Sustain Illinois: Illinois' Green Busness Competition
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Winners

The winners for Sustain Illinois were announced on Thursday, May 14 at Chicago Green Drinks. Thank you to everyone who came out to Sustainovate and Green Drinks. To read the press release, click here. To see a list of the finalists, please click here.

Innovative Sustainable High Growth Product/Service Category ($10,000 cash prize)

Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks
Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks offers year-round home delivery in the Chicago area of local and organic produce, meat, dairy, eggs, baked goods and more! We are partnering with sustainable farmers in the region to grow the supply of local food in a way that protects our health and the environment.

Sustainable Process ($10,000 cash prize)

City Provisions
City Provisions is a catering company that focuses on local, sustainable and organic foods, with a heavy focus on sustainable practices—including, but not limited to: compostable disposables, a strict recycling program, and a creative organic “composting” program (our organic waste is preserved and given to our farmers to use as feed for their livestock). All this is coupled with unparalleled service.

Fast Pitch - Audience Choice Award ($2,500 cash prize)

1st place
Mindful Metropolis
Mindful Metropolis is a socially-conscious print magazine that brings conscious living ideas to its readers and shares what is happening in our community so we can become more connected and committed to socially-conscious living.

2nd place
Earth Paint Collection Services
Founded in 2007, the company disposes of unwanted latex paint through a system of collecting and consolidating post-consumer latex paint that allows it to be recycled into new consumer products.

Finalists

Innovative Sustainable High Growth Product/Service Category

BioVantage Fuels
BioVantage Fuels LLC (BioVantage) produces biodiesel from used restaurant cooking oils.  Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that contains no petroleum, but it can be blended with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend.  It can be used in diesel engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.  We repurpose the waste used cooking oils from restaurants to produce biodiesel, a clean-burning renewable fuel.  We believe this is an excellent example of adhering to the triple bottom line (3BL) of sustainability: people, profit and planet. 

Carbon Solutions Group
Carbon Solutions Group is an environmental consulting firm specializing in renewable energy and greenhouse gas mitigation. CSG works with corporations, institutions, municipalities, architects and non-profits throughout the world. CSG promotes education towards environmental stewardship goals with definition, management, mitigation and offsetting strategies. CSG's assets are from "new" renewable generation facilities or carbon reduction projects in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Earth Paint Collections
Our goal is simple: To keep latex paint, and its containers, out of our waste stream. Earth Paint Collection Systems is a company devoted to helping the environment through responsible disposal of latex paint. We have developed a system of collecting and consolidating post-consumer latex paint that allows it to be recycled into new consumer products.

ePower Synergies, Inc
ePower Synergies, Inc., is a developer and marketer of advanced electric vehicles (EV). We design, build, market, sell and service a variety of EVs including The RIDE™ personal transporter (PT), which is our exciting new leadoff product.

Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks
Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks offers year-round home delivery in the Chicago area of local and organic produce, meat, dairy, eggs, baked goods and more! We are partnering with sustainable farmers in the region to grow the supply of local food in a way that protects our health and the environment.

Safety Power Inc
Specializing in Electrical Conservation, Safety Power sells and installs Energy Controllers for homes and businesses. An Energy Controller provides entire building power conservation, power filtering and amperage surge protection.

Sustainable Process
Each finalist company has adopted or is in the process of adopting a significant internal sustainable process to its business structure (3BL or ISO 14001 certification) that is having/will have a lasting economic impact on the state of Illinois.

Allyu Spa
Allyu Spa is a full service day spa located in Rivernorth Chicago. Allyu is a Quechua word that means community. As a locally based and sustainably run business, we are dedicated to serving our community with services that reflect a passion for holistic wellness. By empowering our clients with knowledge about earth-friendly practices, we create healthier, more responsible citizens of this beautiful planet.

Chapter One Organics
Chapter One Organics makes 100% premium organic cotton baby and toddler clothes in the US. We support socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing practices. Our organic baby clothes are made in the US by an organization that is helping women facing significant barriers to employment. Our organic baby clothing is modern, fun and luxuriously soft.

City Provisions
City Provisions is a catering company that focuses on local, sustainable and organic foods, with a heavy focus on sustainable practices—including, but not limited to: compostable disposables, a strict recycling program, and a creative organic “composting” program (our organic waste is preserved and given to our farmers to use as feed for their livestock). All this is coupled with unparalleled service.

Gourmet Gorilla
Gourmet Gorilla, Inc. is a local & organic food service provider that starts at the beginning.   We specialize in providing healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks in pre-school and elementary school settings. Our mission is to build a sustainable future for our children and community by providing local and organic school lunches and healthier eating options. We are committed to working with community partners to provide solid nutrition for children in order to help them learn and grow. Building alliances between local farms, urban agriculturalists, dieticians, nutritionists, talented chefs, and organic food manufacturers, we are able to provide quality ingredients as well as connect to educational resources on healthy food curriculum, the value of organic foods, garden projects, and ecological awareness.  

Green Bag Lunch
Green Bag Lunch caters healthy, eco-friendly lunches to kids at schools and camps. Green Bag Lunch (GBL) provides a unique convenience to families and schools, allowing them a new and better alternative to the traditional cafeteria lunch and the hassle of packing a lunch from home. With Green Bag Lunch, interested parents at participating schools and camps simply order online and their child’s lunch gets delivered directly to the lunchroom. We package our all-natural and organic foods in recycled and biodegradable plant-based materials. Green Bag Lunch capitalizes on two major market trends: concern toward child health/wellness and concern toward the environment. Green Bag Lunch has served more than 35,000 lunches and snacks to 2500 children in the city of Chicago and its suburbs.

INEEKA
INEEKA is an innovative environmentally and socially responsible producer of 100% Organic & Biodynamic whole leaf teas and herbs, grown within our family farms in the Himalayas and partner communities worldwide. The founder’s family’s 15 tea estates, which are certified Organic and Biodynamic as per International standards, are spread on 15,000 acres at the foothills of the Himalayas in India and are home to 25,000 people. Ineeka is the only completely vertically integrated tea brand in North America that has the advantage of growing its teas on our family farms, packaging its products at its own Chicago facility, and providing the consumer a premium product at a fraction of the cost.

Fast Pitch - Audience Choice Award ($2,500 cash prize)
This bonus track will be a one minute fast pitch competition which participating companies may choose to apply for in addition to one of the tracks above. The fast pitch competition will take place at the awards ceremony with the winner choosing which company they favor.

Ineeka
City Provisions
Gourmet Gorilla
BioVantage Fuels
Earth Paint Collection
Carbon Solutions Group
Safety Power
ePower Synergies
Green Bag Lunch
Allyu Spa
EcoScene
Mindful Metropolis