Plant Chicago Blends Food Production With Sustainability

nat rosasco • April 6, 2016

Plant Chicago is a nonprofit that is transforming our perspective on sustainability, especially when it comes to food. By seeing waste as an opportunity, they help individuals and businesses learn how to make their environments healthier and more efficient. In doing so, they disrupt conventional processes and create innovative solutions for eco-friendly food production.

Plant Chicago was founded in 2011 in order to develop and provide education on circular economies of food production, energy conservation, and material reuse. As their website explains, “In a circular economy, conventional waste streams from one process are repurposed as inputs for another, creating a circular, closed-loop model of material reuse.” Therefore, waste from one source is used as material for another, eliminating the amount of waste sent to a landfill.

The Plant, a 93,500 square foot former meat packing plant located in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, is not only the place that Plant Chicago calls home, but it is also an excellent example of a circular economy. According to a Natural Resources Defense Council article , John Edel, the founder of Bubbly Dynamics, purchased the building in 2010. Bubbly Dynamics is an organization that repurposes derelict buildings in Chicago, and Edel had a special mission in mind for this one. He was looking “to create a model for urban agriculture in which one business’s trash could serve as another’s treasure, as a means for conserving resources and energy.”

The executive director of Plant Chicago, Jonathan Pereira, graciously spoke with us and explained that The Plant currently houses 15 small businesses, all involved with the food industry. Their products include bread, beer, coffee, mushrooms, greens, kombucha, cheese, and honey, among others. Whether focusing on farming, brewing, or baking, the businesses make it possible to mutually close their waste, energy, and material loops. Periera mentioned that The Plant hopes to double its number of occupants, but construction is still ongoing.

Though not all of these systems are put in place at The Plant, this video provides a clear explanation as to how the relationships between different businesses can work together to create a net-zero energy system. For example, plants can be grown that make oxygen for kombucha which in turn can make carbon dioxide for the plants. Furthermore, spent grain from the beer brewery can feed fish whose waste products can feed the plants. The waste that is unable to be reused can be fed to an anaerobic digester, which can transform the waste into biogas. The biogas can then provide heat and electricity to the building.

As part of Plant Chicago’s education efforts, the organization offers hands-on learning to assist businesses and the general public with incorporating sustainability into their current practices. Periera explained, “We work with businesses to identify ways that their output can be repurposed as input.” Their public workshops include mushroom growing and aquaponics. Aquaponics combines growing plants in water with raising fish, each system working symbiotically with the other. If you’re interested, the workshop schedule can be found here. They also offer field trips and classroom visits that focus on food production and sustainability for K-12 students. Plus, they host weekly public tours, so you can see their work in action for yourself. There’s even a year-round farmer’s market, filled with fresh produce, coffee, kombucha, and bread.

Periera mentioned that Plant Chicago uses The Plant as a study site to inspire its other projects. There are also similar endeavors occurring all around the world. For instance, in Copenhagen, a restaurant is being created to run on a closed-loop system. Other related projects are popping up in Ohio, Tennessee, and across the country with regard to landfills, solid waste reclamation, and sewage waste. Anaerobic digesters are taking off, as well.

We’re looking forward to seeing the further expansion of circular economies and the positive implications it will offer. To learn more about Plant Chicago, please visit their website, here. To learn more about our own sustainable practices, please click here and scroll down to our section entitled Commitment to Sustainability.

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Inventory Sale

By nat rosasco • January 22, 2019

Reclaimed Table's huge selection of one-off, custom table tops are being sold at deep discounts at our Villa Park showroom. Find the durable tables you need for your next project, at prices you won't come across again!

Client Feature: Oak Tables & Benches for Navy Pier's Centennial Vision

By nat rosasco • July 17, 2018

Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier has always been a popular attraction since it opened just over 100 years ago in 1916. It currently welcomes 9 million guests per year. As explained on the Navy Pier website, the Pier was designed by architect Charles Sumner Frost and was originally based on architect’s Daniel Burnham’s “the People’s Pier” in his 1909 Plan of Chicago . It was originally known as “Municipal Pier,” but was renamed in 1927 in honor of the World War 1 Navy personnel who were housed there. As we blogged about a couple of years ago , Navy Pier has been undergoing renovations in honor of its “Centennial Vision” to reimagine and enhance the pier. While updating the pier with new programming and a greener landscape, this vision has also been attracting more local eateries ( like Tiny Tavern ) and shops, creating a space that’s more inviting to local Chicagoans. After providing pieces for the first phase of the remodel last year, we were pleased to continue to be part of this project for the recently completed phase two. Partnering with Gensler, we provided white oak tables and benches near the main entrance and for the brand new, 200,000 square foot Family Pavilion that features over 50 businesses. Fortunately, these pieces were created not only with their visual aesthetic in mind, but also to impressively withstand this sort of high traffic area. We also built the reclaimed red and white oak blade signs flanking all of the restaurants and shops, which creates a unified look within the complex. Much like the Pier, these signs have an interesting, rich history behind them. The red and white oak wood used to make the signs were actually horse fences on a farm in Mercy County, Kentucky that dates back to the late 1800s. Mercer county was one of the first settlements in the state, and the farm itself, Shawnee Springs, was originally over 2,000 acres. In the 1970s the farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. We knew the Navy Pier project was the right one for this specific wood-- historic wood for an historic landmark. (See our other applications of reclaimed red and white oak Kentucky horse fence here .) Check out photos of our tables, benches, and signs at the recently updated and unveiled Pier below. And if you’re in the Chicagoland area, you can check them out for yourselves in person, along with a whole host of entertainment on the Pier. Interested in some durable tables and benches for a high-traffic area? Contact us here to get started on your next project.

Aging Booker's Bourbon: Finding the 'Sweet Spot' for Flavor

By nat rosasco • June 18, 2018

When it comes to aging bourbon, Booker’s small batch bourbon has the process literally down to a science. Currently produced by the Jim Beam distillery, it was Jim Beam’s grandson, Booker Noe, who founded this brand in 1992 with bourbon from barrels he personally selected. According to the Booker’s Bourbon website, Booker was actually raised at a Kentucky distillery and brought his family’s six generations of master distillery knowledge to his bourbon batches. How does Booker’s perfectly age their bourbon? As we pretty much all know, bourbon ages in wooden barrels. When the weather becomes hot and humid, like it does during those sticky Kentucky summers, the wood expands and absorbs the bourbon, allowing for a chemical interaction between the bourbon and the wood. In colder weather, the wood contracts and the bourbon escapes the barrel’s walls. This interaction changes the spirit’s taste and color. The longer bourbon is in the barrel, the smoother the taste, (up to a certain point, that is). Barrels are kept in rackhouses where temperatures can easily be regulated. Rackhouses were originally built out of stone with several wooden floors and an exposed dirt basement to control humidity and large temperature swings. The windows were designed to keep the buildings well-ventilated.