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Chicago’s “Urbs in Horto” Provides Ready Source of Much-Needed Pollen and Nectar

Concerns about the mysterious national decline in the honeybee population - crucial in pollination of virtually all food crops - will be on the minds of many as National Honeybee Day approaches on Saturday, Aug. 21.Yet, honeybees are thriving in one surprising environment: the Lurie Garden, an urban garden in downtown Chicago. The garden’s perennial plants and flowers attract honeybees and dozens of other bee/insect species that help sustain the environment, beautify the gardens and supply honey.

Since it opened in July 2004, the Lurie Garden has become a haven for honeybees in a landscape that attracted few such winged creatures in preceding years. According to Jennifer Davit, the garden’s director, the Lurie Garden is an ideal place for honeybees to find the pollen and nectar they need to survive and carry on their pivotal role in the food chain.”Bees need a large area of one plant, preferably one square meter or larger,” she says.

“At the garden, we have large masses of plants and bees really benefit because they don’t have to fly as far and expend extra energy to eat.”The Lurie Garden is an example of how the honeybee population can survive and thrive, thanks to key sources of sustenance found there.”Bees need blooms throughout the season and are attracted to blue and purple flowers, which are Lurie’s signature colors,” Davit says. “Bees also prefer native plants, like those in this garden, because genetically-altered cultivars don’t often produce as much pollen and nectar.”Bees that buzz around the Lurie Garden make their home in several hives on the roof of the Chicago Cultural Center across North Michigan Avenue and, a few blocks away, at Gallery 37 and Chicago’s City Hall. Honey from those hives is collected and sold by the Chicago Honeybee Group, with proceeds designated to help the local urban honeybee population thrive.

Since bees started visiting the Lurie Garden, says Davit, the taste of the honey has become “minty,” due to the large presence of Lurie plants in the mint family. Honeybee colonies at the Lurie Garden have a positive impact on the environment, but do not cause a problem among the thousands of visitors to the popular attraction. Davit points out that she and other Lurie Garden horticulturists and gardeners are on site daily and have not been stung. Bees also are a regular part of free educational programs at the Lurie Garden, including the popular “Bee Walk and Talk in the Garden.”The Lurie Garden is located at the southeast corner of Millennium Park, near the corner of Columbus Drive and Monroe Street. Millennium Park is easily reached by CTA and adjacent public parking is available.

Millennium Park is universally accessible to patrons with disabilities.For more information, visit www.millenniumpark.org.

Visit www.luriegarden.org for more information about the Lurie Garden, including programming, four-season highlights, plant features and design elements.

Jim Broccolo receives honor from Green Profit magazine

He’s young. He knows about all things green. He’s garden-wise beyond his 30 years.

Meet Jim Broccolo, nursery manager and annuals buyer for Chalet, Wilmette, Ill., recently named 2010 “Young Retailer of the Year” by Green Profit magazine, a trade publication for the garden center industry. Broccolo, chosen from dozens of garden retail professionals under age 35, will be featured on the magazine’s cover in September.

The announcement was made this month during the Ohio Flower Growers’ and Retailers Association (OFA) Short Course, considered one of the largest and most important horticulture industry events in the world. Chris Beytes, Green Profit editor and publisher, said the magazine’s panel of expert judges was impressed with Broccolo’s vision for the future of garden centers, and his belief in contributions to the local community and the earth.

“The criteria for this award are knowledge, education, experience, travel, involvement in their own business and the industry, as well as their community and an expression of passion and enthusiasm for their chosen trade,” said Beytes. “This can be a tough industry and the award recognizes hard-working young people who spend a lot of long hours and weekends at their job.”

Broccolo also impressed the judges with his entry’s essay on customer service.

“Servicing the customer of 2020 begins by establishing a trusting relationship with today’s customer, working with growers to improve our environmental impact and using technology as an avenue for education and outreach,” he wrote. “We must view our customer as multi-generational: the gardeners tending to their property for several decades, the first-time homebuyers excited about the opportunity to maintain their own yards, and the young children in a classroom or shopping with a parent.”

Broccolo also wrote that he and his colleagues are able to meet customers’ needs by building relationships and providing service that is knowledgeable as it is friendly. They do this through interactions with longtime and new shoppers, and as a result of Chalet’s regular presentations at local garden clubs and schools.

