Photo Gallery from Sustainability Bus Tour of Bloomington Normal

On September 30th, the Natural Resources and Your Development Task Force hosted their 3rd annual sustainability bus tour.  This year’s destination was Bloomington-Normal as representatives of each project spoke to the group about how the history, challenges, and celebrations of each project.  Stops on the tour included the following:

• Illinois Central College – Featuring a new green roof over the entrance to the newly expanded Courgarplex gymnasium and a strip of porous asphalt pavement in the parking lot used for training.
• Heartland Community College – Home of the fist state funded LEED certified building (the Workforce Development Center), the Heartland Green Institute, the Illinois Green Economy Network, and the Pegracke Center.  The college also has a student-built solar training shed used in the renewable energy credit program.
• Uptown Normal – They achieved LEED certification for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND).  The group visited the roundabout that has unique storm water management features and SilvaCell structures that allow street tree plantings to thrive.  The group was able to examine 2 Mitsubishi EV’s and the electric car charging stations that power them through Normal’s EVTown initiative.  Normal is also home to the educational outreach center – the Ecology Action Center.
• Twin Groves Wind Farm – Located east of Bloomington in McLean County, the farm consists of 120 turbines with an installed capacity of 198 MW – enough to power approximately 54,000 average Illinois homes each year with clean energy.
• Illinois State University Farm – Through a public-private partnership, ISU has implemented a compost program that incorporates landscape waste from the Town of Normal, animal wastes from the farm, and food waste from non-residential entities.  As you view the photo gallery, you will see a green, plastic biobag that contains the leftover food waste from the group’s lunch that was added to the compost demonstration at the farm.

Enjoy the photos!

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