Michigan Focus
Alaina Melton
Aldea Coffee is a coffee company with locations in Grand Haven, Michigan and Muskegon, Michigan. Unlike other coffee companies, Aldea does not make profit their first priority. This is made clear by their mission statement: “Together, through all we craft, we emphasize quality and value in every interaction. We believe the earth to be an inspiring place, and we empower each other to explore, enjoy, and preserve it”.
This company truly emphasizes the importance of quality in every aspect of their business. A principle they value, for example, as seen in their mission statement, is to explore, enjoy, and preserve the Earth. As a business, they explore the world through the sourcing of their beans. All of Aldea’s coffee is ethically sourced directly from farmers in Tanzania and Honduras. By working directly with farmers, Aldea is able to enjoy what the land has to offer while still preserving it. Additionally, they have Processed Over 3,000 Gallons of Compostable Material in 2020, and since their founding they have never purchased packaging materials. Caring for the environment ensures that their business remains a sustainable one.
Aldea also values giving back to the community and their employees. Employees in both Grand Haven and Muskegon make an effort to volunteer in their local communities whenever possible. In fact, in 2020, Aldea employees worked in their communities over a total of 235 hours. While they give back, the employees are taken care of as well. Aldea provides their employees with fair wages as well as giving back 1% of all annual profits to them. This amounted to sharing 5,895 dollars in 2020.
Aldea Coffee is a company that truly cares about the environment, their employees, their farmers, and their customers. They take extra care of every part of their production to ensure that their business remains sustainable. While they have already accomplished so much in a sustainable sense, they are working on doing even more. Aldea has set many ambitious goals for 2021 and 2022. As a company they hope to eliminate the plastic seals and lining in their one pound bags while still maintaining coffee freshness. In addition to this packaging change, they are also working on a way to implement a bulk purchasing system that allows customers to utilize their own containers. Aldea also plans on educating their customers on how to dispose of their coffee waste without sending it to a landfill. Lastly, while their tea tins are recyclable, each tea bag comes individually wrapped in single-use plastic that they hope to get rid of. By staying true to their values and continuously working to improve, Aldea Coffee remains an example of sustainability that businesses should strive for.
Isabel Stein
Consumers Energy was founded in 1886 in Jackson, Michigan. It has only grown since. It now serves 6 million out of the 9 million people living in Michigan. Their focus is providing safe and reliable energy to people all over the state and help communities thrive. They have recently been focusing on minimizing their environmental impact and reducing their coal usage. They plan to eliminate their use of coal by 2040 to reduce carbon emissions by ninety percent. As the poster states, they retired seven of their coal-powered plants, which was two-thirds of their entire coal fleet. The rest of the transition to zero coal will happen over time. They plan to retire Karn 1 and 2, coal-fired generating units, in 2023. Two more will be retire in 2031 with the last coal powered unit being retired in 2040. The stages will give the company time to adapt to changes and work out improvements before the next retirement phase. Customer needs may change, and they will need to be ready for them.
They are making up for the loss of coal with wind and solar energy. Consumers Energy already has a few wind parks up and running. Cross Winds Energy Park in Tuscola County has been functional since 2014. Its construction led to 150 local jobs and is expected to bring in millions of dollars of tax revenue. Lake Winds Energy Park in Mason County is newer. It has also helped bring in local jobs and is expected to be very lucrative. Nearly $4 million of economic impact in Mason County will be accounted for by the park each year. Gratiot Farms Wind Project includes 60 turbines and began operations in late 2020. Crescent Wind Farm in Hillsdale County, though, is the newest. It started generating electricity early this year and features 60 wind turbines. Combined, Consumers Energy’s four wind farms can produce enough energy for 250,000 households. Consumers Energy has two solar farms. One is located here at Grand Valley. It is a 17-acre site with 11,200 solar panels. Operations began in 2016 and it is the largest community solar project in Michigan. The second one is located on Western Michigan University’s campus. It is 8.5 acres of land with 3,900 solar panels. Operations also began in 2016. Together, they power enough for 800 homes at once. Consumers is planning for a third solar powered plant in Cadillac. This plant would power enough electricity for 100 homes at a time.
Consumers Energy worked with local area managers to set up the wind and solar farms. They worked to make it the least intrusive to the surrounding environments and stayed out of the way of wildlife habitats the best they could. The construction of the farms and parks gave jobs to local workers, increasing the company’s community involvement. Everyone who works at Consumers Energy is local to that area and are committed to seeing the environment thrive. This is why they have been pushing for better, greener initiatives. They are working to save one billion gallons of water over five years. They do this by collecting and reusing water runoff from coal-fired power plants. They have been recycling water as much as possible while still maintaining safety precautions. They expect to reduce water usage by 99% once they phase out the usage of coal plants. Consumers Energy hires teams of tree planters, as well. They plant trees in areas of excessive logging and to reforest watersheds around dams. This reduces erosions and protects wetlands. Consumers Energy’s principles go hand-in-hand with their practices for striving towards a greener future.
