a clean sweep Then And Now: The Chicago Center For TECHNOLOGY By: Aaron Baunee, managing editor, and Amanda Martini-Hughes, assistant editor GREEN and job training program; WRD Environ-mental, an urban landscape design/build firm; and the Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT). “While it is never impossible, getting all the partners to work together in the right timeframe is always very difficult,” says Aar-on Durnbaugh, deputy commissioner of the Celebrating a decade of sustainable decadence. W We first profiled the Chicago Center For Green Technology (CCGT) in the July 2009 issue of Cleaning & Maintenance Manage-ment magazine. Now, with the conclusion of the 2012 ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America, which was once again held in the windy city, we wanted to provide an update on this inter-esting endeavor. Eighteen months, $9 million and 600,000 tons of concrete and other illegally-dumped debris later, the 17-acre site was clean and ready for occupants. The site, which opened to the public in 2002, became the home to three forward-thinking, green companies: Greencorps Chicago, the city’s community landscaping Getting There: A Brief History In 1997, after obtaining the site through a court battle with its former owner, the Chi-cago Department of Environment (DOE) set out to achieve the unfathomable: Turn a for-mer brownfield into a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum-certified property. During the cleanup process, and follow-ing the green mentality of the project, much of the salvageable rubbish was recycled and used for various ventures around Chi-cago, including using reclaimed crushed concrete to lay the foundation of the parking garage at Millennium Park. Instead of using traditionally accepted construction methods, the Chicago DOE chose to go against the grain and erect an energy-efficient building using the abso-lute highest standards of green technol-ogy available as set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The CCGT, itself green and sustainable, offers the community it serves the tools and education needed to pass on the environmentally preferable rewards. 46 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • December 2012
CMM – Archives Dec 2012: 46
