Global Warming Solutions Group of Central Illinois

Kids Go Green Event Deemed a Success

Todd Abercrombie — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:25:44 +0000

On March 17th, kids from around central Illinois gathered at the downtown Peoria Public Library for the first Kids Go Green event. Vendors from the area provided educational activities on topics such as recycling, growing your own food, and energy efficiency. The event ran for 4 hours and had approximately 100 kids attend!

Enjoy the slideshow below and check out the Kids Go Green web site for more details.

Check out the Journal Star write up as well! http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1569575482/Going-green-has-double-meaning

Click to view slideshow.

Green Drinks group talks about Community Choice Aggregation

Kiersten Sheets — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:34:06 +0000

Green Drinks of Peoria will host City and County officials for a discussion on Community Choice Aggregation. Please attend and ask any questions you might have about this topic and the referendum on the March 20th ballot. Good Energy has now gone public with their intent to secure 100% renewable energy for this energy block purchase. What will that mean to Peoria city & county residents?

Green Drinks is also an opportunity to network with others in the community interested in environmental projects for the Peoria area.

The Green Drinks meeting begins with a social at 5:30 p.m. and meeting begins at 6 p.m. It’s held at Rhythm Kitchen on Water St. in downtown Peoria. Anyone is welcome to attend.

The GWSG monthly meeting is held immediately following Green Drinks in the same location. Anyone is welcome to attend that meeting as well!

Kids Go Green on St. Patty’s Day

kassykilley — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:38:37 +0000

This St. Patrick’s Day, your kids can do more than just wear the color green, they can have fun exploring and learning more about recycling, water conservation, energy conservation, and living sustainably.

The Global Warming Solutions Group is excited to host the event and collaborate with other local groups and businesses including, Peoria County Recycling, GroUp Gardening, The Center for Youth and Family Solutions, Shaklee in Peoria, Good Earth Food Alliance, Illinois American Water Company, Ameren Act On Energy, Peoria Disposal Company and Organic Valley.

For details, visit KidsGoGreenPeoria.com and RSVP on our Facebook event.

Saturday, March 17, 2012 | noon to 4 pm

Peoria Public Library, Downtown Branch

Free! Geared towards school aged kids

Bring your trash to recycle! Including light bulbs, alkaline batteries, plastic grocery bags, energy bar wrappers and cereal bag liners. See KidsGoGreenPeoria.com for details.

NASA Climate Days at Lakeview Museum February 18th and 19th

Todd Abercrombie — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:37:18 +0000

Special Event:

Join us at Lakeview Museum for an exploration of the science of climate change, presented by volunteers from the Global Warming Solutions Group. Workshops, seminars and hand-on activities exploring climate science will take place all weekend.

View this document on Scribd

Save Money and Miles With cicarpool.org

Todd Abercrombie — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:09:10 +0000

CiCarpool Helps Central Illinois Commuters Save Money and Miles Driven

In 2008, a few employers in Morton began to offer carpooling as an added benefit to their employees to help offset rising gas prices. That program has now evolved as a regional program that the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission began marketing to the general public this year.

CiCarpool is web-based ridesharing web site that assists users in searching for carpool partners. Types of trips include daily commutes, single trips, long distance travel, and special event coordination. The database helps people find partners for their trip and allows users to contact each other directly through the site without releasing private information. “This program complements public transit by offering locations where transit doesn’t have stops and in hours that transit doesn’t run,” according to Ryan Granata, a human service transportation planner with Tri-County Regional Planning Commission. CiCarpool has is origins from icarpool, a Seattle carpool organization that has spread to many communities including San Diego, Denver, and Savannah.

The local program launched in January of 2011 and now boasts almost 350 members who are finding carpooling matches through the web site. “We have saved 15,000 miles since January, ” Granata said. Funding for the program came through the Federal Transit Administration and their Job Access and Reverse Commute program (JARC). “We have secured funding to keep the system free for users and employers through the end of 2013.” The ridesharing committee includes the Washington Chamber of Commerce, the East Peoria Chamber of Commerce, the Peoria Chamber of Commerce, Citylink, OSF, and the City of Peoria.

The program certainly has a financial benefit for the user in the money saved on gas as well as reduced wear and tear on their automobile. The program is effective for users who have set work schedules, but it can also be used for one-time trips as well. For example, if someone is planning on a trip to Normal, they can log in, enter the destination and date, and find other users looking for the same match.

Through the “commuter calculator” link on www.cicarpool.org, prospective users can help calculate their commuting costs and environmental impact by imputing data such as miles driven, vehicle mileage, cost of gas, and cost of auto maintenance. According to the American Automobile Association, the average cost of driving a mid-sized vehicle 15,000 miles a year is more than $8,000 a year including financing, insurance, registration, taxes, depreciation, and operating costs. CiCarpool allows users to track their progress by signing in to the web site to track their miles saved.

The program is also a benefit to employers by giving them another tool to use for recruiting and retention of commuters from local communities. With a successful commuting program in place, the facilities benefit by requiring smaller parking lots and less impervious surface area to minimize stormwater runoff that causes excessive erosion and inundates municipal water treatment plants.

The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission announced a new clean air education and action program program called “Driving Change”,www.drivingchangehoi.com. “This is a long term initiative of the Commission to educate and encourage residents to make small changes to their transportation routine to make big changes in our region’s air quality. ciCarpool will be a big part of the message,” Granata added.

Visit www.cicarpool.organd see for yourself!