January 14, 2021

Your wedding venue is where it all begins! Without a venue, there can’t be a wedding, which is why it is typically the first vendor that gets secured, other than a planner. Whether it’s big or small, there are many ways that your venue may be making a difference in the environment. There are always endless opportunities to be more sustainable, so don’t hesitate to ask your venue how they are trying to make an impact.

Chicago offers a few venues that are known for their green practices:

Greenhouse Loft
Catalyst Ranch
The Joinery
Studio Gang Tree
Loft on Lake
Mae District

Questions to ask your venue:

• Is sustainability a key value of yours?
• What are some ways that your venue incorporates green practices?
• Does your venue offer any recycling or composting bins on-site?
• Do you offer rentals?

• 

• 

• 

Greenhouse Loft

“​​Beautiful and sustainable, Greenhouse Loft is located in the Green Exchange, a Platinum LEED-certified building. We are dedicated to ensuring that your wedding is as low waste and green as possible.”

Reduce

They minimize transportation fuel emissions by having their caterers use as much locally sourced food as possible as well as organic food, which reduces not only the farmer and consumer’s exposure to pesticides, but also reduces the environmental farming impact as a whole. They reduce waste by serving items in bulk when possible (ie. condiment dispensers instead of individual sized containers, filtered water cooler stations instead of plastic bottles, etc.). They use non-plastic, eco-friendly utensils, and utilize non-toxic and eco-friendly cleaning supplies. The energy efficient windows help regulate temperatures, and a high efficiency heating and cooling system reduces energy by 22%.

Reuse

The building itself has been restored and re-purposed to be what it is today! It used to be a manufacturing facility. Even the hardwood floors are reclaimed 120 year old wood. They also have a collection of restored mid-century modern furniture.

Recycle

They reduce up to 90% of event-generated waste by using on-site compost and recycling systems, which would otherwise be landfilled.

• 

• 

• 

Loft on Lake

How does Loft on Lake stay sustainable?

“We are the host of the Great Wedding Recyclery in the springtime, hosted by the Green Wedding Alliance. This event is a large garage sale, of sorts, full of wedding related items for couples to browse through. We accept donations from our couples to donate to the GWA whenever possible.”

Their green practices include:

• Conserving energy through 65ft skylight for warmth/light and not running utilities when space is not in use
• Use of Earth-conscious cleaning & paper products
• Dimmable LED lighting throughout the space
• Low-flow restroom facilities
• Coordination of donating leftover food and florals after events
• Affordable decor rentals available to encourage recycling of items rather than new purchases
• Recycling of plastics, glass and metals
• Electronic document filing, minimal printing

• 

• 

• 

The Joinery

“Celebrating the Past Through Re-purposing”

The story of the Joinery begins with its largest sustainable effort which was to save a classic Chicago building planned for demolition. This not only reduced massive amounts of initial energy and CO2 emissions from demo and new construction but also kept large amounts of construction waste out of landfills. At The Joinery, we pride ourselves on finding new life for salvaged historical artifacts, from the existing shell of the building to the re-use of heavy timber lumber, our barn wood tables, and various hand-made details throughout the space.

Additional Green characteristics include:

• Walkability: Located within a block and a half of an El Stop and (3) major bus lines (Armitage,Milwaukee, and Western) along with close proximity to local nightlife.
• Daylighting through huge central bay skylight
• LED/ dimmable lighting
• High efficiency HVAC with digital Smart Thermostats
• Low to No VOC paints
• Re-purposing of obsolete machinery for furniture, artifacts and appliances
• Re-use of timbers for stair treads, window framing, farm tables, and various custom details in the space.
• Environmentally safe cleaning supplies
• Recycling program for all vendors

If you have other suggestions as to how venues can be more green, let us know in the comments! We are happy to add more content to help our readers think of sustainable ideas.

–Ohana Events