Sustainability : In the News

This spring and summer, green at the Detroit Zoo will go above and beyond vegetation, alligators, and tropical parrots. Its big green project, energy-efficient building rehabs, solar and electric golf carts, and ditching the disposable plastic water bottles.

Excerpt:

"The Detroit Zoo has joined a handful of its peers nationally that are implementing green operational practices ranging from intense energy savings programs to green education.

It plans to invest about $4 million total in sustainable projects as part of a seven-year "greenprint" strategic plan during that time and in return to see zero waste going to landfills and a 25 percent reduction in the zoo's energy usage by 2020, COO Gerry VanAcker said."

More here.

The Baby Boom generation has a significant presence in Metro Detroit. Public transportation and dense, affordable housing will be just a few of the amenities needed to keep Boomers in place during their retirement years. Area scholars and leaders will be discussing these and other options at the "Mayors & Managers Forum: Built for Boomers" to be held at the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Thursday, April 25, from 8:30-11 a.m.

Click here for more information and to register.

Dread the thought of eating airport cuisine? Well, if it helps, Detroit Metro Airport just took home the “Best ‘Green’ Concessions Practice or Concept” award at the 2011 Richard A. Griesbach Excellence in Airport Concessions Contest. For what, you ask? Turning cooking oil into fuel. Yum.

Excerpt:

"The gateway primarily won the award for its initiative of powering its airport service vehicles with biofuels derived from recycled cooking oil.

With the help of its partner Bradford Airport Logistics, the airport recycles the waste cooking oil from its restaurants that would otherwise be discarded and uses it to power its airport service vehicles."

Read the rest of the story here.

You know the message of Metro Detroit's revitalization is getting out when tech blogs are writing about a solar-powered laundry in Warren.

Excerpt:

"Maybe we’re wrong, but is there a little buzz beginning that the Detroit area is coming back? There are signs popping up here and there. The car industry is certainly in better shape than it was a few years ago, and when you see a small operation like Big Bundle Solar Laundry starting up, well, that’s a good sign that hope and the entrepreneurial spirit still thrive despite the recent tough times."

Read the rest here.

...Or so says John Austin of the Brookings Institute. Covering last month's Great Lakes Summit, he talks about the importance of a second Detroit-Windsor bridge, and how Canada and the Great Lakes states need to jointly develop clean-tech technology.

Excerpt:

"Overall, two topics dominated discussion by delegates as ripe for international teamwork.

One was building the 21st century transportation infrastructure the region needs as a platform for enhanced exports--and in particular building a state-of-the-art span connecting Detroit and Windsor, the world's highest dollar international trade crossing point. Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, and Canada's Consul General Roy Norton were pitching hard for the Michigan Legislature to follow Governor Rick Snyder's call, and vote final approval for the new bridge.

The New International Trade Crossing has been 10 years in the planning, and is strongly backed by business leaders and governments on both sides of the border. It seemed a done-deal when Gov. Snyder announced that Ontario would pay cash-strapped Michigan's share of the project, and in turn the U.S. Department of Transportation would let the Canadian dollars stand-in as Michigan's match for federally-funded highway projects across Michigan.

The project keeps being sabotaged by the aging billionaire Mattie Maroun (born 1927), owner of the equally aging Ambassador Bridge (built 1929), fighting hard to keep a monopoly on toll traffic."

Read the rest of the story here.

"We're number 12" doesn't sound as good as "we're number one" but it's still darn impressive that Michigan is nosing its way toward the top 10.

Excerpt:

"Want to work in the clean, green economy? Come to Michigan.

Michigan ranks 12th among the 50 states in green consumer products, waste management and treatment, public mass transit, energy-saving building materials and organic food and farming, according to a study released today by think tank Brookings Institution."

Read the rest of the story here.

Check out the study here.

The Wayne County Airport Authority and Michigan State University are teaming up to grow, harvest and process canola and oriental mustard seed into bioenergy on land at Detroit Metro Airport and Willow Run. It's part of their plan to increase sustainable aviation.

Excerpt:

"The two airports have a total of about 1,700 acres of property potentially suitable for bioenergy cropping. Initially, WCAA has leased to MSUE three acres of airport-owned land on which biofuel crops, including canola and oriental mustard seed, have been planted and soon will be harvested, refined and tested. MSUE will be responsible for the overall management of the project grant, while WCAA will provide access to and use of acreage at its airports for a portion of the project, which is scheduled to be completed by February 2012."

Read the rest of the story here.

Read more on the subject here.

It's one thing when a business decides to go green because it's good for the environment. It's another when they do it to improve their bottom line. Not only does Emagine's new theater / bowling alley have solar panels on its roof -- installing them made the business' finance packaging possible.

Excerpt:

"After seven years, the solar array will have paid for itself. With a 25-year guarantee on the panels and rising electricity costs, Glantz said, the investment will cut the 71,000-square-foot theater's annual electricity bill by about 20 percent.

But Glantz said the key to completing the theater project was the solar panel investment. As part of the financing package, Emagine was preapproved for a $3.5 million subordinated second mortgage with a 20-year Small Business Administration 504 loan."

Read the rest of the story here.

You read that headline right. Ford is looking at dandelions, the bane to lawn care obsessives, as a possible source for natural rubber. How cool is that?

Excerpt:

"The dandelion-based rubber has the potential to find its way into any part that currently includes rubber, and Milewski said Ford might even try making parts completely from the natural rubber. The change would not only shift Ford away from petroleum-based synthetic rubber, but also use a plant source that can grow easily in the United States."

Read the rest of the story here.

Detroit joined the top ten list for metropolitan regions with the most energy-efficient buildings for the first time in 2010, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's third-annual Energy Star report card.

Helping to shed our rustbelt image for greenbelt attractiveness, former governor Jennifer Granholm's policy of boosting energy-efficiency in state-owned buildings and encouraging K-12 schools to do likewise pushed us onto the list.

Energy Star certified buildings use 35 percent less energy and emit 35 percent less carbon dioxide than average buildings. To earn the Energy Star designation, buildings must out-perform 25 percent of buildings nationwide.


Excerpt:

"Total, the EPA estimates Metro Detroit's green buildings combined to save an estimated $18.7 million in energy costs and prevented greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the amount produced by 17,400 homes.

Those figures were up across the board in Metro Detroit, where only 62 buildings qualified for the EPA designation in 2010."

Read the rest of the story here. And here.