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Erin Gallagher
MIgardner was founded in 2011 by Luke Marion with the goal of inspiring others to garden sustainably and live healthier lives. He wanted information to be accessible to anyone and created content that catered to all gardening skill levels--from curious novice to veteran homesteader and everyone in between.At first, MIgardner was just a collection of YouTube videos, Pinterest tags, and social media posts. As interest in Luke’s work continued to grow, so, too, did his vision for MIgardner. In the summer of 2019 Luke and his wife Sindy opened the first and only store front, located in downtown Port Huron, Michigan. Similar to the Sustainable Agriculture Project at Grand Valley, the goal of MIgardner is not solely to turn a profit, but to help educate a community and serve as an inspiration and touchstone for sustainable agriculture. They wanted to create a space where members of the community could attend classes and workshops to broaden their gardening skills and food literacy. A major principal of the Marion’s that they use to conduct MIgardner is to help families establish food security through self-sufficient farming practices.
In the store you can purchase all your organic gardening needs. Rather than offer seedlings or rooted plants in plastic grow containers that eventually get discarded, they offer seeds in compostable packaging. All of their seeds are locally sourced, many are harvested by hand, and all are bought in bulk to reduce packaging waste. Most recently, in the wake of food shortages due to the Coronavirus pandemic, they have ramped up instructional information on how to start a garden from seeds. As a testament to how they practice their belief in helping families achieve food security while being accessible to everyone, on their Facebook page they wrote: “We don't want to sound too alarmist, but we have the safest form of food security: seeds. We are not raising prices, we just want you to be aware that you can grow food when others are panicking to find it.” These food shortages won't fix themselves overnight either since many analysts say that the food supply could be damaged for months.”
The Marions believe in practicing resourcefulness as a means to be sustainable, and have hosted workshops and classes, some in person and some online, on how to start your own composting, create your own organic fertilizer, use household items to facilitate seed starts, how to can produce so it doesn’t go to waste, and much more. For example, they teach people how to start and use composting in their gardens. This reduces waste products sent to landfills and helps return valuable nutrients to the soil. In turn, you’re left with a healthy growing medium that didn’t come from a foreign source, like store bought soil. Most store bought soils contain all or a combination of: chemicals, minerals like perlite that require energy intensive mining, and an endangered plant called peat moss. Additionally, most store bought soils are sold in plastic, single use, non compostable packaging. Sourcing these products can have devastating and long felt consequences for ecosystems, making the homemade soil medium practiced by MIgardner a more sustainable and healthy option. Similarly, the owners make small batch, organic fertilizer designed to keep plants producing throughout the season and maintain soil health, without any unintended consequences for the environment.
Additionally, they believe in the sole use of hand tools to work the land and harvest crops in order to keep the soil healthy and reduce the use of motorized machinery. They practice this with constant demonstrations on how they maintain their large gardening operation without the use of machinery, with how-to’s on how others can achieve this method of gardening as well.
Maniaci-poster.pdfJack Maniaci
University of Michigan is widely regarded as one of the greatest school in not only Michigan but also the country, which led me to be curious about the sustainability practices of such a highly regarded organization. Through my research I found a wide array of sustainability efforts and opportunities put in place and highlighted within the school’s website.The main principles and of the school’s sustainability program included climate action, waste reduction, promoting healthy environments, and community engagement. For climate action, their goal is to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 25%, as well as reducing vehicular carbon output per passenger trip by 30%. In regard to waste reduction, they stated a desire to reduce their waste sent to landfills by 40%. To promote healthy environments, they seek to purchase 20% of the University of Michigan food from local and sustainable resources, as well as seeking to minimize runoff to the Huron River and reducing chemical use on campus landscapes by 40%. For community engagement the organization seeks to invest in multiple programs that would educate the community and track its progress over time. These goals span over the entirety of the five Ann Arbor campuses, however do not extend to the satellite campuses owned elsewhere in Michigan, one of the few weaknesses I found with their sustainability practices. These goals are used as a guideline for the campus operations to promote a healthier and safer environment for its community, with the deadline being 2025.
