You are invited to attend a day-long tour of green initiatives and green technology applications in and around the Bloomington – Normal area. The tour should be of special interest to engineers, land use planners, public works professionals, architects, local government officials, conservationists and citizens interested in sustainable communities and practices. Each stop will have a personal guide familiar with the site to answer questions. Last year, the Task Force hosted a tour of sites in and around Peoria.
This year there will be visits to the following stops in sister cities.
Sustainability Tour Bloomington – Normal
Friday, September 30, 2011
Save Your Seat – email “Nick Hayward” nhayward@tricountyrpc.org by phone at 309-673-9330. (We have a great line-up this year… trip includes transportation, lunch, great learning experience)
. Illinois Central College Gymnasium, CougarPlex – Check – in and enjoy coffee/bagels. Learn about the extensive green roof on Illinois Central College’s newly expanded Cougarplex and the recent installation of their porous asplalt parking lot from Anthony Corso, ICC’s Director of Green Building Programs and Sustainability Coordinator.
. Heartland Community College – In 2007 the Board of Trustees for Heartland adopted a policy to integrate principles of sustainability into its programs, policies, and practices. The Workforce Development center was the fi rst state funded LEED certified building in Illinois and is home to the Heartland Green Institute, the Illinois Green Economy Network, and the Pegracke Center. The center also houses the Technology Department and has constructed a solar training shed used in the Renewable Energy credit program.
. Uptown Normal – Uptown Normal has achieved LEED certification for Neighborhood Development – LEED-ND. The neighborhood has many sustainable features including a roundabout for environmentally friendly storm water management, the LEED certified Children’s Discovery Museum, a multimodal transportation center, and street tree plantings using the unique SilvaCell structures. Through the EVTown initiative, they have several electric car charging stations and 2 Mitsubishi EVs at city hall. The Ecology
Action Center is a central resource for environmental education, information, and outreach for McLean County.
. Explore Twin Groves Wind Farm – The Twin Groves Wind Farm is located east of Bloomington on two prominent moraines in eastern McLean County. The wind farm consists of 120 Vestas V82 1.65 MW turbines and has an installed capacity of 198 MW – enough to power approximately 54,000 average Illinois homes with clean energy each year. Our tour will give perspectives from both the visitor’s center as well as one of the landowners.
. Illinois State University Farm Tour – Through a public-private partnership Illinois State University Farm has implemented a compost program that incorporates landscape waste from the Town of Normal, animal waste from the farm and food waste from non-residential entities. In conjunction with this effort, the animal science program also researches areas such as managing odor from animal waste.
The program will begin promptly at 8:00 a.m. Transportation will be provided on a fully equipped charter bus. Anticipated return to ICC is 5:00 p.m. Advanced registration is required.
Reservation deadline is Friday, Sept 16th.Mail check for $40 to:
Nick Hayward
Tri-County Regional Planning
211 Fulton St, #207
Peoria, IL 61602-1332
check payable to: Prairie Rivers RC&D