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IEC Blog

Earth Day 50

Today, the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. This milestone provides us all an opportunity to reflect on the progress we’ve made and the work we still have to do. The Illinois Environmental Council formed shortly after the first Earth Day in 1975, as leaders in the state looked to convert the excitement of the time into a vehicle for lasting change.  We reached out to a few long-standing members of IEC to get their perspectives to share with you. Virginia Scott joined IEC in 1977 and later assumed the role of executive director. Virginia remains involved with IEC today, and is one of my personal heroes. She recalls that,“IEC rode in on the first wave of environmental enthusiasm that we experienced in the 1970’s. Grassroots environmentalists saw a lack of presence for their cause at the State Capitol and asked ‘Can we work together? Do we want

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April 22, 2020

Our Top Stay-at-Home Sustainability Tips

By Jen Walling | IEC Executive Director When so many of us are spending more time than usual at home due to the novel corona virus, Team IEC is sharing some of our favorite home sustainability tips and resources to help give a boost to our planet and your pocketbook. If you’ve had a chance to check out our blog post about the most important thing you can do to help save our planet, you already know that one of our top tips is to build relationships with your neighbors. You’ll have to read our post to find out why, but in the meantime, now is a great time to check in on your neighbors, especially those living alone– from a safe distance, of course. So far, members of our team at IEC have been able to offer a much-needed toilet paper rescue to one neighbor and received surplus bananas

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April 13, 2020

Lead Poisoning Awareness Week

By Iyana Simba | IEC Clean Water Advocate When it came to light in 2014 that residents of Flint, Michigan were exposed to elevated lead levels in their drinking water, the issue dominated headlines. Since then, cities like Newark, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Chicago have also found elevated lead levels in schools, childcare facilities, parks and residences. The CDC has found there is no safe level of lead exposure for children. Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, and learning and behavior problems, which can cause lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention and under-performance in school. Nationwide, lead finds its way into our drinking water through the 6.1 million lead service lines (LSLs) connecting businesses, schools and homes to the water main1. Roughly 12% of those lead service lines are found in Illinois

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October 25, 2019

Reclaimed Heritage: How Simple Appreciation is Better for Us and the Planet

By Crystal Kern | IEC Finance Director I grew up on a self-sufficient farm in central Kentucky. We had a diverse garden with more plant varieties than I can recall along with several animals. Everything produced on the farm solely supported our family. If we had an abundance of produce, we would invite neighbors over to help themselves to what they needed. We spent most of our spare time canning and preserving our food rather than running to the grocery store. I didn’t think of these things as sustainability practices at the time. They were just how we did things. But, that’s exactly what they were. We tended to the land and picked everything by hand, making due with just a tractor and a horse. We loaded our harvests into the corn crib ourselves and spent our days loading hay bales. Our grains were processed on-site with an old hammer mill.

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September 5, 2019

Introducing IEC Staff Picks

Get to know IEC while picking up a few tips and tricks for protecting the environment Historically, our blog has been a place for IEC staff to share our environmental policy expertise and educational updates on the latest issues facing Illinois. However, we’ve been looking for new ways to connect with other environmentalists like you more regularly, because after all, we are all in this fight together. In an effort to do that, we’re adding a new regular series to our blog with the goal of sharing with you more about who we are, what moves us to do this work and what we’re excited about most. For our first “picks”, a few members of our team have shared some of their personal favorite sustainability tips and ways in which our work ties back into our favorites. When in doubt, throw it out by IEC Executive Director Jen Walling This

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August 6, 2019

Team IEC on Capitol Hill

While a majority of our work at the Illinois Environmental Council is focused on passing and implementing environmental policies here in Illinois, we also engage with our state’s congressional delegation to influence federal environmental priorities as well. Recently, our team traveled to Washington D.C. where we met with congressional staff, several members of Congress and Senator Durbin as part of the national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Lobby Day. LCV is a national organization which seeks to pass pro-environment policies at the state and national level. Check out our video recap of our day from the Capitol here! IEC became the LCV state affiliate for Illinois in April 2018, which means we are plugged into a network of other state-level organizations fighting many of the same battles that we are fighting here in our state. Our trip to D.C. provided me a great way to get to know my new(ish)

