Neighbors with a better idea

Midwest Sustainability Group creates and puts forth positive solutions to create a better world.

Midwest Sustainability Group is a grassroots environmental organization based in Grayslake, Illinois. We work for clean, healthy and livable communities in Lake County, and we have a simple rule: when we oppose something, we bring a workable alternative.

Advocacy 101

We also teach what we do. Learn the steps for weighing in on any public project, or bring a workshop to your group. Explore Advocacy 101 →

A record of results

Small group, long memory, real wins. Every campaign below was won by residents who showed up, did the homework and brought a better plan.

  • 2008Incinerators kept outLake County’s solid waste plan left out incineration and doubled down on recycling instead.
  • 2008 onwardA landfill held to its permitsNeighbors of Countryside Landfill organized over hydrogen sulfide emissions until federal regulators stepped in.
  • 2010A 60 percent recycling goalWe served on the county task force that set out to raise recycling from about 38 to 60 percent.
  • 2014A county sustainability coordinatorWon with County Board member Pat Carey, putting sustainability on the county staff.
  • 2019The Route 53/120 tollway stoppedAs founding members of the Green Corridor Coalition, we helped end a project that had looked inevitable for more than 60 years.
  • 2022 to todayA greenway in its placeA state task force, the County Board and $1 million in state planning money now back a public greenway on the land.
Read our success stories
Help fund the next one

How we started

In 2008, a group of residents calling themselves Incinerator-Free Lake County asked the County Board to keep garbage incineration out of the county’s solid waste plan, and to invest in recycling instead. The Board agreed. That campaign grew into Midwest Sustainability Group, formally organized in 2012.

Since then we have held Countryside Landfill to its permits, helped set the county’s 60 percent recycling goal, won a county sustainability coordinator position, helped stop the Route 53/120 tollway, helped start the movement to turn its land into a public greenway, and taught residents across the region how to take on local issues themselves. Today our biggest campaign is making sure Route 120 gets fixed without a bypass through the wetlands south of it. Read our success stories.

How we work

  • Bring the alternative. No to an incinerator came with yes to recycling. No to a tollway came with a plan for transit, road fixes and a greenway.
  • Build coalitions. We work with conservation groups, civic organizations and elected officials of both parties.
  • Do the homework. We read the studies, attend the meetings, and cite our sources.
George Ranney, seated, speaks into a microphone while accepting a lifetime achievement award, with Vicky Ranney smiling beside him
George Ranney accepts our first Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Environmental Awards, with Vicky Ranney beside him. Photo: Midwest Sustainability Group.

Barbara Klipp, executive director

Barbara co-founded Incinerator-Free Lake County and served as its spokesperson, leading the campaign that kept incinerators out of Lake County and pushed the county toward higher waste-diversion rates. She is a zero waste and sustainable materials management advocate, a founding voice in the Livable Lake County and Green Corridor coalitions, and an adjunct faculty member at the College of Lake County.

Barbara Klipp, Midwest Sustainability’s Executive Director, is a smart, strategic, and relentless advocate – exactly the person you want to have by your side when you fight for the good or reach for the almost impossible.

Verena Owen, then co-chair of the Sierra Club’s national Beyond Coal campaign

Our coalitions

A smiling group of about a dozen volunteers, several raising fists, gathered around a table at a meeting
MSG volunteers after a planning meeting. Photo: Midwest Sustainability Group.
  • Green Corridor Coalition. Residents and organizations working to preserve the Route 53 corridor as a public greenway. MSG was a driving force in building it.
  • Livable Lake County. The grassroots coalition that fought the Route 53/120 tollway. MSG was a founding member.
  • Chicago River Trail campaign. A coalition partner with the Active Transportation Alliance.

Environmental Awards

In 2018 we began recognizing environmental leadership in northeastern Illinois. Our first Lifetime Achievement Award went to George Ranney, for a lifetime of open space protection and bipartisan work, and we honored retiring Illinois legislators who had championed the environment. Read about it in our archive.

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