The University of Michigan in engaged in several key practices and hosts many programs which take an active effort in building a sustainable campus atmosphere. The campus is stated to have invested over $100 million in sustainable campus operations, such as the largest stadium recycling program in the country and utilizing hybrid electric and alternative fuel vehicles for their bus and train system. They also provide free compostable supplies as well as sustainable training for hosting events to promote zero waste. Another practice is providing resources necessary to make one’s workplace more sustainable, as well as personalized advice for everyone’s specific situation. This helps to educate and promote a sustainable environment for one to work in. A quite important practice they have is the Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund, which leads students down the path of pursuing large-scale, high-impact sustainability projects within the campus, providing grants of up to $50,000 for on-campus projects. On top of these practices, the university provides access to over 700 sustainability-related courses, as well as 60 sustainability-related groups, providing members of the community with a wide array of options to educate themselves on the issues hitting our society both locally and globally as well as opportunity to get involved in promoting a happier and healthier environment around them.
As a whole, I found the campus sustainability operations to be large, inclusive, and in-depth, with all of the necessary information readily available within the campus’ website. There were very few weaknesses I found throughout their sustainability efforts, however the one that did stand out was the lack of guidelines addressed for its satellite campuses and land owned outside of the main Ann Arbor campus. I was impressed with their emphasis on the topic of sustainability and their efforts to pursue a greener campus.
Moriarty-poster.pdfKeely Moriarty
I decided to do my presentation on a semi-local brewery and their attempts at sustainability. To most, sustainability within a business may seem like a buzz word but Bell’s Brewery has a different ideal. As you can see on my poster, Bell’s describes their sustainability with this quote “We view sustainability as the capacity for our business to thrive in future generations through the practices of environmental stewardship, economic robustness and social integrity”. They are conscious of their impact and their handling of resources.Moving on to my first portion of the principles, is their approach of reducing impact. Some things that they claim to help are their green roof, recycling of spent grain, and other little things. Their green roof increases insulation efficiency, while also providing a rainwater buffer and purifying the air. They donate their spent grain to a local dairy farmer who feeds it to his cows. Bell’s also participates in the adopt-a-highway program, and does little things like bike racks all along the building to encourage guests and employees to bike over.
My next section here is energy efficiency. The brewery has high efficiency lighting that includes reflective light tubes located throughout the buildings that provide daylight harvesting which is enhanced by occupancy controls. They also have both a sixteen and an eighty-five ton closed loop geothermal field. This field controls the temperature for the brewery, while also hosting a three acre hop yard on top of it. Lastly, they have a “400 hp process boiler with 84-percent overall efficiency conserves and recycles energy for steam production used in all process heating, mashing, boiling, keg cleaning and sterilization”.
Another principle of their sustainability is their water consumption. Since they are a brewery, we know that water consumption ought to be huge since water is used in every step of the brewing process. Though Bell’s now has a cellar clean-in-place system that has reduced the amount of water to clean the tanks by about 65%. There is also the Bell’s Bio-Energy Building. This project was built to process waste and water and to accommodate distinct portions of the process. The building cycles through more than 100,000 gallons of wastewater daily converting pollutants into renewable energy for use at the brewery. It received the Engineering Honorable Conceptor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Michigan in 2016.
Last to talk about is Bell’s recycling. The brewery claims “all cardboard, paper, stretch wrap, green plastic banding, keg caps, wood, electronics, batteries, scrap metal, aluminum and amber glass from the production process are recycled”. A statistic showed that the company as a whole recycled 1,510, 314 pounds of material in 2018. Their landfill diversion rate during that same year was 92%.
Overall, I think that Bell’s Brewery does a good job of recognizing their environmental impact and how their responsible business practices can be influential. Evan Meffert, their sustainability specialist, stated, “This is the triple bottom line: if we act based on intentions that advocate for healthy communities, environments, and finances, we will experience long-term success”.
