Environmental Committee

Village of Schaumburg-Environmental Committee Minutes Meeting of December 4, 2025 Page 1 of 3 CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:01 pm by Donna Panico-Atkins. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairperson Donna Panico-Atkins, Ritika Muthukumar, Ryszard Puskarz, Elizabeth Wimmer, Sandeep Alavandi, and Mahesh Prajapati Member(s) Absent: Donna Johnson, Pratik Patel, and Robert Wachsmuth A quorum was present. Staff Present: Monica Richart – Sustainability Planner Taylor Storm – Recording Secretary Nick Navarroli – Engineering and Public Works APPROVAL OF MINUTES – October 2, 2025 Chairperson Panico-Atkins suggested amending the October minutes, changing the wording from “a poll was taken” to “a formal vote was held”. Mr. Puskarz made a motion to approve the minutes with the amendment, seconded by Mr. Prajapati. All Ayes. Three members were absent. MOTION CARRIED NEW BUSINESS 1. 2026 Work Plan – Draft for Discussion Ms. Richart stated that the biggest change in the 2026 work plan from 2025 is planning the webinar in the time Septemberfest is usually discussed. She included that last year community engagement was added, which was new from previous years. She added the survey and the open house event. In the year ahead, the main items include updating the Comprehensive Green Action Plan (CGAP), hosting the environmental fair, the recycling event, landscape awards, and the Al Larson awards. Ms. Richart stated that in February, the committee can solidify the theme for the 2026 Environmental Fair once the library informs the committee of their chosen theme. She stated that the library is looking to make the fair more of a “party”, with more of a contained space for entertainment. She said that it will pair well with what the committee was planning, a more interactive fair. She said that the Al Larson award nominations will happen around February or March. Members can nominate anyone in the community, so long as there is not a conflict of interest. Ms. Richart stated that topics of interest for the Environmental Fair include cycling and gardening, based on the open house survey results. Chairperson Panico-Atkins stated that a topic of interest could be small space or container gardens. Mr. Puskarz suggested landscaping with native plants as an idea. Village of Schaumburg-Environmental Committee Minutes Meeting of December 4, 2025 Page 2 of 3 Chairperson Panico-Atkins expressed interest in allowing time for the committee to review the webpage on the Village’s website to update links and information. Ms. Richart shared an update that the Communications department is in the process of streamlining the Village’s website. This includes removing the page for the Environmental Committee, as this is the only committee with its own webpage. All committees will now share a webpage. The information from the page will be condensed into the Village-wide Sustainability page, as there is already overlap with the information. Ms. Richart suggested working on the page updates in July or August. Chairperson Panico-Atkins asked how the webinar will work. Ms. Richart stated that the Communications team gave several suggestions. The first was to upload a recording of a live event to the Village’s YouTube channel for on-demand viewing. The second suggestion was to livestream the speaker series that takes place at the library, using the library’s website. The final option that was offered was for the new speaker series to include experts on different topics, where the guest speaker would come and give a presentation on their area of interest. This option would not be on-demand, instead an event you can attend. Mr. Alavandi asked how the expert series is formatted, if it will be an interview type event. Ms. Richart stated that a presentation would be prepared by a speaker, and those speakers could be called in by schools or other community events to give their presentations. Mr. Alavandi shared his idea for the webinar series to be a question-and-answer Zoom meeting, which could be recorded and uploaded to the Village’s YouTube channel for people to view anytime. He stated that this would be a good advertisement for the Environmental Committee. Ms. Richart suggested scheduling the webinar in August around Septemberfest, as a follow up to the Environmental Fair to keep interest satisfied. Chairperson Panico-Atkins suggested using the webinar as a question-and-answer follow-up from any speakers at the fair. She also suggested working on both the Environmental Fair and the webinar concurrently for themes to match and to carry ideas from one to another. 2. Comprehensive Green Action Plan Update – Planning Ms. Richart shared the results from the sticky-note engagement at the open house. There were 54 responses. Many residents responded that bikepaths in the Village are popular. Spring Valley Nature Center and the library were both mentioned as favorite places. Community members expressed approval for the Environmental Fair and other educational events put on by the environmental committee and the library, as well as promotion of local sustainability efforts on Village social media. The top three public interests were biking, native landscaping and ecological restoration, and education and outreach. Responses showed interest in catering activities to older groups, either older kids or adults. Recycling also had a following. A suggestion included offering classes for recycling, composting, and native landscaping. The survey received 155 responses. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 3. 2025 Fall Recycling Event Recap – Informational Mr. Navarroli stated that there were two recycling events in the fall, document shredding on September 20th and the community recycling event on October 4th. From both events, he stated 13,600 pounds were collected at the on-site document destruction event, and 11,900 pounds