George Heartwell at 2015 State of the City Address. (mlive photo) Pictured with representatives from WMSBF member Consumers Energy.
Mayor George Heartwell highlighted three WMSBF members in his State of the City Address this morning as he introduced his new climate change initiative. Excerpt shown below.
“Many businesses are taking this seriously. The West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum consists of over 100 members all of whom are committed to operating sustainably in their economic sector. This means, among other things, reducing GHG emissions. Let me give you three quick examples:
- Steelcase has worked hard to reduce its global GHG emissions by 60% since 2001. In early 2014 Steelcase announced it would purchase renewable energy credits equal to 100% of its global electric use.
- Spectrum Health prevented 5.9 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in a one-year period through lighting upgrades and energy conservation at its Butterworth and Blodgett campuses.
- Barfly Ventures which operates Hopcat and Grand Rapids Brewing Company is making major energy conservation investments for reducing GHG emissions and will divert 90% of its waste stream from the landfill.”
Heartwell also introduced the Grand Rapids 2030 District Planning Project. The municipal Office of Energy and Sustainability is partnering with the Institute for Energy Innovation, the West Michigan Chapter of the US Green Building Council, WMSBF and a broad range of private sector leaders to create the Grand Rapids 2030 Energy District Challenge, a high performance building efficiency district.
Learn more about 2030 Districts here.
