Celebrating the 2024 BOOST Winners for Sustainability & Innovation

Snail Catalog and South Shore Community Works named as Delta Institute’s BOOST Winners, continuing 13-year legacy of advancing community-driven sustainability start-ups

Last week, Delta Institute presented its 13th annual “BOOST” event, a program designed to support emerging entrepreneurs and community leaders with ideas to advance environmental sustainability and climate action in their neighborhoods. During the presentation, four finalists, selected by the Delta Emerging Leaders associate board, pitch their ideas to a live audience. At the end of the evening, the audience votes for their favorite start-ups who will receive small business grants.

This year’s event was particularly special … all of us at Delta Institute were so surprised when we got a special call from our friends and sponsors at American Family Insurance before the event. Being long-term supporters of the BOOST program, they shared with us that they planned to increase their sponsorship so that all of our finalists could walk away with larger small business grants!

A more sustainable printing option for Chicagoans

We were thrilled to announce Gillian Jackson as the first winner of the evening, in support of their small business, Snail Catalog. Established in the Southwest Side of the City of Chicago, Snail Catalog is a new print & fabrication studio that lends a helping hand to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, artists, and musicians looking for sustainable signage and promotional materials. Gillian takes a holistic Sustainable Design approach to her business.

“In terms of material use, I divert waste generated by my industry by reusing signage substrates, like corrugated plastic used for yard signs, instead of buying new,” they share. “At the same time, I provide less impact options for signage like using curbside recyclable and PVC-free materials.” As the recipient of the United Airlines BOOST 2024 Award, Gillian receives a $7,500 small business grant to continue developing Snail Catalog to provide more sustainable printing and signage options to Chicagoans across the City.

South Shore Bicycle Works win the Audience Favorite Award, presented by American Family Insurance

Expanding transportation equity on Chicago’s South Side

The final award of the evening was awarded to South Shore Bicycle Works, a worker cooperative founded last year with the purpose of providing quality-of-life improving services to the residents of Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood and greater South Side via bicycles. They are working to be a leading part in the campaign of sustainable transportation equity for Chicago’s South Side residents, such as by hosting youth/community educational programming on the positive impact that biking has on the environment and on people’s quality of life.

“All our founding owners live and work on the South Side of Chicago and have a lived experience from the types of systems that are oppressing the communities we founded our cooperative in,” shared the team’s co-owners. “And because we can directly identify and speak to the social determinants faced by the communities we serve, SSBW considers itself as experts to support and continue to advocate for equitable allocation of resources, sustainable transportation, positive youth development, and access for folks with disabilities.” On behalf of long-time BOOST sponsor American Family Insurance, Beth Churchill presented the Audience Favorite Award to Betty Atkins, Julian Hendrix, and Damian Lee of South Shore Bicycle Works. The award comes with a $7,500 small business grant to South Shore Bicycle Works.

Sustainable makeup & beauty products for BIPOC women

This year’s two runner-ups also received a small business grant of $3,500 each. Chelsey Faulkner of Candid Hues Cosmetics, placing as one of this year’s runner-ups, will continue her work in developing “a transparent makeup line specifically designed for multicultural women, emphasizing environmental responsibility while providing a natural alternative without sacrificing performance.” Her company is committed to sustainability in several ways, such as sourcing all their ingredients and packaging components using sustainable practices or by offering customers in-house recycling and bottle refilling options to cut down on products ending up in landfills.

Jimmy Kern presented his work with Network49’s Environmental Justice Committee in creating a vine trellis project.

Green infrastructure & environmental education in Rogers Park

Jimmy Kern was also awarded a runner-up BOOST award of $3,500 to support the vine trellis project being developed by Network49’s Environmental Justice Committee. This project, currently focused on supporting Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, develops “green wall” systems to reduce the heat island effects that can make living conditions difficult, especially for communities with low tree canopy coverage. This project also supports educational programming for youth to get engaged, including by sharing information with students at Jordan Elementary School, where vines have already been planted and matured.

An impactful evening of sustainable innovation

Altogether, our supporters contributed a record $49,000 toward this year’s BOOST fundraiser, which supports all of this year’s finalists and the ongoing work of Delta Institute, after event expenses. Moreover, as part of Delta Institute’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, approximately 85% of all event costs were spent with companies that are classified as women-owned or minority-owned or with 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.

This year’s event was generously sponsored with support from William Blair, American Family Insurance, United Airlines, Peoples Gas Community Fund, RW Ventures, and Bradley Grams. The event was also hosted by Edelman, which provided the event pro bono to Delta Institute and this year’s guests.

BOOST is organized annually by the Delta Emerging Leaders associate board of Delta Institute