Production Funding for state of change is provided by the Backlund Charitable Trust.

Illinois is home to more than 12 million people.

It's the fifth largest economy in the country, a land bordered by rivers with prairies and fertile cropland in between.

It's also a place where people are dedicated to preserving our planet on this edition of state of change, ways you can help your neighbors in keeping Illinois eco-friendly.

Hello, I'm Tinisha Spain from Illinois public media, the idea of preserving our planet can seem overwhelming, but during this half hour, we'll show you how small gestures can make a big difference.

We start with a unique store in Chicago, in a city that never slows down.

One shop is asking us to take a beat and rethink everything.

Welcome to Eco Flamingo, a no plastic, no waste, general store that sells you all the essentials you need served in smarter, more sustainable ways.

As the world shifts towards greener living, this small Illinois store is leading that charge.

The Eco Flamingo got started by our current owner, Bethany Barbouti.

People just really wanted a place where they didn't have to be so wasteful.

And so she wanted to create a place here in Chicago that allowed people to reduce their plastics and have a place for people to shop more sustainably.

You Hi, I'm Bethany barbouti.

I'm the co founder and a co owner of the Eco Flamingo.

We got started in in 2019 I knew I wanted to shift my career.

I knew I wanted to do something new, and I was thinking about different ideas.

Different ideas.

My educational background is in sustainability, so kind of where I wanted to take that.

And I had spent a lot of time in the Middle East, where they do a lot of kind of bulk food buying in general.

Spent some time in Europe and saw like these Zero Waste store kind of movement happening.

And when I was coming home to Chicago, I just realized we don't have one here, and I know I would wanted a place to be able to shop more sustainably.

So many people I knew wanted that.

So we had 600 square feet, including storage.

So in 2020 We started very small.

We doubled in size.

Five months later, five months after opening, I was in, like, the job search, kind of wanting to switch my career into something that I cared more about, something I was more passionate about, and that was like sustainability.

And I actually saw an ad for the store come up that they were opening a zero waste shop.

And I used to look down the street, and I was like, How did I not know about it?

And then when she was ready, she was like, Yeah, I need you.

Like, could you come in?

And so I was like, the first employee, and I've been here ever since we're in the Rockwell quarter of the Lincoln Square neighborhood in Chicago.

And the residents here are just have been very supportive.

I mean, they're very supportive of small business, but even the surrounding community and Chicago land as a whole has been really on board with the mission.

And now even a few more Zero Waste stores have opened up in Chicago.

There are other like bulk refilleries Like the Eco Flamingo, we're the first one, and because we've been around for as long as we have, we've been able to expand our inventory to the point where we have more things than the others, just because we started first.

So I because I do find when people come, they're like, Wow, you guys have such a huge selection.

You have so many things.

And we do.

We have over 1000 different items.

There are people who want to make a difference, you know, even if it's a small step, they really, truly care about it.

And as of late, I've seen a lot of new people who are like, Thank you for being here.

I've been looking for a place like this.

Some people came in from Central Illinois, and they're like, we're here once a month, so we'll like, make this our stop.

So it's really crazy and really amazing that we have such a wide variety of people coming in.

I like holding space for people, and I like giving people opportunities.

And so with the store, it's like giving people all these different opportunities to be more sustainable and to get plastic out of their lives so it can get overwhelming.

So I tell them, like, do what makes sense for you and your lifestyle, and switch what you can when you can.

A big part of sustainability is like we're using what you have.

Which one was, Oh, those are the um.

Carl and Chris the cheddar ones.

Yes.

Have you joined yet?

No, so bad.

A number of organizations around Chicago now related to different aspects of sustainability.

We work a lot with OPA organizing for plastics alternatives.

It's a tight knit community.

I think everybody works together.

Everybody has the same goals, and everybody wants to help each other out to achieve those goals, the most important aspect right?

You have to have people behind you that believe in it to make change.

I am the founder and co chair of organizing for plastic alternatives.

We've been working for six years.

We're all volunteer zero budget organization, but we collaborate with citywide groups, statewide groups, national groups, all with the intent of reducing or eliminating single use plastics.

