and-argonne-align-to-forge-community-partnerfocused-agreement




Photo and Video Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

06/14/2024

🌟 A huge thank you to the Circularity Conference for coming to tour the Green Era campus last month! 🙌🏾 It was an honor to showcase our anaerobic digester and its contribution to creating a circular waste management solution for Chicago ♻️💚

Photo Credit: Louis Bryant III

05/30/2024

We’re so proud to advocate for historic policy changes at the May 15th Zero Waste Lobby Day in Springfield! ♽ Special thanks to Illinois Environmental Council for aligning an incredible cohort of organizations working to transform the way we process food waste.

First photo: Katherine Tellock, Business Development Manager at Green Era, with Senator Natalie Toro, with whom she spoke about Chicago’s food waste and the need to support HB2876 (Solid Waste Event Facilities).


Second Photo: Katherine talking to Rep Ann M. Williams about the food waste bill and single use plastics.

05/20/2024

Thanks Erika for sharing our work at the Google Food Lab summit in Chicago!

You can learn more about "Just Climate Change Preparedness through Non-Extractive Green Energy and Circular Urban Food Economy Development" at our site, greenerachicago.org

05/06/2024

Get the Zoom link for free on Eventbrite! (Check our stories for the link)

04/24/2024

There’s just two weeks until the start of International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) 2024 – the best time of year to share the many benefits of composting our yard waste and food scraps and using compost to build healthy soils. Be a climate champion and start making your plans to get the word out about ICAW this May 5-11. Check out activities, events, and lots of other resources on the CREF website: https://compostfoundation.org/ICAW/ICAW-Home

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04/23/2024

04/03/2024

The 7-acre Green Era Urban Farm will grow 125+ varieties of produce per year, train young farmers, support new food businesses and entrepreneurs, and ultimately build financial security and collective power for historically under-resourced communities.

04/01/2024

The 7-acre Green Era Urban Farm will grow 125+ varieties of produce per year, train young farmers, support new food businesses and entrepreneurs, and ultimately build financial security and collective power for historically under-resourced communities.

03/25/2024

Our Edible Forest and Walking Trail will include outdoor community green space for recreation and education, and an amphitheater with an open-air stage for convening community for performances and co-creating art.

In 2023 Urban Growers Collective and Green Era Campus were awarded $250,000 from the City of Chicago for the development of the Edible Forest and Walking Trail, and $1,000,000 over 5 years from the USDA Forestry Service to support UGC’s capacity in urban and community forestry.

03/24/2024

03/24/2024

We are growing greens at the Camus. Using hydroponics in a shipping container harkens the future vertical farm we will build in future as funds are raised.

03/18/2024

At the heart of the Green Era Campus is the Midwest’s first self-sustainable anaerobic digester, which will divert millions of pounds of food waste from landfills to produce clean energy and nutrient-rich compost. The result? A sustainable renewable energy source, new green jobs, expanded local food production, and community vitality. The Anaerobic Digester was able to receive final permits necessary for operations in August-September 2023 and will be officially launching in April.

03/11/2024

The Green Era Renewable Energy & Urban Farming Campus transforms a former 9-acre brownfield into a hub for renewable energy, food production, and climate-smart job training and will serve as a green economy blueprint for many cities, starting with Chicago. UGC’s efforts divert 55 million tons of food waste from landfills per month (in Chicago alone) to transform it into renewable energy, offsetting 42,500 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The Campus is also an investment vehicle for minority-owned businesses to provide access to fresh, affordable and culturally affirming food by leveraging community development and agriculture as a tool to address inequities and structural racism.

03/05/2024

🌎💚 Welcome to the Green Era Campus! This is the first of a series of weekly posts introducing you to the Green Era Campus as we build momentum into our most productive and impactful season yet!

Together, we can build a Green Era to transform Chicago—for the environment, for equity, for all. Welcome to the Green Era Campus! 🌿
Growers Collective

06/15/2023

12/10/2022

Join us for a day of community building, resource sharing, and collectively strategizing ways to advance a stronger food ecosystem