Sustainability is more than just products and services, it’s part of our culture.
West Michigan is wonderfully, beautifully green. But "green" doesn't refer to the color of the landscape; it's the simple term that sums up what is perhaps the region's most acclaimed accomplishments: being a global leader in the design and construction of some of the world's first, and best, environmentally-savvy built environments.
Grand Rapids, alone, boasts the world's first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified (LEED) art museum, the world's first LEED-certified YMCA, and the world's first Double Gold LEED building, the East Hills (Center of the Universe).
The "green" phenomenon has proponents across the region, a geographic area rife with amazing alternative energy innovations, sustainable neighborhoods, historic building preservation and former waterfront industrial sites that have become desirable, clean residential sites.
From multi-million-dollar elementary school makeovers to "green" manufacturing initiatives to energy efficient single-family homes to public transit initiatives, West Michigan is a world leader in preserving and sustaining the spaces we live in, work in and play in.
Some notable achievements include:
- The creation of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum in 1994 -- the first of its kind in Michigan.
- A Sustainable Business degree program that was among the first in the country
- National leadership in the construction of LEED-certified buildings
- Nationally recognized sustainable business leaders including Herman Miller, Steelcase, Haworth and Cascade Engineering
- An office furniture industry that was the first in the U.S. to implement industry-specific sustainable guidelines
- A region-wide sustainable momentum that has been recognized by Fast Company and the Detroit Free Press
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