West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum honored Catalyst Partners as its 2018 Sustainable Business of the Year last week at its Fifth Annual Triple Bottom Line Bash at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.
West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum will celebrate sustainable business next Wednesday, October 10 at its Fifth Annual Triple Bottom Bash at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, presented by Consumers Energy.
The Bash will honor five local companies with the West Michigan Sustainable Business of the Year Awards; two professionals with West Michigan Sustainable Business Hall of Fame Induction and Future Hall of Fame Award; and three local businesses with Leadership awards.
Honorees
One of these five finalists will receive the West Michigan Sustainable Business of the Year Award, selected annually by a vote of the WMSBF membership, honoring the local company that best represents the values of the triple-bottom line.
2018 Sustainable Business Hall of Fame inductee Norman Christopher, executive director for the Office of Sustainability Practices at Grand Valley State University, helped establish sustainability as GVSU’s seventh value; wrote Sustainability Demystified! A Practical Guide for Business Leaders and Managers; and served on the Michigan Climate Action Council and United States Department of Commerce Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee. The Sustainable Business Hall of Fame is a lifetime achievement award that recognizes extraordinary contributions to the growth of sustainable business in the West Michigan area over the course of a career.
The Future Hall of Fame award winner, Matthew VanSweden, is an integrative designer with Catalyst Partners. VanSweden is Michigan’s foremost expert on the Living Building Challenge, as exemplified by his best known work, the Saginaw Chippewa Indiana Tribe’s tribal college in Mt. Pleasant. He also created and installed eight pop-up parks across Grand Rapids that served events ranging from SiTE:LAB and Kendall College of Art and Design to TEDxGrandRapids. The award honors an emerging professional whose work deserves wider recognition.
Leadership Award Winners
Circular Economy Leadership Award: Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids, for processing more than 24 million pounds of unsold retail store material donations annually into reuse and recycling markets — a landfill diversion rate of more than 80%.
Climate Leadership Award: Steelcase for promising to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and cut energy use by 25% by 2021; continued investment in 100% renewable energy equivalent to its global electricity consumption; and 20% reduction in global energy since 2010.
Social Responsibility Leadership Award: Spectrum Health for investments in improving patient care; building and renovating facilities; and providing health education and programs, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into its communities.
The Triple Bottom Line Bash is the premiere annual event of the local sustainable business community. Taking place from 6 to 9 pm, it will this year feature UICA’s fall exhibit “Coming Home,” entertainment, dinner from San Chez, a local beer and wine bar, and prize packages.
The event is sold out, but a waiting list for tickets is available. Learn more at wmsbf.org/bash.
The September monthly WMSBF meeting featured a retrospective on 20 years of sustainable business in West Michigan on Monday, September 8 at the Grand Rapids Public Library Main Branch, part of the forum’s 20th Anniversary Celebration.
Some notable comments:
“We need to work collaboratively with designers to work towards our goals. There are many elements to the sustainability issue—social, economic, and other problems. Being able to measure attributes and metrics is extremely important to this. … As we look at the challenges ahead, we need to look at this situation toward the future: We have to beware of complacency.”
Keith Winn, President, Catalyst Partners
“In regards to the long view I think one danger is to reach a point where we just stay the course. We’re comfortable with the same old sustainable design programs, with the standard environmental programs. Everyone’s designing green buildings, everyone’s designing green programs. We’ve reached a point of diminishing returns and yet there’s a community out there that’s designing better environmental buildings, producing more energy with less waste—and I think that’s a great challenge for us as a community and as an organization of companies to work together to aspire to greatness, and innovation.”
Mark Lacroix, Executive Vice President, Business Development, The Carbon Neutral Company
“Simplify the focus. That’s what’s been really successful for us in the energy field.”
Tom Fehsenfeld, President, Crystal Flash
“Two words: Be fearless.”
Deb Steketee, Associate Professor of Sustainable Business, Aquinas College
“Change happens in small increments, when you turn around after going down this path for some time you will realize how far we’ve come. Don’t be disheartened. In the business forum, we think closely together. There are 4 billion people in the world that are aspiring to our lifestyle, and it can’t happen in the same way. I believe there is a moral and ethical responsibility to address the people throughout the world, and especially those that are affected by climate change and the water issues associated with that—the people least responsible for causing those problems and the least prepared for dealing with them.”
Bill Stough, President/CEO Sustainable Research Group