Chicagoland is filled with eager citizens doing their best to help save our environment for generations
to come. From green roofs to recycling, a large variety of projects and offices are chipping in to go
green.
Local Koenig & Strey offices hold “Shred Events” in partnership with Cintas document management
services that provide area residents with free document shredding and recycling services.
Participants can bring personal documents for shredding and recycling, as well as items like cell
phones, batteries and CDs.
Town & Country Homes offers a number of selections with green building in mind, such as upgraded
insulation in attics, paddle fan outlets, programmable thermostats, Lyptus wood flooring, Energy Star
appliances and high-efficiency furnaces. Special options include Dual Zone HVAC system, bamboo
flooring, spray foam insulation, CFL light bulbs, additional shade trees and low VOC paint. At the
corporate offices, the company recycles, has motion sensor lighting, prints only when necessary,
uses e-reports for weekly and monthly reports and sends green e-mail tips each week.
Optima has been building green roofs for over 30 years, longer than the current Daley green roof
phase.
Belgravia’s 565 Quincy project has over 300 CFL light bulbs.
CMK recycles about 90 percent of project construction material.
Dream Town is the first agency ever to receive Green Certification companywide.
Amli 900, a luxury apartment building at 900 S. Clark constructed out of recycled materials, offers
100 percent commission of the first month’s rent to Realtors bringing in renters.
SMYKAL Associates, currently building single-family homes in Channahon, Joliet and Minooka, uses
energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs throughout their models, has the lights in model homes on
timers to save electricity, turns down model thermostats several degrees in the winter and turns them
up several degrees in the summer to conserve energy, has turned off the landscape sprinkling
systems for the past two years and has eliminated individual plastic water bottles for staff and client
use.
Winthrop Properties in Evanston, the first residential high-rise in the Midwest on track for Gold LEED
certification, has a number of green practices in the sales center and building that many might not
realize:
• Energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs are used throughout Winthrop Club, as well as in the sales
center, and the sales team gives the light bulbs to people who visit the sales center.
•They’ve hosted green seminars for Realtors.
• They’ve given tours of Winthrop Club to students from Evanston Township High School as well as
Northwestern University to educate them on building green.
• Winthrop Club was built with “green energy.”
• Bamboo is used throughout the building. Not only will there be a bamboo wall panel in the lobby
and bamboo flooring in select units, but each residence at Winthrop Club has a bamboo door.
• The lobby of Winthrop Club will have operable windows to allow fresh air into the building, which
also helps with their Gold LEED certification.
• In addition to the numerous landscaped roofs at Winthrop Club, Winthrop Properties is also
planning to install/run ivy down the sides of the building’s parking garage to help mitigate an urban
heat island effect.
At Taylor Johnson & Olesker, for years they’ve had a paper recycling system in place, but now
they’re part of a single sort recycling program where they recycle newspapers, magazines, junk mail,
paper, metal products, plastic products and glass products. TJO has begun a new recycling program/
bin for cellular phones, cellular batteries and accessories.
Sudler Sotheby’s Armitage office is LEED certified and has bamboo floors.
MCL Companies’ two-acre park adjacent to ParkView is actually a green roof above a four-level
underground parking structure. The project brought an open green space to a neighborhood known
for parking lots and industrial facilities. There is also a green roof above Park Homes.
340 on the Park is the first residential tower in the Midwest to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s
LEED Silver certification criterion. The 25th floor holds a two-and-a-half story wintergarden.