It feels like the momentum is growing.

Any time we're out and talking about this, the vast majority of the people are saying, We don't want all these single use plastics.

Most of what you're getting in grocery stores is single use plastics.

It's enough.

It's too much.

I think rural areas are actually set up really well for this sort of thing, because there's a lot of product and produce coming out of those places, and so you can get that stuff before it's ever been packaged.

Local bakers will sometimes order their flour through us.

They do everything in paper.

So we know, like there's no plastic waste going through that.

I feel like rural communities, you know, like I think of Little House on the Prairie in those old timey stores.

And in some ways, the Eco Flamingo is not different from that.

It really is kind of tricky, because if you look at rural areas, like I went to school in a rural area, and I don't, I can't remember the number of population, but like the biggest store they had was like a Walmart, helping the local supply chain to thrive and giving local farmers, local makers, local bakers, all of that an outlet for to reach.

You know, the community and the customer is a great place to start.

We source local if possible.

Obviously, there's some things that we can't You can't get local, like rice.

Our like, priorities are fair trade, sustainable, closed loop if possible.

So like, what are their systems in place for?

Like, end of life, the whole cycle of their products.

Can they help us do a closed loop system with them so that when we get a product, we are able to either, like, return the container to them, and then they refill it for us, and then goes back in the circle, then we it comes here.

We are able to provide it for people.

The containers are empty.

That's kind of like a closed loop system.

We bring in a lot of local vendors, and so I love being able to say yes to people when they come in and they say, look, I make these dog treats, or I make these shampoo bars.

And we partner with these amazing, smart, talented people from all around the area who bring us these amazing products that then become favorites.

They're a Chicago company as well.

They're really fun because they started as, like, bars of soap that were like, inspired by drinks, so like Long Island Iced Tea, honey whiskey and her little like descriptions are funny, and now she has, like, other cool scents where we're low.

We usually have, like, this whole shelf full of them.

We have a tracker, and I would say, I check it every couple of months, and that's a huge motivator.

So we're somewhere around 150,000 containers saved from landfills at this point.

So just that number of, I mean, if you can imagine, like all of those plastic laundry tubs and plastic cartons of crackers and the amount of plastic that's not gone into the landfill, is super motivating, I would say.

So that's kind of where we see the big changes, just the sheer volume of numbers of how many things have been refilled.

It's really, really incredible.

We use this system called fill joy in the store.

Oh, you're gonna scan this on the sensor of the camera the tablet, and that records the weight of the jar for us.

So you keep that with your jar, and then the tag tells us the tear.

So you go ahead and fill it up.

And then when we bring you up, we scan it back into the register.

That way, you're only charged what you're adding to the jar, not the total weight.

And then this is what also keeps track of how many refills we're doing a day, because every time we're scanning them in, it's keeping the track for us, pretty cool.

So that's the Fill choice.

So that's the right idea.

I mean, you probably can't do everything in, well, you probably could actually in reusable containers, but that's ultimately, that's the gold standard, right, that people are bringing their own containers, back, refilling them, and then there's no waste involved.

But I know that you probably get, like, flooded with all of these recyclables.

These are great because people like.

Yeah, like you said, Yeah.

And then, if not, we have a psych class recycling box, so we just put them in there.

Growing up with my grandparents, who were very conservative about their spending and about, like, the things that they bought and the the things that they brought into their lives and reusing them, and what happened to them over the years, realizing how far away we've gotten from that in such a short amount of time to where, I mean, everything is disposable.

It's just been like watching a shift over over the years, and just feeling like this is the wrong direction.

I have always, always been very angered by waste and watching people be wasteful.

And I, my husband, has forbidden me from going to Costco anymore, because there's something about like, all the things and all the opportunity to buy so much stuff, you know, and then I have seen people be like, Oh, I can buy all these Ziploc bags.

I'm just going to use a brand new Ziploc bag to pick up dog poop, and that is like makes me insane, you know, so things like that have always bothered me, that pressure in my head of knowing that all this plastic was building up, and then finding this place to shop where I could eliminate that, and then starting to work here, and just learning so much more about the sustainability community has been really eye opening for me.

