Attending an Earth Day event in 5th Grade, we simulated an oil spill and explored ways to clean it up. That was the day I realized I wanted to focus on the environment and find better solutions for our planet.

Interested in getting more involved with our local community of climate action champions and bringing the vision of a Circular City to Evanston.

Launching composting for my condo building. It started with just a 5-gallon bucket for my family and over time successfully expanded to a 32-gallon tote for our entire condo building!

My involvement with building energy efficiency began in the 1980s. Reducing building energy was primarily an economic consideration then, along with resource preservation. The connection of buildings to GHG emissions and global climate change made water, energy, and grid use an elevated priority.

I participated early in the predecessor organization, Network for Evanston's Future, and was co-chair of the Mayor’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan Working Group that produced the CARP document. Climate Action Evanston was a natural fit to continue the pursuit of Evanston's climate action goals.

To my home I've added attic insulation, new windows, rooftop solar, and electric cooking appliances. Heat pump water and space heating soon to follow. I initiated use of a composting service at home and at my work place. Owned hybrid cars for 13+ years. Work project energy savings received awards.

The future of my children and grandchildren has always been my motivation to fight for change. Throughout my career as a state and federal regulator, I worked to shape environmental policies that support climate mitigation and resilience.  It's the most important challenge of our lifetime.

EJE is committed to bringing a climate equity lens to improve the quality of life in our community and to advance opportunities for full public engagement in local decision-making, especially in under-served neighborhoods, which are hardest hit by climate change.

As a former member of the Environment Board, we helped get the Climate Emergency Resolution passed by City Council. This resolution underscored the importance of environmental equity and environmental justice in CARP implementation, to ensure the future health and well-being of future generations.

There are many issues to be addressed in this world, but this one stands alone because it threatens our very existence. Rich, poor, white, black—we are all threatened by a climate spiraling into dangerous territory.

In my case, “What” is “Who” — my wife. She has watched me care for the Evanston YMCA Camp Echo orchard for 20 years and she knows what I do for a living—financial consulting, so she suggested this as a natural fit. She was right.

I am a newcomer, but my contribution has been to provide insight for the board on how the organization’s money is received and spent.

I was at the first Earth Day in 1970, became involved in Outdoor Education. I discovered the beauty and intricacies of the natural world and our connection to it and learned of threats posed by climate change. I have been involved in climate activism ever since.

In 2001, my wife and I organized the Green Team at our synagogue, JRC, affirming caring for the earth as a Jewish value. I served on the building team and, in 2008, JRC became the first House of Worship ever to earn LEED Platinum Certification! In 2015 I was invited to join the CGE board.

HOME 2006-solar thermal hot water; 2013-Energy Star certificate insulation; 2019-solar PV; 2022-heat pump replaced gas furnace; 1989-2022-landscaped with native plantings. WORK insulating window coverings for cold in winter/heat in summer. PLAY co-steward, Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary.

My training as a Geotechnical Engineer has always connected me to the earth. The focus on soils morphed into Environmental Engineering as damage to the earth and the climate became apparent, and new engineering solutions and actions were needed.

I was a member of Edible Evanston, spawned from the “Ten Big Ideas” initiative from the Evanston Centennial Celebration in 2013. Edible Evanston’s mission dovetailed well with CGE, the predecessor organization of Climate Action Evanston, and we were accepted as a formal program.

Along with four other co-leaders, Edible Evanston has created the Eggleston Park Food Forest, taking a half-acre grassy field into a permaculture-based perennial orchard and food forest. The food forest demonstrates how people can help mitigate climate action and be more resilient.

Concern that we humans are acting too slowly to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss, and hometown pride in Evanston's leadership in taking action.

Encouragement to join from the founder of its predecessor organization, its mission, and seeing it as a way to fulfill my desire to get off the sidelines and take action.

Winning a unanimous City Council vote to overturn the denial of solar panels on our home's rooftop, leading to rewritten historic district rooftop solar rules. Also our lawnless garden. It's low maintenance, and integrates habitat value and landscape architecture.

I have a deep connection to the natural world and feel profoundly connected to the earth. We have one precious planet and I feel compelled to protect it with every fiber of my being. This was reinforced with the birth of my son and I elevated my service in honor of him and all living things.

After attending Climate Reality Leader training in 2017, I came back to Evanston with a strategy to focus and engage in climate action at the local level. I wanted to offer my talents and energy to a community-based organization that I knew was making a difference addressing climate change.

I was appointed by the Mayor of Evanston to co-lead the Climate Action Resiliency Plan working group in 2018. Our talented group of volunteers created an historic plan with ambitious climate action and resiliency goals. I have continued guiding city climate policy through advocacy and activism.

When I was 12, my father gave me Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.  Learning about the damage chemicals like DDT (once considered harmless!) did to wildlife and birds sparked my environmental passion.

CARP. Evanston Climate Action and Resilience Plan and an interest to work on the implementation of the plan.

We try to take more and more small steps - eliminating driving trips, composting more organic waste, and being mindful that more than just Monday can be meatless.

When I realized around 2008 how climate change impacts the chemistry of the ocean, it brought home how far-reaching climate chaos is to ecosystems and all species.

A friend invited me to a rain garden discussion in her home, followed by engaging me in building weatherizations and then starting Natural Habitat Evanston.

My husband agreed to our converting our yard to native grasses and pollinator plants. I am happy whenever I am in our garden.

I grew up in Southern California where smog was thick, so I knew what pollution could do, and there was no way to avoid that humans caused it. At the same time, I could backpack in the foothills, so, even though I scoffed at tree-huggers, I got a good sense of my place in the natural world.

While I appreciated what national and global groups were doing to raise awareness and combat the issue, the scope of the problem seemed too huge for me to make any difference. So I set out to learn about groups in Evanston that were trying to have an impact locally - and found out about CGE.

We installed rooftop solar and heat pumps in our home and have composting service. While living in a condo here, I successfully advocated to get composting service for the entire building.