To view Green Profit online, please visit www.ballpublishing/GreenProfit. For more information about the award-winning Chalet, visit www.chaletnursery.com.

Sustainable Approach Enhances Core Efficiencies and Productivity

Malcolite, an award-winning business-to-business lighting component manufacturer, is using sustainable, new technologies to advance performance, efficiency, cost savings and hassle-free service.

The Northbrook, Ill.-based company, founded in 1962, manufactures replacement fluorescent light covers, easy-install retrofit kits and LED and natural day lighting diffusers. Malcolite serves all types of commercial and public facilities nationwide, including schools, healthcare, nursing homes, property management, food processing, retail and municipalities. In 2002, ownership of the business shifted to current president Jason Howard, a LEED® Accredited Professional who offers an entrepreneurial, progressive vision that is transforming the company.

Malcolite’s new management embraced the opportunity to revitalize the company and enacted improvements in product design, customer relations, operational efficiencies and environmental consciousness. With its mission to give customers all the light they’re paying for, the company measures success by carefully monitoring its performance, value and service.

Malcolite first confronted the challenges it faced in managing inventory, shipping and logistics for a growing list of 8,000 product variations, while honoring its commitment to timely customer service. The company converted to a Web-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and moved more than 80 business processes – such as accounts payable and receivable – to this new platform.

The conversion was the result of a rigorous planning process, and improvements were substantial. Malcolite achieved virtually paperless processing, reduced order pricing turnaround times and substantially improved its order response time. The company now offers its customers immediate access to order status with automated order processing. Real-time order visibility and an innovative supplier program helped Malcolite reduce carrying costs, with an increase in inventory turns of 66 percent. The new process also generated product design improvements by allowing the company to more easily source and track components for complex lighting assemblies from multiple vendors.

“The improvements we made in our internal systems permeated our organization,” Howard says. “When we started drawing new connections from the hub of our systems, it touched every process and relationship we have. Now, our employees work smarter, our customers receive better service and more useful information, and our designers are free to think and plan without constraints on parts acquisition and inventory challenges.”

This system upgrade enabled Malcolite to drastically reduce order quoting and processing times and provide immediate access to order information. Customers now see a real-time, thorough picture of their account status, boosting their ability to efficiently plan, budget, allocate and install.

The enhancements in processes, deliveries and support are tailored to highlight the core of Malcolite’s business: providing well-designed, long-lasting, highly efficient lighting components to thousands of facilities across the country. Customers benefit from better performance, superior light quality and an innovative, healthful design – all with an energy savings of up to 78 percent. The company strives to improve the functionality of a customer’s existing lighting and enhance working conditions by reducing glare and providing visual comfort.

Malcolite’s pre-wired, pre-assembled retrofit/replacement lighting kits significantly minimize waste and installation time and cost by allowing installers to replace only necessary fixture components. Lower energy costs, a shorter payback period and utility company rebates also contribute to improving customers’ operations. Malcolite lighting systems maximize value with trouble-free service for many years after installation. Because its products offer a longer life, they initiate fewer replacement cycles.

“It is rewarding to see Malcolite grow and witness the increasing satisfaction from our customers, vendors and staff,” Howard says. “We stepped into this with the goal of giving customers all the light they’re paying for, and it’s paid off for everyone in ways we couldn’t have imagined.”

Malcolite is a recipient of the 2010 PM100 Progressive Manufacturing Award from Managing Automation Media, for incorporating multiple levels of innovation into its business practices. For information on Malcolite, please visit www.malcolite.com.

Work by Chicago Gateway Green was featured on ABC 7 News Chicago on June 27, 2010 at 8:50 a.m. The non-profit organization created and cares for more than 100 gardens along the city’s expressways. Landscape Operations Manager Julia Plumb was featured in the live segment, standing alongside one of Gateway Green’s gardens by the Kennedy expressway.

A reader of Time Out Chicago recently asked “What’s up with that?” regarding the oak leaf markers next to plants along the interstate. In the Around Town section from June 3 to June 9, Britany Robinson answers the question by identifying the signs as those of Chicago Gateway Green, “a nonprofit org that gives eyesore roadside strips the HGTV treatment.” She says the sturdy native plants in these gardens are designed to withstand the harsh environment around them.

