Edited by Cassie Walker and Nora O’Donnell
See “Before Spring” in its entirety at the Chicago Green Festival on May 17th at Navy Pier.
Call it a conversion experience, or the moment when the (compact flourescent) light bulb glowed so brightly it could not be ignored. For each of our 2008 Green Awards honorees, inspiration struck indelibly: a Buckminster Fuller lecture, a bus ride through a devastated Detroit, a morning in a beloved grandpa’s woodshop. In the afterglow, these Chicagoans became more than acolytes of the environmental movement; they became innovators who set out to leave our city a little better—and brighter—than they found it.
Photography: Anna Knott
Film: Uji Films