Oh my gosh.

I love the customers so much.

They make my day, like a lot of them, have become my friends, and like seeing them be so passionate about the store too, it really is, like, worth it for them.

I think, like, I just love seeing the people walk in.

I love having conversations with them.

I just really love again, the community, the people who like have made us.

I just have the warm fuzzies by the end of the night, because all these people care.

Being in this community, being in this space, you see people working towards a better idea of what we can be.

And I mean, how can that not be hopeful?

Our kind of mission is to reduce waste and plastics within our community and help people give them tools to be able to shop and consume more sustainably.

Once people see that it's possible.

Hopefully it's like a snowball effect where other people want to do it.

I think that's great.

I think there should be more places like this, and more people wanting to make the switch.

You if you put 5000 honey bees on a scale, they would weigh just about a pound and a half.

These insects may seem tiny, but without them, we don't have gardens, farms or food.

Here's how you can sustain them at your home on a warm May afternoon, Prairie gardens nursery in Champaign is packed with people searching for the perfect plants.

Come on in a class gets underway in one of the greenhouses.

My dad gardened a lot, and always sort of instilled that connection with the earth.

To me, Heather Miller is a 20 year master gardener.

Today, she's showing people how to plant pollinator pockets, communities that house and feed the insects that spread pollen.

There's approximately 500 bee species in the state of Illinois.

We want to be sure people understand the importance and the different types of pollinators and how they can support those.

There's one honey bee, and those were brought over by the Europeans about 400 years ago, as what we would call sort of the workhorse bees to help us with the agricultural production.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, more than 100 US crops rely on pollinators to grow.

The added value from these tiny winged insects is $18 billion but their populations are in trouble.

They are in decline.

We don't understand fully why.

There's lots of different factors from obviously, environmental loss with urbanization, there's different pests, like mites and other things that are causing colony collapses, another factor, much of Illinois' original Prairie has disappeared.

So those tall grass prairies are really important to overwintering of pollinators, as well as obviously a food source.

And just you know, their apartment, that's where they go to live, right?

And so they need some place to go.

On this day, amateur gardeners are getting their hands dirty, learning how to attract pollinator insects with colorful marigolds and other plants.

You.

A few weeks later on a sunny Saturday in June, Heather shows how all that hard work pays off by opening up her backyard to strangers within two days of me planting that penstoma may have bumble bees on that on that pen Stan implant, just like people who work in the sun, bees need a place to refuel and hydrate after hours of hard work, we have our bee water over here, so you can look here.

Bee water is really important for our pollinators, and they oftentimes don't have a place to go for water where they won't drown.

So it's really important to have something that they can light on, which is the marbles, and then you feed it, then they can get to the water without drowning.

Each place you look in Heather's yard, there's a plant that can feed or house a pollinating insect.

And if I could turn your attention over here, these are black eyed Susans.

This is a cultivar variety, you know, a native of our variety.

All that glitters is gold.

Those will be blooming here shortly, and again, will provide pollinator space later on in the season, all the way through fall, Heather's put years of hard work into her yard and into teaching others.

Her motivation is simple.

We don't think about how valuable they are to us as little things, just roaming around pollinators provide the pollination needs of more than 1400 crops around the world we don't eat if we do not have pollinators.

On Chicago's South Side, something powerful is growing an urban farm is turning empty lots into an oasis, and it's more than a garden.

It's a place where community takes root, where volunteers show up and neighbors come together to enjoy fresh whole foods.

In the middle of Chicago's busy and bustling south side, there's a farm, but not just any farm.

We've got some little green ones at Precious Blood ministries farm.

The goal is to cultivate relationships through engagement, education and access to fresh whole foods.

Father, David Kelly is the executive director of precious blood ministries.

He's lived in the South side for more than 20 years.

His mission was to help families cope with violence and loss in their community, and it grew from there.

So it started early on.

