With winter comes snow and ice. Although we all want safe walks and driveways, salt is damaging to the environment, yards and gardens, and pets. Salt can damage and crack pet’s paws, it corrodes metal and concrete and is damaging to grasses, trees and plants. Also,...
Invest in an energy-efficient, clean-burning fireplace insert to enjoy fires that warm your house and reduce air pollution associated with conventional fireplaces. (An open fireplace can draw as much as 300 cubic feet of heated room air up the chimney every minute.)...
Many people are using "laundry strips" to reduce the shipping and plastic waste component of even earth-friendly liquid detergent. Here are some other great tips: Use an energy efficient washing machine. Wash less often. Use cold water. Avoid harmful chemicals - skip...
Take a moment to read this article in The Record about a recent meeting of north shore communities gathered to discuss the options for leaf blowers and ordinances related to their use.
Climate change skeptics like to point to cold weather to discount or deflect concerns about climate change, but it is all part of the same process. Katharine Hahoe, leading environmental spokesperson, created a short video that explains why temperature fluctuations...
Go Green Wilmette hosted a clean lawn care workshop for the trade in 2020, presented by the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA) and sponsored by Chalet. More than eighty people participated in the webinar from park districts, lawn care companies, municipalities,...
Go Green Wilmette is focused on helping people create healthy and beautiful lawns. Our plant sale results almost 20,000 additional native plants in our area providing habitat, storm water management and beauty. We have created Greener Lawn Care Guidelines and...
Please take a moment to read this new report on the effects of gas leaf blowers in our environment and COVID-19
Because so many more of us are at home during the day, and because there is less background noise, we are all noticing the sound and smell of leaf blowers now more than ever. Wilmette restricts the use of gas-powered leaf blowers from May 15 to Sept. 30, but all those...
Nurdles are very small pellets of plastic, less than 5 mm in size. They are melted down and molded by the plastic industry to create commonly used plastic items. Unfortunately, billions of nurdles and smaller microplastics end up in the Great Lakes and then wash up on...
There are lots of ways to improve your gas mileage but the easiest thing to remember is to never, ever idle. Turn your car off even if you will be stopped for only 30 seconds. Drivers checking phones with the car running has increased idling exponentially. Make sure...
Yes it does! We can all help reduce the chance of combined sewer overflow by using less water during heavy rains. Delay laundry, dishwashing and showering until after the storm. Learn more and sign up for Overflow Action Alerts at www.chicagoriver.org.
The village of Wilmette passed a coal-tar sealant ban in early 2017. Coal-tar “pitch” represents about 50% of the sealcoating solution by weight and is comprised of a mixture of organic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs compounds found...
Flooding in yards and basements during heavy rainstorms is a major problem on the North Shore. It is an issue that many of the local villages are are struggling to address with long term solutions. Fortunately, there are steps that we can take as homeowners to...
Wilmette bans leaf blowers during the summer for a number of reasons. Gas-powered leaf blowers throw mold, gas fumes, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, dirt, dust, bugs, and animal fecal matter, into the air for us to breath until it rains. And leaf blowers emit...
Letting your car idle while in park might not seem like a big deal. Many of us of a certain generation were taught, in fact, that it was safer to let your car idle before you drove it. However, letting your car idle is actually detrimental to the modern automotive...
Spring in Chicago is generally rainy and we can all benefit from the use of rain barrels. Rain barrels collect rain water and cut down on our use of water from our hoses for our non-potable water usage. Some gardeners are perfectly comfortable using the water from...
Go Green Wilmette works to reduce idling in our community. The purpose of the Idling Reduction Campaign is two-fold – to save energy and to reduce air pollution. There are NO IDLING signs posted at Wilmette’s Metra train station, the Wilmette Park District’s Community...
Water is life. We can’t live without it. Yet, our finite water resources are being rapidly depleted and polluted. Although water is a renewable resource, we use water at a greater rate than it can replenish itself naturally. It’s also important to reduce the run off...
P.O. Box 954
Wilmette, IL 60091
info@gogreenwilmette.org