While conventional wisdom holds that Metro Detroit is more Rust Belt than Green Belt, there are enough sustainable initiatives popping up and holding on to challenge that notion. The real question is not if Southeastern Michigan can go green, but just how green it will go.
Alternate EnergyThe auto industry is, of course, key to this conversation. Not without serious fault (average vehicle fuel economy has actually decreased since the Model T) its very presence, in some ways, forces opportunity.
This year’s North American International Auto Show touted its green credentials, with every major car company promoting some sort of alternatively powered vehicle—from hybrids to clean diesel to fuel cells. General Motors attracted the most notice with the
Chevrolet Volt, an electric hybrid car that can run for 40 miles without resorting to gasoline usage. Attractively styled, it captured the attention of the world press and auto show visitors like no other vehicle displayed.
Plus, there’s spin-off potential. The auto industry has trained a generation of engineers and designers who, on their own, might just find the magic bullet in the arsenal of alternate fuels. Richard Marks, president of Grosse Pointe-based
EnVironmental Transportation Solutions, certainly thinks so. He and his partners all have Big 3 automotive engineering backgrounds. Marks sees this as an essential ingredient in the creation of vehicles that not only work, but can be efficiently produced.
Detroit’s
NextEnergy has positioned itself as a national leader in alternate fuel research and development. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation seeded NextEnergy with $30 million in start-up funds in 2002, and it has leveraged millions more since.
Roughly put, NextEnergy is an incubator for companies that are engaged in alternative fuel R&D. But the importance of their role as advocates and network-builders cannot be overstated. High profile, intelligent and —most importantly— realistic, they treat alternate fuels first and foremost as a business. This helps make the entire enterprise more palatable to the conservative guard that holds both the power and the purse strings.
Just a few of the balls that NextEnergy is juggling include a web-based fleet
processing tool, an alternative fuels testing platform, a microgrid power platform that can run off multiple sources of energy and a $100,000 lab competition that helps entrepreneurs access start-up funds and other resources. And about that networking thing? NextEnergy counts the Big 3, Wayne State University, University of Michigan and Automation Alley among its partners.
Other folks have also stepped up to the production side of the plate when it comes to alternate fuels. A plant that converts waste oil to biofuel is soon-to-open in Milan and the
Detroit Data Parntnership is exploring the feasibility of growing biofuel crops on tracts of vacant, contaminated urban land.
One can almost envision an entirely new green automotive industry dedicated to research and development, biofuel crop cultivation, fuel production and vehicle manufacturing… all within our own little corner of the universe.
The talent and the infrastructure are here. The only question remaining is, whether there’s the will to make this the way of the future?
Of course, automobiles are not the only energy hogs around here. How about our buildings? Virtually all of our electricity is coal-generated; one of the dirtiest fossil fuels around.
Luckily, change is in the air. DTE Energy recently announced its
GreenCurrents program, which allows customers the option of purchasing all or part of their electricity from renewable sources. Furthermore, the governor’s recent State of the State address called for 10% of the state’s future power generation to come from renewable sources. A modest number to be sure, but a start nonetheless.
Green BuildingWhile coal may be too hard a habit for Michigan to kick, more and more homes and workplaces are using energy more efficiently.
The Renaissance Center, the iconic image of Detroit, recently achieved
Energy Star certification. In a recent
Crain’s Detroit Business article about the designation, Maura Beard, communications director for the EPA, revealed that Michigan is among the top 25 percent of states for Energy Star buildings and that Detroit, specifically, is a stand-out when it comes to larger buildings.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
Numerous groups are fervently working towards the goal of a more energy-efficient region. State-wide,
Greenbuilt Michigan works to train builders and developers in green building techniques and
Michigan Green Communities offers subsidies to energy-efficient housing built for low- to moderate-income families.
In Southfield, Lawrence Technological University’s
Center for Sustainability requires the school’s architecture students to focus one semester of their design work on sustainability and offers post-graduate certificates in the field for practicing architects. The college is leading by example with its new Student Services Center and quadrangle, both of which employ cutting-edge
green techniques.
The Kresge Foundation has put its money where its mouth is with its new Troy headquarters that meets LEED platinum standards as determined by the U.S.
Green Building Council. The organization’s highest rating is only achieved with the strictest attention to construction practices, material and mechanical equipment selection and design choices.