Sister Carolyn Hoying, a sister of the Precious Blood, who is grew up on a farm, created a small plot here in this parking lot of raised beds, and where she was able to produce a lot of vegetables and produce out of what looks like a pretty barren space.

But over the years, with Mary Harkin, writer, who is our master gardener, she joined sister Carolyn, early on, it's become what it is today, a real safe place, a haven for people who are not only looking for fresh produce but also a sense of safety within this community and beauty.

You know, beauty is a part of it, and so if you walk around here, you can't help but to feel the life of the plants around you, and therefore our life of our own.

That was 13 years ago.

Now, Mary manages the farm.

I started gardening as a master gardener in 2008 and most of the farms and gardens that I've worked with had to do with the justice system.

I started a Cook County Jail volunteering and started a rooftop garden at juvenile temporary detention center.

Once I found this garden and helped somebody bring the bees here, I was hooked.

The whole mission of precious blood, basically love pouring out from a watering can, and it not only flows out to our farm and to the flowers, but flows onto our virtual urban farm in the midst of Chicago, in our neighborhood, there are no fresh produce stands, there are no grocery stores.

There's no place for people to access fresh produce, and so this space becomes part of that ecosystem of really offering people fresh produce, but it also offers people a gathering space.

You know, people gather around the boxes and the plants, and they engage in conversation, and so in through those conversations, they build relationships, and through relationships, we're a stronger and healthier community all the way around.

So food is part of it, nutrition, but certainly the stories and the safety of this space is also critically important.

Urban farming shortens the distance from farm to fork, saving consumers money, while shrinking not just individual but an entire neighborhood's carbon footprint, and that helps reduce emissions and improve health outcomes for people who take advantage of the harvest.

One of our young men, Fredo, has worked in the farm for over six years and now is doing a farming apprenticeship through Windy City Harvest program in the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

We.

Learning to be a farmer every summer.

We have a number of interns through One Summer Chicago work in the farm.

It's not always people's favorite, but those who take to it really love being out here.

Alfredo Chavez is one of those people who took to farming right away.

He met Sister Carolyn by chance one day, and he's been a regular at the farm ever since.

You kind of lose track of time or like, what's happening around you.

You just feel like you could just do something and just focus on it.

He's seen the positive effects locally grown food has on his community.

People stop by over here, they see and they're like, Wow.

Like, what's let's see, let's stop and let's see what's going on right here.

They'd be surprised every time they see all different types of varieties of vegetables.

I always love being outside in the nature.

That's what I always wanted to do.

So I enjoy being out here.

So I will love to continue working here.

But the real effects of climate change have become a more destructive force on the farm.

Over the past several years, climate change has affected our farm just like it's affected everywhere else.

We've noticed that our springs have gotten a little cooler at times.

Sometimes the Falls last longer.

We have a lot more drastic weather in the summer that conflicts with the farm's mission to grow even more food than it already does, powerful straight line winds, torrential rain, followed by scorching sun and long periods of drought take a toll, and that means those who depend on this inner city Oasis are at the mercy of Mother Nature, we've had a lot of microbursts in our farm, where we've lost full crops.

And this idea of drought followed by rain is really hard on our crops, and they are fruition this as community need increases.

Last year, three tons of produce came from this tiny farm.

Our experience has been that in this neighborhood, there have always been people in need, and yet it seems like we have so many more walk ins now with people just in need of real produce and real food.

There's not really a lot of stores around here that sell vegetables and stuff, you know.

And I don't want to say it's a food desert, but it kind of feels like it.

Growing Food is a very visceral experience, and sharing food is very visceral experience.

Building community is so important, and relationships are so important in terms of restorative justice, so anytime that we are able to share our produce, talk about and share recipes with people and discover new things together, community is built.

We've had people walk in and just marvel at the beauty of our farm and say, I want to be here.

What can I do?

And once we start talking, we realize that we can learn so much from them just as they're learning from us.

A green thumb is one way to help your neighbors and your planet, but there's even more you can do.

Joining us in the studio is Jennifer Fraterrigo, Associate Director for campus sustainability, and a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, that's a mouthful.

