Sustainability : In the News

Detroit Bikes! is locally coordinating National Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 18 along the Woodward corridor between Royal Oak and downtown Detroit.

Excerpt:

From Royal Oak south to Campus Martius, with stops along the way in Ferndale, Palmer Park, New Center and Midtown, participants will roll into downtown just after 8 a.m.

Held both to draw attention to the viability of cycling as a means of transportation and to bestow a bit of group courage to the novice cycler, the event is free. Last year -- its first -- the Woodward Avenue Bike to Work drew 50 riders; event organizer Alexander Froehlich expects up to 75 this year.

Read the entire article here.

The Midwest's largest venture capital gathering, the Midwest Growth Capital Symposium, will be held May 15 and 16 in Ypsilanti.

Excerpt:

A carefully screened group of 40 companies, representing industries ranging from information technology, life sciences, and alternative energy, will present in three tracks for an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors and institutional investors. These companies represent high potential deals in the Midwest and are seeking their initial investment, a first institutional investment or expansion financing.

Find out more and register here.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan announced the awarding of $15.4 million in grants.

Awardees include:

• Detroit Zoological Society,
• Eastern Market Corporation,
• Washtenaw County, for support of the Food System Economic Partnership,
• Brookings Institute, to study the region's transformation from rust belt to knowledge belt, and
  
• Boys and Girls Club of SE Michigan

Read the entire article here.

As part of its strategy to tackle global warming, Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mullaly announced that the company has instituted a position of senior vice president in charge of sustainability, environment and safety engineering.

Excerpt:

"It's about sustainability, it's about mobility, it's about safety, it's about (being) stewards of our environment," he said. "This is the biggest agenda we have at Ford. I think it's going to be one of the most important considerations to the customers that buy our products and services going forward."

Read the entire article here.

Ann Arbor will host two workshops on the future of its transportation system on April 23 -- one at 4 p.m. and one at 7:30, both at Huron High School.

Excerpt from website:

Each workshop will include information about the current state of transportation in Ann Arbor and will begin with a short presentation to help participants make informed suggestions. The presentations will be followed by the project team receiving public comments from groups formed from attendees. Those attending can express their opinions about the direction of transportation in the city and talk about their priorities with other participants.

The workshops are intended to gather information that will help the city set priorities for the rest of the transportation planning effort. Officials expect the City’s transportation planning process to take approximately one year.

Find out more here.

Dearborn Heights is considering adding no-fee curbside recycling to its list of city services as both an environmental benefit and a cost-saver.

Excerpt:

"Environmentally, recycling is the right thing to do — not just for our city, but for the planet," [Mayor Dan] Paletko said. "We take pride on being an environmentally sound city, and this is just another step in the right direction."

The X Prize Foundation is launching a multi-year competition to find fuel efficient production-ready vehicles -- that will ultimately award the most promising designs with millions of dollars in cash prizes.

Excerpt:

Although there have been many contests to design super-efficient vehicles, this one is unique because of its emphasis on market viability, according to Neal Anderson, senior director of the Automotive X Prize. Participating teams must develop a business plan for producing at least 10,000 cars per year. The contest is divided into two classes: the mainstream class, in which teams develop more conventional vehicles with four wheels and room for four or more passengers, and the alternative class, which allows for more innovation but is allotted a smaller share of the prize money.

Read the entire article here.

James Newman, area green building consultant, talks with Crain's about local trends in green building and LEED certification.

Excerpt:

Interestingly enough, Michigan is eighth highest among the 50 states in terms of green buildings. Five of the states which are ahead of us — Washington, Oregon, California, New York and Pennsylvania — all have policies which encourage building green and sustainable. So we’re not doing too badly considering we have no help from our government or our utilities. The only available assistance at this time is from nonprofit organizations or foundations.

I would welcome comments from our legislators or our utilities.

Read the entire article here.

Farmington Hills exceeded state and regional recycling rates in 2006.

Excerpt:

Mike Csapo, general manager at Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, reported Farmington Hills' recycling rate is 33 percent and the city diverted about 11,000 tons of trash from landfills during 2006.

