Year One with VoDG Sustainability Coordinator

by Michelle Weed, Tim Companey, Julie Companey, Yvonne Malone

Jason Michnick has completed his first year in the newly created Environmental Sustainability Coordinator position for the Village of Downers Grove.  Michelle Weed, Louise Kelly, and Yvonne Malone of Greener Grove recently spoke with Jason about his first year in the role, the Village's 2025 plans, and how Greener Grove members and village residents can support these efforts.

Interview at DG Public Library: Yvonne Malone, Michelle Weed, Louise Kelly, Jason Michnick

Working on the Village’s comprehensive plan, known as Guiding DG, which includes a Sustainability Plan, Active Transportation Plan, and a Streetscape Plan for the Downtown and Fairview areas is a tremendous undertaking, and one of the major initiatives on Jason’s plate. In the first year, Jason and Village staff across multiple departments began the work of conducting thorough research, surveying residents to find out what is important to them, and putting together a vision and goals for the Sustainability Plan, which will be the foundation for the plan moving forward.

“I feel pretty good,” says Jason. “Things are going well. We’re definitely making progress at the village, and we’re on track to have the sustainability plan done on schedule. A full draft will be reviewed by the council in April.” 

Jason shared that last year as a new Village employee, in a new position, he went through many of the typical growing pains of any newcomer, such as learning how the village operates and getting to know colleagues in all different departments. But Jason isn’t just any new employee. He brought experience that immediately was tapped to work on another large Village project: maintaining the efficiency and preservation of one of our most important natural resources, our drinking water.  

Jason had prior experience working at a research center on water rate study and water finance, so he was able to bring this knowledge of the process to the table and work with the team. An important aspect of the preservation process is keeping ahead of updates and replacement of lead service lines. The village has identified about $60 million for these capital projects over the next 10 years. “We’re in a really good place. Looking forward, we have a plan to pay for all these projects and make sure that the Village’s water system is in good health for the next 20 years or so.” said Jason. 

Towards the end of 2024, Jason presented at a monthly meeting of The Metropolitan Mayor’s Caucus – the organization that spearheaded the Greenest Region Compact (GRC). The meetings are an opportunity for GRC members to share successes, challenges, and learnings with one another. 

The success Jason shared, also in regards to water, is that Downers Grove is one of the few towns in the region that has taken the step to having stormwater as a utility, which is a huge part of community resilience. Most communities have stormwater infrastructure, but they’re running into issues of aging infrastructure and insufficient finances to make updates. “The fact that DG residents pay for stormwater builds a revenue source to enable us to face climate change and prevent flooding, which is a huge step in the right direction and is one of the areas where Downers Grove leads,” Jason said.

Jason also shared a challenge. A bike and pedestrian facilities assessment was completed to identify ways to make biking a safe and viable mode of transportation in Downers Grove. The assessment found that there are a number of factors and possible tradeoffs to fitting in new bike facilities throughout the community. These challenges are not unique to Downers Grove, and other GRC communities face similar challenges. The final recommendations for the Active Transportation Plan are anticipated to be presented along with the sustainability plan in April. 

Moving into this year’s goals, when Jason and the council reviewed an outline of what they wanted the Sustainability Plan to look like, a huge part of it is community involvement. They recognized that if they are going to establish a vision for the community and have high level sustainability goals for the village, it’s going to take action on the part of residents as well. Implementing a Community Pledge will be foundational to the Sustainability Plan, and doing the work of shaping that program is now underway. Additionally, educating residents on ways they can make an impact will be crucial, and Jason mentioned that he sees Greener Grove playing a role in educating and engaging the community in ways they can participate in sustainability at home.

“I think it’s incredible that Greener Grove exists in the community. It’s another area where Downers Grove is unique, in that we have a grassroots organization that is passionate and active in the process. In other communities where I’ve worked or lived, we had a commission like the environmental concerns commission, but a community organization that is getting involved and playing an important role in educating the community is unique.” Jason said. 

This April is the target for presenting the full Sustainability Plan to the Village for formal adoption. This coincides with the timing of the Active Transportation Plan, and Streetscape Plan, with the idea that important themes from these plans will get pulled into the Comprehensive Plan. “We’re working on these four plans at the same time, which is a lot of work, but the coolest part about it is you start to see where there’s synergies ,” Jason said.  “As plans are presented back to back in these meetings, you start to see that an issue we’re facing in one plan is part of a goal or vision for another plan. So it makes it easier to see where we have alignment, or if we need to go back and reconsider how we wrote something before.”  

Jason encourages, for every step of this process, having voices in support of sustainability at Village Council meetings and in public conversations. “There are certainly voices with an opposing viewpoint. Having people from the community speaking up in support, submitting written remarks, and showing the council that you’re paying attention and know what’s going on is very powerful,” he says. “Council members do take it to heart.”