Indeed, the plant life surrounding the hardy, industrial city of Chicago must, too, carry the same qualities. That such plant life thrives in the Windy City when given the chance is not only a testament for sustainability, but affirms that the efforts of organizations like Gateway Green are essential.

Click here to visit Chicago Gateway Green’s web site.

Fantastic news for Chicago’s North Shore: the new, bimonthly magazine Quintessential New Trier debuts this September. Led by the former editor in chief of Northshore Magazine, Sherry Thomas says in a letter to readers on the new web site, “[Quintessential New Trier] is designed to be your magazine, the one that tells stories about your neighbors, your schools, your lakefront, your institutions and all those things you value about this place you call home.”The publication will cover an area of 56,000 residents within the villages of Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glencoe and portions of Glenview and Northfield. Quintessential New Trier will be available on the newsstands, but hasn’t yet been priced. Thomas says on the web site that she looks forward to friends, readers and members of the New Trier community joining her on this exciting new voyage. We couldn’t agree more and we look forward to reading the first issue.Click here to get more details on the launch of Quintessential New Trier on Crain’s Chicago Business web site.Click here to visit the Quintessential New Trier web site.

Public/private partnerships support organization’s goal of planting 15,000 trees by 2015This summer, Chicago Gateway Green and its partners are maintaining one dozen lush and colorful new gardens, totaling 2.5 acres, along the new-and-improved Dan Ryan Expressway. The organization’s goal is to plant 15,000 trees along Chicago expressways and throughout the city by 2015.

The Dan Ryan Expressway is an example of how a collaborative green movement is turning areas that are vulnerable to poor air quality, litter and lack of greenery into colorful, blooming, well-tended gardens and tree canopies. The major expressway improvement project is an investment of time and resources by Chicago Gateway Green, Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), City of Chicago and numerous corporations and local businesses.

Expressway gardens are individually marked with the non-profit organization’s iconic leaf symbol and partner logos. Planted in 2008 and 2009, this is the first, full blooming season for the Dan Ryan rainbow-themed gardens. They are teeming with numerous trees, including Kentucky Coffee Tree, Swamp White Oak and Japanese Tree Lilacs., complemented by double knockout roses, liatris, catmint and prairie dropseed. Gardens are distinct according to a dominant color theme for each gateway, from the yellow daylilies and sumac at 63rd Street Gateway, to the blue and purple salvias at 47th Street.

The self-irrigating gardens are a true collaboration between Chicago Gateway Green, leading corporations, sports teams and local businesses, as well as IDOT, CDOT and the city. Current Dan Ryan Expressway Partners include Allstate Insurance Company, Chicago White Sox, Illinois Institute of Technology, PLS and Solo Cup.

“The Dan Ryan gardens are a showpiece for what these types of partnerships can accomplish,” said Gerald Roper, chairman, Chicago Gateway Green. “Travelers and commuters enjoy beautiful scenery and the gardens enhance the environment by transforming areas with poor air quality and smog into lush greenery. Chicago’s expressway gardens illustrate our belief that beauty and sustainability go hand in hand to improve quality of life for millions of Chicagoans and its visitors.”

Chicago Gateway Green, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2011, also maintains more than 100 expressway gardens along the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Stevenson. Partners on those expressways include the Chicago Blackhawks, Bears, Cubs and Fire; and local businesses Vienna Beef, Horseshoe Casino and 900 N. Michigan Shops. For a full list of Chicago Gateway Green Expressway Program partners, please visit the Web site at www.gatewaygreen.org.

Two additional Chicago Gateway Green programs also rely on strong partnerships. The organization’s International Sculpture Exchange Program enhances expressway landscapes through placement of permanent, large-scale public art from 25 global sister cities. Its Tree Partnership Program weaves like a green ribbon through Chicago’s neighborhoods. Tree partnerships with organizations, companies and individuals green and beautify gardens on neighborhood parkways and on land that is vacant or vulnerable to poor environmental conditions.

Through its work to combine sustainability with beauty, Chicago Gateway Green has earned support from prominent individuals and organizations. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is honorary co-chairman of Chicago Gateway Green and this spring, reporter/anchor and active philanthropist Bill Kurtis was named honorary spokesperson. The organization’s officers and board of directors include Chicago leaders in business, industry, charity and the arts.

