WATER, a Chicago Sustainability Series Season II Dialogue held on July 24th, 2020 with Dean Alonistiotis, Chief of Staff for MWRD Commissioner Kimberly Neely du Buclet of Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. We discussed the intersections of water, racial and socioeconomic equity, essential workers, the impacts and pioneering research around the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. This Dialogue was conducted over Zoom, in recognition of the importance of safety and social distancing in the pandemic. Learn more about The Chicago Sustainability Series at SustainTheChi.com, and more about Commissioner du Buclet at https://mwrd.org/kimberly-neely-du-buclet and more about MWRDGC at https://mwrd.org/.

FOOD, a Chicago Sustainability Series Season II Dialogue held on June 26th, 2020 with Thomas Jonas, Co-Founder + CEO of Nature's Fynd. Nature's Fynd is an innovative Chicago-based firm innovating the food space with products harvested from the Fy microbe protein, originally sourced from Yellowstone National Park geysers. The Fy protein requires 99% less land, and 87% less water than traditional beef production to become a range of foods from breakfast to dinner, with 9 essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

"...sustainability is an environmental justice issue." - Joyce Coffee (President, Climate Resilience Consulting

"...which gives me tremendous hope for the region." - Deborah Stone (Director + Chief Sustainability Officer, Cook County Department of Environmental Control)

"... we ultimately vote these people into office." - Ashley Munson (Policy Coordinator, Illinois Environmental Council)

POLICY, a Chicago Sustainability Series Dialogue held on March 30th, 2017 in support of Food + Water Watch-Midwest's efforts at The People's Climate March at Civis Analytics.

“If there was the magical funding, the thing that I would like to see done is to set up a materials processing facility in Chicago, most notably on the west or south side where it could provide some jobs. … the biggest hold up in the reuse industry when connected to the building and demolition industry is ‘time is money.’” - Meegan Czop (Owner + Creator, Great Lakes Yard).

"But the sad part that came with it is I never knew that we had that many homeless youth in the city of Chicago. You know, you grow up and you may see people like under the viaducts, or you may see people sleeping on the bus stops or whatever, but I always saw them as adults. You know, I never saw anybody that's 15, and 16, and 17 years old that’s couch surfing, or you know they're sleeping in parks, they're sleeping in trains, they're anywhere just to make sure they're getting some kind of rest. They're all over the place, and it was really sad, but it motivated me to say, 'okay, this is something that we really need to address in the city of Chicago." - Paviella Foster (CaSSA Manager, Ignite, formerly Teen Living Programs)

"...part of the struggle I think is the time we live in now. This deindustrialization, or this post-industrialization development, right? We just had the turn of a new millennium, we had a huge real estate crash, and things are kind of changing. And we’re at the center of that. That’s what Chicago is to me. We’re one of the great industrial cities, we still are a great city. . . . I think of us as like the beating heart of North America, right?" - Dan French (Founder + CEO, Brownfield Listings)

"Along with After School Matters about 30,000 Chicago youth get paid jobs for the summer. And so at our facility ... 50 students, youth, worked with us over the summer. About 10 of them in Omni and The Roof Crop, and the rest with non-profits that are in our building." - Molly Meyer (Founder + CEO, Omni Ecosystems)