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Attendees brought their climate curiosity and camera ready smile to this spring happy hour mingler hosted by Challenge company, 4 Hands Brewing! Sustainability Planner, Aaron Young, presented “Climate Change 101” – helping us understand how climate change is effecting our region, future forecasting, and ways we can build resiliency. Guests were also able to freshen up their headshots with an onsite professional photographer.

Challenge participants explored Waste Connections’ Champ Landfill – Missouri’s largest operating landfill! After a presentation explaining Champ’s built systems and bio-gas capture / reclamation process, attendees viewed daily operations and PFAS mitigation efforts real time.

Building community is fundamental for advocacy! Stream Teams United is working in collaboration with regional partners to create a systems level change for the reduction of plastic use and plastic pollution in across the state. This virtual program empowered viewers to be part of a bigger movement, kicking plastic to the curb via the Show-Me Less Plastic campaign.

Challenge Leader, Commerce Bank, hosted Green Biz attendees at their Clayton campus for a program focused on Constructing a Green Roof. Commerce and architects from Cannon Design shared their personal story of design, implementation, adversities and successes – everything they learned to create a beautifully, functional living rooftop.

We hit the water, to take advantage of the classroom space inside the Living Lands and Waters barge — docked just below the Gateway Arch on the Mighty Mississippi. This program featured TWO amazing organizations: Open Space STL & (Challenge Apprentice) River City Outdoors. Attendees learned about what they do, their connection to waterways, and out of the box ways their offices can get involved. A great way to take team building and volunteering to the great outdoors!

Taking MetroLink or MetroBus even a day or two a week saves commuters money on gas, maintenance and parking – it also helps them stay active and reduce stress. The Try & Ride program was developed to help those who are new to public transportation test and learn the transit system. Get the scoop on greener commuting and how your organization can get involved, from CMT‘s Senior Program Director, Travis Wood.

View webinar HERE

During this walking tour, experts from St. Louis Zoo, showcased different strategies and projects for making buildings, campuses, and communities safer for birds and other migrating species. The guided tour highlighted visible glass patterns, ways to reduce light pollution, and the importance of planting spaces with native plants.

The origin of Home Sweet Home (HSH) and its impact in the region over the past decade, is one for the story books. Serving as St. Louis’ only furniture bank, HSH helps families who are struggling with homelessness and/or re-integration find stability through supplying home furnishings during their transition period. Starting out of a borrowed warehouse space with two staffers in 2015, HSH has grown to fifteen staff members with four trucks running daily (and hundreds of volunteers); servicing over 1,000 families a year! This insightful tour with Betsy Reznicek, HSH founder and Executive Director, showcased how this up-lifting nonprofit has partnered to build community and our circular economy.

Green Cities participants attended Missouri Gateway Green Building Council’s member Summer Social; which included a tour of the the newly ecologically constructed and award-winning Brentwood Bound project in the City of Brentwood!

The Missouri Gateway Green Building Council is in search of the next cohort of Green Schools Quest Mentors (Green Mentors) – and that could be YOU! Green Mentors are volunteers have a passion for creating sustainable learning environments and working with schools. If you missed our webinar, you can learn more about the Green Schools Quest from Deborah Rogers Curtis (MGGBC Green Schools Coordinator) and the potential experience of supporting local schools with their sustainability efforts at an upcoming MGGBC Green Schools Quest Info Session.

Guests were immersed in a combo of education and the arts – from sinks to sculptures learn about our connection to water! In partnership with MSD Project Clear, Maggie McCoy (from the Missouri Botanical Garden) will take you on a “behind the scenes” tour into how water moves through St. Louis. Find your “water address” and learn about where water goes once it goes down the drain. We will briefly discuss how natural systems manage water and how we can use green infrastructure to mimic that at our homes, businesses, and in the community.

Following Maggie, staff from the Contemporary Art Museum will take us through a gallery tour interpreting their THREE current water themed exhibitions (Like Water, Make the River Present, & ArtReach: Confluence). The exhibitions address water in multiple ways—from its life-giving and destructive powers, floods, and climate change. The pieces highlight present-day and ancestral stewardship of the rivers and surrounding environments, especially focusing on Indigenous and African American perspectives. Strengthen your connections to our waterways through works of art, resources, and activities!