“Now more than ever, beautification efforts in Chicago are needed to restore and ensure the natural beauty of our city and improve the quality of air, land and ultimately the quality of living,” Roper said. “For nearly 25 years, Chicago Gateway Green has been a constant in the greening of Chicago, and our commitment continues as we work toward a collective vision of an urban garden.”

In addition to support for its Expressway Garden Program, donations are needed for plants and planting materials, and volunteers are necessary to help with Chicago Gateway Green’s tree planting and maintenance activities. Companies, businesses, organizations and individuals are encouraged to call 312-540-9930 or visit www.gatewaygreen.org to learn how they can help keep Chicago growing green and beautiful.

When the Nike Sports Complex expansion opens on the north side of town in early 2011, the traditionally English game of cricket will be among the organized sports played on a pitch located at the new field space.

“It is very exciting to see a cricket pitch included in the new Nike Sports Complex because Naperville residents, especially its youth, will benefit in a big way from the programs the park district will be able to offer at the facility,” says Sarti Krishnan, a Naperville Park District Cricket League participant. The community has one other cricket pitch, at Commissioners Park, 3704 111th St.

“The addition will enable the district to expand its nationally renowned and highly popular cricket league, which has seen overflow demand for the past three years,” Krishnan says.
Cricket is played with two teams of eleven players each. Although the play and rules are different, the basic concept of cricket is similar to baseball. Teams bat in successive innings and attempt to score runs, while the opposing team fields and attempts to bring an end to the batting team’s innings. After each team has batted an equal number of innings, the team with the most runs wins.

“Cricket teaches patience, teamwork and self-confidence,” Krishnan says. “As with many competitive sports, younger players benefit the most because of values the sport teaches early on. Children as young as 8 years old can start playing seriously. Many people play the game for recreational purposes well into their 60s.”

Several thousand people use the existing 25-acre Nike Sports Complex every year for organized play and recreation. With viable, active youth sports teams in the thriving
community, Naperville became desperate for recreational field space on the north side of town. Land adjacent to the existing Nike Sports Complex was purchased for expansion in 2007 because of its size, contiguous location and ease of accessibility.

Area youth athletic coaches say the planned addition of 20 acres of field play at the site will get even more kids involved in the community’s record-winning teams – and help maintain its tradition of producing great sports athletes.

With the planned expansion at Mill Street and Diehl and Bauer Roads nearly doubling the facility’s existing size, amenities also will include the district’s first lighted, synthetic turf field and multi-use fields for soccer, football and lacrosse, in addition to cricket. Lighted courts for tennis, basketball and volleyball as well as a playground, walking and bicycle trails also will be used by youth and community residents.

“Without regular practice, a player will fail to perform well and a team will not win consistently until it plays well together,” Krishnan says of cricket. “Regular practice that results in improvement in game performance will significantly increase one’s overall self-confidence. In addition to cricket, this multi-sport facility is very attractive for the range of recreational activities it provides.”

The Nike Sports Complex expansion is based on resident feedback during the acquisition process, at several public meetings and from recommendations contained in the Open Space and Recreation Master Plan. One of the first steps in the project’s development was installation of safety fencing and removal of trees and underbrush last fall. Engineering plans were developed and the park site received a positive recommendation from Plan Commission earlier this year, followed by City Council approval in April. Groundbreaking is planned for late June. An opening is targeted for early 2011.

For more information about the Nike Park Sports Complex expansion, call 630-848-5000 or visit www.napervilleparks.org. The Web site features news updates, a site plan and frequently asked questions about the project. Please visit the Web site to also learn about Naperville Park District and its numerous public programs, seasonal events and services.

Read more about the sports complex on Naperville Park District’s web site, here.

GreenMark PR Associate Beth Burdin’s greening efforts have not been held back by Chicago’s winter. As the Chair of the Park District of Oak Park’s Greening Advisory Committee, she has helped steer the group in its preparations for spring. A zero waste program is in the works for the community’s sports programs, after a successful t-ball pilot in 2009. The group has introduced and will perform the park district’s first prescribed burn of its naturalized areas. Plans are underway for the installation of a fen as part of Taylor Park overhaul, which won an Openlands grant. Energy audits are being conducted of some of the district’s field houses. Plots are being chosen for the field testing of organic fertilizers. Things are looking greener already

In her spare time, Beth applies marketing ideas to our clients businesses, to help them grow. Let us know how we can help you!

Happy Holidays from GreenMark PR!

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