Read the entire article here.

Environmentalists are calling for an expansion of Michigan's bottle deposit law to account for water and juice containers.

Excerpt:

By most measurements, Michigan's law has been an unqualified success. Folks return more than 97 percent of the 4.3 billion bottles and cans of carbonated beverages sold here each year, according to state records. That tops the return rate of all other states and ranks Michigan's as America's No. 1 bottle recycling program.

Read the entire article here.

While not specifically written about Michigan, Salon's article on wind power is comprehensive and informative -- and, one might hope, instructive to the Third Coast state?

Excerpt:

Indeed, offshore wind could take us to a new energy future, free of carbon dioxide, or CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, faster than any other power source, say industry experts. Bye-bye, Saudi Arabia. So long, global-warming paralysis.

In the United States, wind represents less than 1 percent of all electric power generation, but that's still enough to power 2.9 million homes. The industry is growing fast -- wind-power production shot up 160 percent between 2000 and 2005, rising 27 percent just last year. For the past two years, wind has been the second-largest source of new power, after natural gas.

Read the entire article here. (Note: Will require watching a brief advertisement.)

Wayne County residents can drop-off household hazardous goods on March 31 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Sumpter County DPS located at 23501 Sumpter Road.

Acceptable items include:

Household paints, stains, dyes

Floor wax, floor care products, carpet cleaner

Furniture polish, bathroom cleaners, stain removers

Medicine, nail polish, glue

Fertilizer, law and garden chemicals, pesticides
 
Antifreeze, motor oil, gasoline

Automotive batteries and dry cell batteries

Mercury-containing thermometers and other devices. Note that a special thermometer exchange program will be offered: bring a mercury thermometer and exchange it for a safe digital thermometer (limit one per car).
 
These electronic items will also be accepted for recycling: computer monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mouse, cell phones, fax machines, VCRs, cable boxes and televisions.
 
Passenger vehicle tires will also be accepted. Limit 10 per vehicle.

The following items cannot be accepted: commercial waste, industrial waste, smoke detectors, radioactive material, explosives, ammunition, 55-gallon drums, unknown/unlabeled wastes, shock sensitive materials, household trash, refrigerators, microwaves or other appliances and concrete.

For more information, call the Wayne County Resource Recovery Coordinator at 734.326.3936.

With everyone talking about what direction Michigan's energy future should go, many are pointing out that the greener it goes, the better for the economy.

Excerpt:

"We could become the alternative energy state," says Mark Beyer, spokesman for the Detroit nonprofit NextEnergy.

When the facility opened, with its 80-seat auditorium and offices and research labs, the goal, said CEO James Croce, was to position both Detroit and Michigan at the "focal point of the emerging alternative energy industry."

Much of NextEnergy's efforts are focused on working with the Big 3 automakers to develop alternative fuels such as biodiesel, hydrogen and ethanol. But it offers alternative energy companies of all stripes research facilities, office space and access to government funding sources and private venture capital.

Read the entire article here.

Detroit's Avalon bakery now stocks Bloomfield Hills' Plum Market with its 100% organic breads 7 days a week.

Plum Market is located at Maple and Lahser, and features organic and locally-grown and -produced products.

Cecelia Smothers-Reese stood on her porch Thursday and looked at the burned-out shell of a home next door to her on Benson Street on Detroit's east side.

It's been like that for two years -- an all too common sight in Smothers-Reese's neighborhood and others throughout Detroit.

The previous owner, an elderly woman, moved, and a fire shortly afterward destroyed the house. Looters stripped the remains for scrap metal.

"Most of us that own the homes that we're in try our best to keep up the properties," said Smothers-Reese, 55, who has lived there since 1959. "It really adds to the deterioration of the neighborhood. They're dangerous, too."

Smothers-Reese would be among those helped by Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to tear down 5,000 blighted and abandoned homes in eight cities, including Detroit, over four years.

The $25-million plan, announced last month in her State of the State address, would be Michigan's most aggressive anti-blight initiative.

Read the entire article here.