During this informational tour of Republic Service’s Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Hazelwood, attendees followed the journey of their blue bin items. Participants received recycling education then walked through Republic’s facility guided by staff to see firsthand, how the region’s exorbitant amount of materials makes it’s way through the sorting and processing center. An eye-opening experience for all!

Presentations focused on creating vibrant, healthier indoor environments were led by the American Lung Association and Challenge leader, Growing Green. We explored why indoor air quality matters, how pollutants affect our health, and simple ways to improve the air we breathe in our homes and offices. Including one of the greenest ones out there… PLANTS!

Unlike most “waste-to-energy” plants known for greenwashing, Terra Environmental is a fully enclosed treatment facility, processing commercial and industrial non-recyclable, non-hazardous materials into a green solid Alternate Engineered Fuel (AEF) to replace coal in industrial furnaces. Terra Environmental’s professionals gave campus tour at their revitalized 30,000 sq foot production facility in South City, explaining how the exorbitant amount of materials they receive are uniquely processed every day.

Associates from from Challenge company, Veregy, addressed modernizing aging public infrastructure using energy performance contracting. Attendees learned how energy performance contracting works and the Missouri state statute that enables public facilities to take part. Veregy’s staff also reviewed best energy practices and a few case studies for consideration.

View webinar HERE.

Sustainability champions from our Green Business Challenge companies, organizations, and communities came together to celebrate their culmination of green achievements. The fantastic event, hosted at the Danforth Plant Science Center, showcased the sustainability in businesses movement happening across the St. Louis region!

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In-person program, hosted by Cortex Sustainability. Presenter Chris Laughman, Senior Director of Sustainability & Energy, for global property management firm Greystar. Chris’s deep experience with ESG demystifies the ins/outs for building owners and tenants, clearly communicating complex tracking and reporting processes.

In-person program, hosted at Missouri Botanical Garden, Commerce Bank Education Center. From ESCO Technologies, Justin Prien, Corporate Director of ES&H, demonstrates how data from calculation of their company’s environmental footprint prompted developed of a dashboard to garner engagement from stakeholders who might be resistant to supporting sustainability initiatives, by visually presenting data-tracking outcomes. From Missouri Botanical Garden, Elijah Narimalla, Sustainability Data Coordinator, shares insights on the “how” needed to wrangle the range of data needed to complete the Garden’s first (baseline) Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

In-person program hosted by Office Essentials. OE company President, Kate Dougherty, and her team have an Eco-Office Challenge to test your sustainable savvy about office supplies, paper, tech products, cleaning and breakroom products and furniture – with prizes! OE specializes in offering product lines that support business goals in Diversity and Sustainability.

Special guest from U.S. EPA, Kate Larberg, will spotlight Safer Choice certification and EPA resources to boost Green Purchasing, in policy and practice, toward Challenge scorecard points.

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In-person program hosted by Perennial. Think outside the box for your next team building activity! Led by Perennial’s Executive Director, Katie Carpenter, this workshop experience got our hands (and head) wrapped in the creative process of re-use. Just a handful of offerings from this vibrant DIY non-profit.

We discovered Maritz’s sustainability journey, from inception to impact. GM – Environmental Strategy, Rachael Riggs, explored their comprehensive approach, effective integration across all levels, and how it is accelerating business growth and supports their customer’s sustainability journeys.

Following Rachael, a panel delved into event sustainability and explored how the entire event ecosystem can contribute to designing more sustainable events. Panel members included experts from STL CITY SC, Missouri Botanical Garden, Alvarez & Marsal, Explore St. Louis, and Maritz

Our October program help set enterprises on the path to meet highest standards of social and environmental impact. Julia Madras from Blackrock Consulting shared her hands-on knowledge of working with B Lab to attain B Corp certification.

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A celebration of our Challenge participants and their accomplishments. Hosted by the Green Champions of St. Louis CITY SC! Welcome remarks from Diego Gigliani, CITY President and CEO.