By Judith Nemes
A new green event space just opened its doors, seeking to cater to companies that want to hold eco-friendly gatherings this holiday season and beyond.
The West Loop Studio event and meeting space on Elizabeth Street shuttered its 10-year-old loft and moved this month into bigger digs within the Green Exchange, the old Cooper Lamp Factory near the Kennedy Expressway that’s been transformed into a platinum LEED-certified building. Co-owners Jamie Davis and Steve Ewert renamed their company Greenhouse Loft to reflect a greater emphasis on sustainability.
Steve Ewert and Jamie Davis
Mr. Ewert, a photographer, was sole owner of West Loop Studio. He originally opened his sun-bathed loft to other photographers for photo shoots. Word spread about the cool venue and pretty soon the business grew into an event space for weddings and corporate gatherings. West Loop Studio was always green-minded in how events were run, but now that focus will be more visible in the new location, notes Ms. Davis, also a photographer and event manager who worked at the original loft for seven years.
The duo was looking for a new home for the last couple of years after Mr. Ewert and his brother, owners of the West Loop Studio’s original building, decided to sell the property. They were scouting for LEED-certified locations because they wanted to boost their green profile. The Green Exchange opportunity came along at the right time, Ms. Davis recalls. A handful of the Green Exchange’s tenants have been moving in over the last few months after many delays.
The new event space has a 3,500-square-foot open floor plan and many of the bells and whistles of a retrofitted building intended to garner the highest level of certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. They include a high-efficiency heating and cooling system that slashes building energy use by 22% and rain cisterns that capture storm water and enable it to be reused for other building needs. There’s even a green escalator with built-in occupancy sensors that employs 30% less energy than a traditional escalator.
The emphasis on sustainability was the biggest draw to sign a lease in the Green Exchange, but Ms. Davis notes they now have 1,000 more square feet than their old space and an outdoor entertaining area, too, which sweetened the deal.
Crain’s caught up with Ms. Davis to learn more about how they incorporate sustainability practices into their functions to appeal to business clients.
Crain’s: Why did you choose to move to an event space that had a bolder green focus?
Ms. Davis: We’ve always thought being sustainable is very important — now we’ll get to promote that more strongly. I’m part of the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance, a grass-roots group of vendors trying to make events more sustainable because we saw how wasteful events and meetings can be.
At West Loop Studio, we were doing everything we could to be green. We . . . had strict recycling programs. We work with a very small list of caterers, including Fig and City Provisions, because they’re dedicated to local, sustainable food and have composting systems. For business meetings, they’ll use reusable platters and compostable lunch boxes. It’s really important to us that they follow many green practices because there’s so much waste in catering.
We plan on continuing all of that, and we’re going to try to do more events that are close to zero waste.
Crain’s: How unique is your green event concept in Chicago?
Ms. Davis: I don’t think there’s a lot of competition for these kind of spaces. We’re one of the only alternative green spaces in the city, but there are probably some hotels that have LEED certification if that’s what someone is looking for. There’s Logan Square Kitchen, but it’s a lot smaller so we’re not getting the same kind of clients.
Crain’s: Will the mix of events you host change in the Green Exchange compared to your old loft building?
Ms. Davis: Weddings were our bread and butter in the West Loop Studio, and we did a lot of corporate meetings. But we didn’t have a license to do fundraisers where we could sell tickets. Now we’ll be able to do fundraisers in our new space and more non-profit events, along with the other things we’ve always done.
In our lease, we also agreed to donate our space once a week to the Green Exchange for a community event. This week, we’ll have the U.S. Green Building Council in here. The vision for the event space in the Green Exchange was for it to be the center of the building where ideas are exchanged and the community comes together. We love that.
Crain’s: What were businesses doing in your space and do you expect that to continue in your new location?
Ms. Davis: Brand development. Usually it’s the creative team or the marketing team having creative brainstorm sessions to think of new ideas for certain brands. In the past we have worked with such clients as Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Facebook, Apple and Jim Beam. We expect them all to be coming back as well. We also work with research companies that have new ways of doing focus groups that are more interactive and creative. They like the open space to move around, the wall space to post up ideas.
Crain’s: Do you expect companies to seek you out because of your own branding now as a green event company?
Ms. Davis: There are lots of companies, like Kraft for example, that are looking for ways to be more sustainable in every way. I’m going to start reaching out to them more and promote this as a green space that can also achieve what they need.
Crain’s: Do you have any green holiday parties planned in your new digs?
Ms. Davis: No, we just moved in last week and most companies plan their parties farther out in advance. But we’re certainly open to it if anyone wants to put on a last-minute party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other good “green” reads from around the Internet today:
Bringing solar down to earth, price-wise: Fortune’s Brian Dumaine reports that a few solar companies “are applying a new financing model that makes residential solar affordable. They are attracting investors from U.S. Bancorp to Google.”
The 21st century’s version of the space race: Jay Lauf of The Atlantic writes that “from the mid-to-late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union largely took their battle for world dominance to space, leading to landing the first man on the moon to Star Wars. And now the next great race between two superpowers is on.”
A phone app for switching out lightbulbs: How many mobile-phone apps does it take to change a light bulb? The New York Times says, just one.