It is welcome to state of change.

Thank you for having me so as we're talking about sustainability.

You know, that feels like a big task for people.

So when you're introducing this concept to people, what are some small things that we can do that is just us doing our part?

Yeah, that's a great question, and I think a really important topic for us to discuss, because there are a lot of different just small modifications people can make in their daily lives that could actually have a big impact.

So one of the changes that I have made in my family, my household, that I think has been really important is to compost our food scraps.

So there's a fairly large proportion of the waste that we dispose of that could actually be composted, and because that food waste in particular, contributes to methane emissions, which is one of our most potent greenhouse gasses, if we keep that out of our landfills, we can actually lower greenhouse gas emissions.

So composting is a pretty easy thing for most people to do.

It's just a matter of sorting your waste, so putting your food scraps into a separate container, having a compost tumbler or a small pile in your yard, so that those scraps can decompose and then.

Potentially add them to your garden, or they can stay there for a long time, but they're a really good amendment for if you're a vegetable gardener, for example.

So that's you can put it in your soil.

So lots of options there.

Okay, another thing I we think about is water bottles.

They're everywhere.

I do see, like even at my kids schools, the water fountains that are designed for the bottles, yes, so I feel like we're moving in that direction, but let's talk about the impact of just those plastic water bottles.

Yeah, absolutely, that's another change that we can all make, that I think, as you mentioned, is probably pretty easy for us to do because of the availability of good quality drinking water.

So we can use reusable bottles instead of choosing to buy bottled water in plastic so that reduces our reliance on plastic waste.

Obviously, those plastic bottles come from petroleum sources.

So again, it's another way that we can just reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and I think do things that are good for the planet.

Excellent.

What are a couple other things that you would just throw out for folks who maybe just want to say, Okay, I'll give it a shot.

You know, I'm not going to change the world, but I can make some changes in the corner of my world.

What are some first steps?

Yeah, again, certainly.

I think there are a lot of things that are easy to do, making sure that we're shutting off lights, making sure that we're removing chargers when our devices are charged, so those are fairly low hanging fruit, setting back our thermostats, for example, to make sure that, for example, when we leave the house, we're not heating or cooling our home For reasons that aren't really necessary, because we're not there other things that might take a little bit more effort would be reducing, for example, meat consumption.

So if we eat more of a plant based diet, it's healthier for us, and it's also healthier for the environment.

And that's again, because the energy inputs for producing meat are quite large relative to plant based protein.

And then things like certainly riding bikes rather than always, or walking rather than always getting into our car using public transportation.

Again, sometimes that's harder, depending on where you live, but those are some other things that we can do to reduce greenhouse gas.

Those tiny steps.

Yes, tiny steps.

Absolutely.

And do you have we got about a minute or so left?

Do you have any projects that you're working on at the university that we can maybe see in implementation soon?

Yes, well, we've been working for a while on trying to reduce plastic waste, so along the lines of what we already discussed, using reusable bottles, but also things like carrying your own tote bag, so that instead of accepting a plastic bag when you shop, you can just fill your your own personal bag that's reusable things like that.

And also, I guess, another one that we've been really trying to focus on that's harder for us as a campus scale, but we're trying to introduce a composting option for people on campus.

So again, we can keep those food scraps out of the landfill.

Once people catch on to how compost, how wonderful it is, I think that will be easy, because that stuff is like gold in the garden.

It absolutely is all right.

Thank you so much.

We've been speaking with Jennifer Fraterrigo, Assistant, excuse me, Associate Director for campus sustainability and a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.

Urbana Champaign, thanks so much for coming in.

Thank you.

The Illinois climate action plan aims for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 that is an ambitious goal, and it's going to take a lot of people to make that happen.

Our goals don't have to be that huge, as we learned today.

It could be switching to a fillable water bottle, or planting flowers that will help bees on their journey, or even shopping at a zero waste home goods store.

There's a lot we all can do for state of change and Illinois public Media.

I'm Tinisha, Spain.

See you next time Thank You.

Production funding for state of change is provided by the Backlund Charitable Trust.