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June 28, 2019

Illinois Has the Greenest Cannabis Bill in the Country

With input from the environmental community, Illinois is about to become the national leader for environmental protection in the cannabis industry. Earlier this year, Governor Pritzker along with members of the Illinois General Assembly, including chief sponsor Senator Heather Steans, introduced legislation to legalize recreational cannabis cultivation, sale and use in Illinois. For many this was no surprise, as it followed a round of state elections in which the legalization of recreational cannabis was a topic of hot debate, but polling showed it was supported by the vast majority of Illinoisans. Proponents of legalization have argued that ending the war on drugs is an important policy goal and a properly designed tax structure could allow cannabis to fund valuable state programs such as public education. But one issue has remained – is the ‘green’ industry really all that green-friendly? Let’s take a look at a few topics on this question.

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May 31, 2019
Sterigenics

Sterigenics, Ethylene Oxide and Human Health

Jen Walling Executive Director, Illinois Environmental Council Without a family history of breast cancer, no one can pinpoint how my mother developed cancer. I was ten years old at the time, and as everyone who has gone through a similar experience knows, the diagnosis was incredibly hard on my family. The experience made enough of an impression on me that I have made it my life’s work to protect public health by creating and enforcing regulations on toxins and carcinogens. I grew up in Darien, Illinois, which, until recently, did not seem related to my mom’s illness. But a new finding has hit very close to home: ethylene oxide, a chemical used in sterilization, was found to be highly carcinogenic with no safe level of human exposure, and a facility that has emitted ethylene oxide for over three decades, Sterigenics, is located less than 2 miles from the home I

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October 4, 2018
Take Action

Federal Setbacks and the State of Illinois Energy Policy

By Cary Shepherd Policy Director, Illinois Environmental Council The federal administration unveiled its latest attempt to prevent our nation’s transition to a clean energy economy earlier this week. After announcing the repeal of the Clean Power Plan – the Obama Administration’s signature climate change policy – the EPA has proposed to replace it with the ironically named Affordable Clean Energy Rule. Little about this rule is either clean or affordable. This new proposal removes the statewide cap on carbon emissions from power plants and allows states to independently relax regulations on power plant pollution, thus leaving little federal guidance. Without rational federal policy in place, responsible state energy programs are now essential to protecting the planet and the health of our communities. Is Illinois prepared for this change? Two years ago, the answer would have been no. Back in 2016, the Illinois Renewable Portfolio Standards, the mechanism used to source

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August 24, 2018
In the Media

How to Pursue a Career Protecting the Environment

By Jen Walling Executive Director, Illinois Environmental Council While I’m sure 12-year-old me would be very proud of my current career (my friend Dorothy and I would stay behind after lunch to recycle milk cartons), I’m also certain I had no idea that advocating for the environment was a potential career option. As it turns out, it is a job, and I’ve been doing that job since 2011 as the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. In my role, I’m contacted by many students who are passionate about environment protection, and are considering making that passion a career in advocacy. I receive enough of these messages that I thought it would be worth writing down my best pieces of advice: Internships are just as important to determine what you don’t want to do as they are in determining what you want to do. As a high school and college

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July 10, 2018

IEC Announces League of Conservation Voters Partnership

Innovative Partnership to Hold Elected Officials Accountable and Elevate Environmental Issues Protecting Illinois’ environment is the focus of a new partnership launched today between the Illinois Environmental Council and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). This partnership will be used to hold decision makers accountable, put environmental issues front and center in the electoral process, and change the political dynamics that shape environmental policy in Illinois. “The Illinois Environmental Council has been working to protect Illinois’ environment in our state capitol since 1975. Partnering with the League of Conservation Voters, and the larger Conservation Voter Movement, will help the environmental community in Illinois increase our power to seek positive environmental change,” said Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jen Walling. IEC will work closely with LCV through an innovative partnership that will combine the power and resources of a national organization, with the community connections, local knowledge, and long-term approach of

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April 10, 2018