Susan Heinking,

Susan regularly partners with Pepper's safety department to create a safer and healthier environment for our workers. She helped establish Pepper's Nothing Hits the Floor program, which promotes an organized, clean and healthy jobsite. This year, she also partnered with Pepper Environmental Technologies and our safety department to analyze the air quality during construction, with the goal of taking more proactive measures to create a healthier environment for our workforce.

Green Advantage covers the “green gap” between standard trade skills and the new awareness required to successfully implement sustainable building practices. Pepper is a certified Green Advantage Training Provider, which is given to subcontractors, building engineers and owners on all Pepper LEED jobs. To date we have trained hundreds of individuals around the Chicagoland area, including 50 of our own team members.

Turning Point began providing individual and group counseling as well as legal and non-legal advocacy to address its mission to confront domestic violence in McHenry County. In 1986, advocates formed the Alternatives to Abuse Program now called Partner Abuse Intervention Program. Child services and childcare began in 1989, relieving another barrier preventing women from seeking help. A secure emergency shelter opened in January of 2007. Today Turning Point offers a comprehensive array of services for families experiencing domestic violence.

Since 1970, the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County have had many successes in helping to make McHenry County a healthier place in which to live.

From the formation of the McHenry County Conservation District to curbside recycling, from the regulation of gravel mining to the passage of the Illinois Groundwater Protection Act, the Defenders have been at the front line, working closely with local, municipal, and county government while advocating for a healthy environment.