Even Ford Motor Company has transformed the venerable
Rouge Plant in Dearborn into an international model of a green industrial facility. Its green roof—the size of ten football fields—keeps the plant warm in the winter and cool in the summer and filters rainfall prior to its runoff into the Rouge River.
A great resource for any home or business owner interested in applying some of these techniques is Detroit’s
WARM Training Center, an organization that provides energy consulting and whose office doubles as a showcase for sustainable building techniques and products.
Land UseSprawl puts stress on both urban communities (emptying them of
taxpayers) and rural areas (shrinking the amount of land that can be
used for farming, recreation and natural habitat).
Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to tame the sprawl beast. Between 1982 and 1996, the region’s population decreased by roughly 1% while the amount of land 'urbanized' increased by almost 20%.
This land use battle is being fought from the inside out. Urban community development corporations are rebuilding neighborhoods into vibrant, diverse communities that retain existing residents and attract new ones. Neighborhoods in Detroit like Mexicantown, Corktown, Southwest Detroit, and Midtown have actually bucked the depopulation trend.
Meanwhile, the
Michigan Suburbs Alliance has united inner ring suburbs like Ferndale, Dearborn and Taylor in the very same fight. Sprawl is starting to take its toll on older cities in the area and issues of aging infrastructure, vacant businesses and school closings attest to the fact that even relatively wealthy municipalities are not impervious to issues that Detroit has struggled with for decades.
Locally, MSA is on the forefront of a national movement to strengthen downtowns as a weapon against sprawl. Northville, Plymouth, Royal Oak, Mt. Clemens and Rochester are just a few of the smaller local cities that have allocated resources to downtown renewal.
Greenbelts have also been a powerful anti-sprawl measure. Used to great effect in Portland, OR and London, these urban growth boundaries provide an open space buffer between cities and fram or undeveloped land.
Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt Program is working to buy 7,000 acres of land in and around the city to preserve open space and slow the rapid pace of suburban development.
Another player in the land use scene has been the Community Foundation for
Southeast Michigan’s Greenways Initiative. Over five years, it has invested $100 million and leveraged at least $50 million more towards the planning, land acquisition and development of linear paths, park space and bike lanes within the seven-county region. The Greenways Initiative has been a contributor to the
Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s transformation of Detroit’s east riverfront, Dearborn’s Rouge Gateway Greenway and a rails-to-trails project in Pontiac, among others.
Similarly, Detroit has recently seen
urban agriculture turn some of its vacant land into productive farmland, an innovative response to the shrinking city phenomenon.
Individual EffortsWhen it comes to recycling, Southeastern Michigan is a veritable tale of two cities. Ann Arbor has one of the
most comprehensive programs in the nation,
offering offering curbside service, a reuse store, building disassembly, construction site services and the EnHouse Green Building Resource Center. On the other hand, Detroit is only now taking baby steps towards a
city-wide program.
The rest of Metro Detroit’s municipalities have programs that fall somewhere in-between. Recycle Detroit’s Sarah Kubik, in her efforts to build up the city's programs thinks that, after Ann Arbor,
Southeastern Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority is the most progressive in the region.
12 cities operate under the SOCRRA umbrella, including Hazel Park, Royal Oak and Ferndale. Each of these cities gets paid for its recyclables, providing a revenue stream, and the program additionally offers curbside pick-up of yard waste, which it then composts and sells back to consumers.
But recycling requires an active commitment from individuals, families and businesses. Indeed, individual action is where every sustainable initiative begins.
Take Josh Piggot, AKA
Dr. Soy Diesel, who converted his panel truck to run on biodiesel that he makes from waste oil in his garage. Or Brice Madden, who has made a commitment to the use of sustainable woods and non-toxic paints and stains in his business,
C.Y. Woodworking. These local residents have taken responsibility for our environment into their own hands.
Imagine if the 4.9 million rest of us did the same.
Kelli B. Kavanaugh is metromode's innovation news editor and Model D's development news editor.
Dave Krieger is managing photographer of Model D and a major contributor to metromode.
Photographs:
NextEnergy corporate offices - Detroit
Chevrolet Volt at the Detroit Autoshow
NextEnegery - Detroit
Lawrence Tech University - Southfield
Children learn about organic farming at WARM Training Center - Detroit
WARM solar panel - Detroit
Dr. Soy Diesel
Photographs Copyright Dave Krieger