The Illinois Environmental Council

We are honored to welcome Lt. Governor candidate Christian Mitchell to the stage at our upcoming Environmental Leadership Dinner! A true champion of our state's clean energy policy, his voice is one you won't want to miss. Join us for an incredible night celebrating environmental change agents. 🌅

🎟️ It’s not too late to grab your seats—secure your dinner tickets today: https://ilenviro.org/2026-environmental-leadership-dinner/

The countdown to IEC’s 2026 Environmental Leadership Dinner is officially on! 🎉 ⏰

As we prepare to celebrate Illinois’ vibrant environmental community on October 2, our silent auction is open to everyone—whether you’ll be in the room or bidding from home!
In our latest blog post, we’re sharing some of our favorite items this year. We have a luxury Starved Rock treehouse getaway, custom art inspired by Illinois wetlands, a group upcycling workshop at Remade Chicago, a puppy-approved basket from Ruff Haus Pets, and an exclusive river tour with Urban Rivers!
No matter if you’re treating yourself or shopping for a good cause, every bid directly supports our work to protect Illinois’ environment and communities. 🌎

⭐️ Get the inside scoop on our top picks: https://ilenviro.org/five-silent-auction-items-im-especially-excited-about-this-year/
⭐️ Bid today: https://airauctioneer.com/2026iecauction

Introducing our Platinum and Gold Sponsors of our 2026 Environmental Leadership Dinner! Their generous support makes our dinner possible and helps us continue championing Illinois’ environment. We look forward to expressing our gratitude during our dinner festivities and celebrating decades of environmental progress with them next week.

Get your tickets today and support IEC’s mission in person! 🎟️ https://ilenviro.org/2026-environmental-leadership-dinner/

Whether or not you are joining us for the 2026 Environmental Leadership Dinner on Oct 2, you can still support us AND secure some fun experiences 🏕️ and goodies🍦 at the same time. How fabulous is that? Our silent auction is now LIVE.

Check it out: https://airauctioneer.com/2026iecauction

A single industrial factory farm can produce as much sewage as an entire city—and they aren’t even required to treat it. ‼️

Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or industrial factory farms, are quietly changing the rural landscape across Illinois. Thousands of animals are crammed into high-density facilities, creating millions of gallons of untreated manure stored in massive open pits. When that waste gets dumped onto nearby fields as fertilizer, it seeps into private wells, spikes dangerous nitrate levels, and flows straight into our rivers, triggering massive toxic algal blooms.

Your air is impacted, too. F***l dust and dangerous gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide float directly into neighboring yards, leaving families dealing with severe asthma and chronic headaches. Meanwhile, regulatory loopholes let these massive operations expand without neighbors ever getting a public hearing.

Illinois is one of the top water polluters of Mississippi River states, sending millions of pounds of toxic runoff into the Gulf of Mexico while risking drinking water right in our backyards. In our upcoming webinar, we're exposing how CAFOs impact our water, how Illinois stacks up against neighboring states, and what we can actually do to fix it.

💧 Cows and Contamination: How Factory Farms Pollute Your Water
📅 Tuesday, September 22, 2026
🕰️ 11:00am – 12:00pm CT

Register today: https://act.ilenviro.org/a/cows-and-contamination

The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act is five! 🎉

Five years ago, Governor JB Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) into law, marking one of the nation’s most groundbreaking advancements in climate justice and equitable workforce transition.

CEJA does a lot of cool things – it puts Illinois on a path to 100% renewable energy by 2050, sets deadlines to close polluting coal and gas plants by 2045, and expands energy efficiency programs to help save Illinoisans money on their energy bills. One of the coolest aspects of CEJA? It prioritizes a just transition and ensures we’re lifting up workers in our efforts to achieve our climate goals.

The future we want to build will require and create millions of jobs. CEJA ensures that former fossil fuel workers and Illinoisans from low-income, environmental justice, and historically underserved communities are trained for those jobs. 🌞

Go on a ~tour by blog~ to see five of the Workforce Hubs made possible by CEJA, hubs that equip the next generation of clean energy workers in Illinois. Read what makes the Workforce Hubs so cool.

Read now! https://ilenviro.org/5-years-of-ceja-5-tours-with-iec-bearing-witness-to-illinois-growing-clean-energy-workforce/

Did you hear?! Chicago was just named the most climate resilient city in the world! 📣

Out of 72 major cities worldwide, a new report by AlphaGeo ranks Chicago as the most climate-resilient, beating out international cities like Melbourne, Barcelona, and Addis Ababa.

The ranking is based on a formula weighing climate risk against city adaptation. Chicago is naturally shielded from coastal disasters like hurricanes and rising sea levels. We also have decades of infrastructure investments, like the Deep Tunnel Project, green alleys, and proactive disaster response plans developed after the tragic 1995 heat wave, all of which helped push our city to the top of the list.

🚨 With this ranking also comes a perspective check.

Although Chicago is deemed most resilient, Karen Weigert of Loyola University Chicago points out that this report isn’t a prediction of a perfect future for our city. Instead, it is a reflection of how difficult things are going to be elsewhere.

“It’s important to think about Chicago as a place where climate impacts will be less bad than they will be in other places,” said Weigert, who was not involved in producing the rankings. “It’s not that this is a good story; it’s more that this is a much less bad story.”

Chicagoans are already seeing the effects of a changing climate, from intense rainfall bursts causing basement flooding to urban heat islands on the South and West sides. Chicago has a strong climate foundation, but continuing to invest in sustainability will keep all residents safe as weather patterns become more extreme. 🌎 🌇

📂 Sources:
📑 Block Club Chicago: Chicago Named The Most ‘Climate Resilient’ City On Earth
📑 The New York Times: Is Your City Prepared for Climate Disaster?

One of the highlights of our summer was joining the fun at the Illinois State Fair! We had an amazing time celebrating the very best of our state. Spending time at Conservation World and chatting with so many passionate leaders and locals gave us the best reminder of why we do what we do. Until next year! ✨🌾