On the count of three, a floating 7-foot globe lit up as an image of Earth was projected onto its 360-degree surface, eliciting a burst of applause from attendees at the Thursday grand opening of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum’s Sustainability Center.
Surrounding the imposing, dynamic sphere is an interactive gallery with four stations for museum guests to learn about the components of sustainable living: food, water, economy and culture, and energy. Made possible by an anonymous donation and a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the center was conceptualized in 2016.
Back then, the reality of climate change was still heavily debated, said Alvaro Ramos, the museum’s chief curator. He said the discourse nowadays doesn’t center much around whether it exists, but rather around whether it is caused by greenhouse gases from human activity.
“We’re experiencing it on a daily basis — that is fact now,” he added. “People are really hungry for this kind of information.”
The goal of the Sustainability Center is to show visitors that while humans have been part of the problem, they can also be part of the solution. It is a place, Ramos said, to inspire those who feel helpless in the face of such a big challenge.
For museum leadership, the center represents an unprecedented and exciting step toward actionable change for the future informed by more traditional conservation and research efforts focused on the past.
“The Sustainability Center will offer resources and provide visitors of all ages and abilities with practical ways to make an impact in our homes and communities,” said Erin Amico, president and CEO of the museum and the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Next to the interactive gallery, a resource center showcases a vibrant green preserved moss wall and offers additional information for guests through a digital bookshelf and a selection of titles curated by the Chicago Public Library.
The center will also highlight success stories from the museum’s Chicago Conservation Corps program, known as C3, which has trained community leaders in grassroots organizing and has funded 135 climate action projects in the city’s 50 wards.
The program’s latest cohort began training Wednesday night, according to Jennifer Olson, the museum’s director of guest and community engagement. The 40 new C3 students include city employees, stay-at-home parents and a 19-year-old university student.
“So we’ve got a really far reach. And now,” Olson waved at the C3 display in the resource center, “we weren’t really physically represented in the Nature Museum before, so you had to sort of stumble across us in another way. So not only are we inspiring people to want to get involved in the first half of the Sustainability Center. Then they spit out right here — we can help if you just started to care a lot about this.”
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When former C3 student Caroline Williams started looking for a way to meet the needs of her community with sustainable living practices, she said she “didn’t know where to begin.”
“But then I found the program,” said Williams, who went on to become the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Chicago Muslims Green Team, which works with South Side communities to build gardens, reduce waste and promote tree equity.
As Chicago neighborhoods continue to suffer from environmental disparities, as highlighted by the city’s recently released cumulative impact assessment, the nature museum will also expand its C3 program to focus on communities plagued by environmental hazards in the South and West sides.
Amico also announced Thursday that the museum and C3 plan on reducing 4,000 metric tons of carbon emissions and reclaim 3,000 square feet of land through community-based projects in the next five years.
“The Nature Museum has always been a place where our visitors can come wander and explore,” Amico said. “We invite our guests to imagine the future that they can create together. We hope our visitors enjoy the new exhibit, feel inspired and learn how they can make a difference in their own lives and in the natural world.”
The Sustainability Center opened Thursday at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 2430 N. Cannon Drive, Chicago; 773-755-5100, naturemuseum.org
