Green Connect

Connecting Green-Minded Businesses & The Community

Formerly Green Committee, Established March 2009

Mission Statement
Sponsored by the Yorkville Area Chamber of Commerce, this committee aims to educate, promote and encourage businesses within the Yorkville area to enhance the community environment by participating in sustainable ecological practices.

Meeting Schedule
The Green Committee meets on the second Thursday of each month, 11am-noon, at the Chamber office. (Note: Regular meetings suspended during COVID shutdowns.)

Membership
This group is open to any member of the YACC and to like-minded citizens interested in promoting ecologically sustainable practices in their business and residential communities.

Chamber Member Businesses:
Stephanie Roskopf, Yorkville Auto Body (committee chair)
Renee Tortorella, Blue Heron Homes Keller Williams (co-chair)
Kristine Arch, Kendall Safety Group
Ashley Bumbar, Stephen Alan Salon
Valerie Burd, Positive Media Solutions
Mike Burks, Burks Bros. Drywall
Sandra Hurtado, Harmony Aesthetics
Kevin Shroba, Aurora Specialty Textiles Group

Green Connect on Facebook

Coming Events

Thursday, April 22

You are invited to join us on Earth Day at Farnsworth House and enjoy both the house and the trails through the landscape, where you’ll find many identified species of trees and wildflowers.

They’ll have eco-friendly specials in our museum shop and our friends at Redbud Creek Farm Center will be giving perennial plants for your own garden.  If you have the space you might even choose to take home a Burr Oak tree! MORE INFO

Green Resources

Download this guide for local recycling and disposal options.

More Resources:
How to dispose of leftover paint
Salt Smart: reduce the amount of chlorides reaching our local waterways

Green Business Designation

The Yorkville Chamber Green Committee will award a Green Business Designation to qualifying businesses.

• • A vinyl cling decal will be given to qualifying businesses to display, serving to acknowledge the sustainable efforts and green practices of the business.
  • The business will receive logo exposure on the Green Connect web page and on banners displayed at events.
  • The Green Business decal will be displayed on the member’s listing in the Chamber website business directory.

The Green Committee offers assistance to all who seek this designation. A representative can help you through the process. Typically, a ten minute conversation is enough to gather the needed information.

DOWNLOAD GREEN BUSINESS DESIGNATION APPLICATION

Green Connect Projects:

Mobile Blood Drive

February 23, 2021 Details

Clean-Up Events

• September 2020
• August 2020
• July 2020

Presentation

Water Quality, Habitat, and Recreation on the Fox River – November 2018

Reusable Bag Collection

Sandra Hurtado of Harmony Aesthetics, left; Stephanie Roskopf of Yorkville Auto Body Shop and chairman of Green Connect, right; present Cathy Kavanaugh, volunteer at the Kendall County Community Food Pantry, with more than 500 reusable bags for use of Food Pantry patrons.

Chamber’s Green Connect committee donates more than 500 reusable bags to Food Pantry

Some of the patrons of the Kendall County Community Food pantry will be getting a reusable bag to carry their food home thanks to members of the Yorkville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Green Connect committee.

Sandra Hurtado of Harmony Aesthetics and Stephanie Roskopf of the Yorkville Auto Body Shop, members of Green Connect, recently presented Cathy Kavanaugh, a Food Pantry volunteer, with more than 500 reusable bags that the group has been collecting over the past year.

Green Connect, which meets the second Thursday of each month at 11 a.m. at the Chamber office, 26 W. Countryside Pkwy., “aims to educate, promote and encourage businesses within the Yorkville area to enhance the community environment by participating in sustainable ecological practices,” according to its website. Membership in the group is open to Chamber members and the public.

Roskopf, who is chairman of Green Connect, said that the committee members want to collect 5,000 reusable cloth bags to donate to the Food Pantry to replace plastic and paper bags currently being donated for use. The Pantry estimates it uses 1,000 such bags a week. People who would like to donate reusable bags can drop them off at FNBC Bank and Trust, Kendall Printing, Rosati’s Pizza Pub, Sense of Samadhi, Yorkville Auto Body and at the Yorkville High School.

For more information on Green Connect, call the Chamber office at 630-553-6853.

GREEN CONNECT logo courtesy of Steven Salzbrunn, Kreativ Edge