Editor’s note: This the June monthly column written by the City of DeKalb’s Citizens’ Environmental Commission that focuses on increased awareness of issues such as promoting projects and ordinance changes involved in recycling, reducing energy consumption, and planting native habitat.

Earlier this year, in a series of articles in the Daily Chronicle, the DeKalb Citizens’ Environmental Commission talked about the City’s sustainability and our need to update it. When the plan was originally crafted, the world was a very different place in many ways.

This, in fact, has been the main impetus for our current goal of revamping the Sustainability Plan for the needs and problems of the current world.

To that end, with the assistance of a group of students working with NIU professor Mark Schuler, the DeKalb Citizens’ Environmental Commission has created a survey to help us gather data for a new, more comprehensive and updated version of the Sustainability Plan.

The survey is designed to gather information about necessary changes and updates as well as new goals and concerns. Taking the survey takes about 10-15 minutes and provides us with important information. You can find the survey online at the following link: bit.ly/CECsrvy.

While the survey is important, it’s also not the only way to tell us what you think the CEC should be working on in the future. The public is always welcome to come to our monthly meetings. These are currently held on the second floor of the police department on Lincoln Highway at 4 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month (we are discussing changing this meeting time in the future).

There is always time in each meeting for public comment, and we welcome anyone who has suggestions for what the CEC should be working on. The CEC will also be present at the Park District’s Movies in the Park events where we will be celebrating DeKalb’s status as a Monarch city as a part of Monarch City USA.

We’ll have a table at all three of the Movies in the Park events at Hopkins Park. We’ll have an activity for kids, but we’re also available to talk about concerns you may have about the environment around DeKalb and where you see a need for change. Movies in the Park events are on the second Fridays of June, July, and August. The movies start around sundown, but we’ll be there earlier to talk.

Finally, as another way to be available to the public to hear ideas or concerns, I am present at Cast Iron Coffee, 901 Lucinda Ave., Suite D on the first and third Wednesday of every month from 2 to 3 p.m.

The purpose of this isn’t to inform about the CEC’s current work, but as another avenue for input to help us see where we should go in the future. The DeKalb Citizens’ Environmental Commission wants to help guide DeKalb into a greener and better future. But we need your help to get there. Please contact us with any suggestions you may have! Please visit the DeKalb Citizens’ Environmental Commission online at bit.ly/DklbCEC.