Successful 2024 Earth Week in DG

Thanks to everyone for making Earth Week a success! It was wonderful to see the community come together to learn, plant, clean up, and celebrate. We can’t wait to make Earth Week an annual tradition in Downers Grove. 

DGN Treeplenish 4/20

Sustainable Wine Presentation

Sustainable Wines, 4/19

Sustainable Wines, 4/19

Sustainable Wines, Cellar Door

Sustainable Wines, Cellar Door

DGN Treeplenish, 4/20

DGN Treeplenish, 4/20

DGN Treeplenish, 4/20

Organic Garden Walk, 4/20

Organic Garden Walk, 4/20

Organic Garden Walk, 4/20

Organic Garden Walk, 4/20

EARTH DAY!!!! Common Ground at

GG Display, the lobby of Tivol

GG Display, lobby of Tivoli

GG Display, lobby of Tivoli

Return of Cicadas, 4/23

Return of Cicadas, 4/23

Return of Cicadas, 4/23

DG Park Clean Up, 4/27

DG Park Clean Up, 4/27

DG Park Clean Up, 4/27

Let’s keep the momentum going with our upcoming events

May 4 River Sweep 

Nature Conservancy Sponsored "River Sweep Clean Up."

Join fellow DG residents and pick up trash and litter in a DG wetland area! Saturday, May 4th between 9-12 (can come and go when needed) Wetland area around 40th St and Glendenning Rd in northeast DG. This is DG Park District land that is part of this overall clean-up effort. 

Contact info@greenergrove.org to get detailed info and waivers that will need to be signed to participate.

May 21 Fishel Park

Stop by our Greener Grove Booth at the Tuesday night Summer Concert Series in Fishel Park.

May 28 Downers Grove Public Library

Greener Grove meeting with DG Sustainability Coordinator, Jason Michnick. He’s asking us to share our ideas of what we would like to see regarding the sustainability plan the village is in the process of creating.

April is Earth Month!

Each year, people all around the world participate in celebrations to demonstrate their support for environmental protection.  This year, Greener Grove is helping to organize six Earth Week events for the Downers Grove community!  We will be drinking wine, planting trees, visiting gardens, watching a film about regenerative agriculture, learning about cicadas, and beautifying local parks - and we hope that you will join us!

Earth Week 2024 in Downers Grove!

Friday April 19, 7-9 pm, Sustainable wine presentation + informal wine tasting

Cellar Door's sommelier is going to give a presentation on sustainable wine at the Downers Grove Public Library from 7-8 pm.  Those who are interested in further discussion and sampling can then head to Cellar Door, where sustainable wines can be purchased.  A suggested donation of $15 will help us cover the cost of the presentation. Every donation will be entered into a raffle for one of three bottles of sustainable wine. To RSVP, click here for tickets on Eventbrite.

Saturday April 20, 12-3 pm, Tree-plenish community tree planting event

Downers Grove North High School's Outdoor Environmental Club and Greener Grove will be planting tree saplings at Concord Square Park.  Please wear comfortable clothes that can get dirty, and bring a shovel and gloves.  For more details and to RSVP, or to donate to buy tree saplings, please click here.

Saturday April 20, 2-4 pm, Downers Grove garden walk

Join Downers Grove Organic Gardeners and Greener Grove for an organic garden walk.  After meeting up at Gilbert Park, we will walk to several houses along Gilbert Avenue, where we will be given a guided tour and presentation highlighting each gardener's sustainable gardening practices.  Click here for tickets on eventbrite.

Monday April 22, 7:30-9:30 pm, Common Ground film screening + discussion

Greener Grove is supporting the After Hours Film Society in showing the highly acclaimed environmental film, Common Ground, at the Tivoli Theater on Earth Day.  This documentary explores how many of our challenges connect to a broken food system, and profiles farmers using regenerative models of agriculture to pave the way to positive climate, health, and economic solutions. Stay for a discussion after the film. For more details and to buy a ticket, please click here.

Tuesday, April 23, 7-8:30 pm, Greener Grove Meeting: Return of the Cicadas

Be prepared for one of the wonders of nature as the 17-year cicadas return to Northern Illinois this year. Join Greener Grove and PDHA (Pierce Downer Heritage Alliance) at the Downers Grove Public Library as Urban Forester, Steve Ruffolo, outlines this amazing phenomenon and answers your questions.

Saturday April 27, 10 am-12 pm, Downers Grove Park District Volunteer Day

Greener Grove is partnering with the Park District to beautify our local parks for spring!  We will help to prepare Fishel Park and Hummer Park for the season by mulching trees, picking up sticks and debris, and removing trash at each location. Gloves, tools and staff assistance will be provided - we are advised to dress for the weather and to get messy.  The park district will provide light snacks and give all volunteers an oak seedling to plant at home.  For more details and to RSVP, please click here.

We are so excited for a great Earth Week here in Downers Grove.  We really hope to see you at these events!  Please feel free to share this information with your friends and neighbors, and please do not hesitate to email us at info@greenergrove.org if you have any questions or feedback.

New Year, Greener You!

Happy New Year to our Downers Grove family. We are looking forward to doing great things and making big strides for sustainability this year! At our December meeting/social gathering, we asked attendees to write down what topics and initiatives they would most like to see Greener Grove focus on in 2024. We had so many thoughtful and exciting responses, and we wanted to share them with you as a way of documenting the things that really matter to us as a group.

We also have a record of each individual response. If you’re interested in doing a deep dive, you can take a look at our handy dandy spreadsheet here, organized into color-coded categories for your viewing pleasure.

Educating DG residents on various sustainability-related topics was a common theme to the responses. The leadership team has decided to make education a core component of our meetings this year. To kick things off, we are excited to start with a presentation by Jean Kent from S.C.A.R.C.E, who will be talking to us about how to make more sustainable choices. As a reminder, we will now be meeting in the Downers Grove Public Library, and our first meeting of the year is Tuesday, January 23rd at 7 PM. Please invite your friends and neighbors to attend!

Our next two meetings after that are already set, with February 27th being a presentation about Making the Switch to Solar Energy, so if you’re curious about going solar, you don’t want to miss this! And, March 26th, we will have our own Greener Grove member and landscape architect, Tom Eisenhart, giving a presentation about using native plants in your landscape. Lots to look forward to!

We also look forward to meeting Jason Michnick, the new Environmental Sustainability Coordinator for the Village of Downers Grove, who started on January 2nd! Our Greener Grove leadership team will be reaching out to schedule a meeting with him to introduce Greener Grove and talk more about what we do and how we can help facilitate sustainable initiatives at the village level.

Hope to see you all soon!

Greener Grove Communications Team