Liz Varmecky, the founder of the Greener Homewood Party and South Suburbs for Greenspace, spoke about community activism at the Chicago Southland Green Drinks meeting on Monday, Feb. 23.

About 50 people attended, including Homewood and Flossmoor residents, environmentalists throughout the South Suburbs and activists from Indiana, Kankakee and the North Side of Chicago.

Green Drinks was founded in London in 1989 and has chapters throughout the United States and in over a dozen other countries. Its Chicago Southland chapter hosts meetings throughout the South Suburbs, allowing attendees to discuss environmental issues in an informal, relaxed atmosphere with like-minded people.

Dave Ward, a Homewood resident and head of Chicago Southland Green Drinks, invited Varmecky to speak at the event.

“Liz is my neighbor,” Ward said. “She does a lot of what I’d consider significant stuff in our community.”

Varmecky founded South Suburbs for Greenspace in 2021 with David Sacks and Erika Schafer, whom she knew from the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. The group helped stop the Diversified Partners trucking hub from moving into Calumet Country Club.

Varmecky founded the Greener Homewood Party and ran for village trustee in Homewood last year but didn’t win. After suspected toxic chemicals were found in the Northwest Pond at Izaak Walton Preserve in Homewood, she co-founded the Clean Izaak Campaign in August 2024.

“This is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life — environmental activism, engaging the community and making a difference,” Varmecky said.

She advised the audience on how to challenge power, file Freedom of Information Act requests and receive media attention for environmental causes.

“A lot of people get hung up, thinking they don’t have the right skills to get involved, and that’s just not the case,” Varmecky said.

She said Native American societies treated the Earth better because they didn’t view themselves as owning the land.

“Western culture allows us to destroy property if we own it,” Varmecky said. “Capitalism is built on an infinite growth model. But the idea that you can always grow doesn’t square with how the environment works.”

Near the end of the evening, Ward invited audience members to speak about whatever they wanted, as long as it was related to environmentalism.

Anne Sedlacek spoke about Save Briar East Woods, a group in Hammond, Indiana, trying to stop 32 acres of woods from being cut down to build a railroad overpass.

Sedlacek said it was inspiring to hear about South Suburbs for Greenspace successfully stopping the trucking hub from being built in Homewood.

Flossmoor resident Troy Holmes said this was his first Green Drinks event, but he signed up for the organization’s email list.

“Environmental issues are very much important to me. And to see organizations like this organizing the way they should be, it really does warm my heart,” Holmes said. “This is an incredible group of people that come together.”

If a community member wants to know about future Green Drinks events, they can follow Chicago Southland Green Drinks on Facebook.