Padyjasek-video.mp4Emily Padyjasek
Please play video for narrative.Bittersweet Ski Resort
Bittersweet Ski Resort
Anna Watson
Bittersweet is a ski resort based in Otsego, Michigan. The ski resort includes the mountain, cafeteria, rentals, and a bar and restaurant. It is a smaller ski resort but serves people from all over the state of Michigan. Individuals from other states often visit Bittersweet as well.Bittersweet does not have any explicit sustainable measures or practices in place currently. However, I am aware of a few things they promote and have done. One principle the resort promotes is social equity. They push for fairness and justice. Bittersweet puts forth effort to create a healthy and fun workspace for employees. They also provide fair wages. As an employee of the bar and restaurant at Bittersweet, I have personal experience of this. As a waitress, we make tips off of tables that dine in. For this reason, we have a lower hourly minimum wage. Tips normally cover the rest of the minimum wage. However, on days that tips do not cover the rest of the minimum wage, the resort ensures that it is made up for in our weekly paycheck. Another principle important to the resort is safety. They have several measures in place to advocate for safety, both within the resort, and on the mountain. An example of this is their policy that consists of no snowboards, or skis allowed inside the resort. The boards and skis can be a large tripping hazard, thus for the safely of customers must remain outside. Bittersweet’s security team also exemplifies safety around the resort. The security team constantly circles the resort and manages any problems that may occur. They take care of bar disputes, and any accidents that happen on the mountain. There is a process that occurs for anyone who gets hurt on the mountain, and it is full of precaution for any further measures taken, which also promotes safety. Bittersweet also encourages recycling, but could implement this principle on a larger scale, which I will mention again later. One thing the resort practices is energy efficient lighting. Bittersweet’s lighting consists of almost all LED lighting. LED lighting uses less energy than other light bulbs, meaning lower electricity costs for the resort, and less emissions into the atmosphere. The ski resort uses an abundance of windows in order to make use of natural light in the building. The lower section of the restaurant is surrounded by windows, and the ceiling is crafted of windows as well. Recently, they expanded the resort, making the restaurant larger and creating a picnic area. The walls from the expansion consist nearly completely of windows. The new picnic area includes large windows as well. The use of windows in the resort decreases the amount of artificial light that is needed to illuminate the resort. This saves a great amount of energy and reduces air pollution.
Since I began working at Bittersweet Ski Resort, I have recognized a few principles they should establish, and multiple practices that could be put in place. One principle they could put in place is a larger recycling effort. Bittersweet has a large opportunity to recycle. While, some recycling measures are in place, there is much larger effort that could be made. The ski resort uses an abundance of paper, cardboard, and plastic daily. This could all be recycled but ends up in the trash instead. Another possible principle would be to implement a composting program. The city of Grand Rapids has a composting program set up on a wide scale. There is a large opportunity to begin a similar program in Allegan county, where Bittersweet is located. The ski resort is surrounded by farms. It would take a little work to set up, but I believe the farmers in the area would love to take advantage of the nutrients that are just being thrown away. They could also put a principle into place that Bittersweet as a whole will produce less waste. Increasing the recycling effort and implementing a composting program would greatly reduce waste produced by the ski resort. An example of a practice they could put into place is practicing using less single-use plastic. Plastic utensils and cups are widely used in the cafeteria and restaurant. Plastic is a harmful pollutant to the environment because it takes very long to degrade in nature. Using less plastic would be a sustainable practice for this reason. The ski resort could also install water, and energy efficient toilets and other appliances. The less energy used; the less pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere. Bittersweet could also use sustainable cleaning supplies. There are some chemicals that are more environmentally friendly, and some chemicals which are harmful to the environment. A switch to the sustainable cleaning supplies would be a simple switch and would have a large positive impact on the Earth. The restaurant and cafeteria could purchase biodegradable utensils, plates, cups, and to go containers. While these would not reduce the waste produced, it would be less harmful to the environment.
Bittersweet ski resort performs a few sustainable practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement. The switch would not be super cost intensive and would make a large difference in the aspect of their environmental impact.
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