Good for Michigan
Good For Michigan is a campaign lead by Local First in partnership with the City of Grand Rapids. The campaign was created in 2017 as Good for Grand Rapids and then expanded to the entire state.
The Quick Impact Assessment (QIA) is a free tool for businesses to identify their strengths and areas for growth from a sustainability perspective. The QIA also allows businesses to see how they compare to others.
Check out the winners of the 2019 Good for Michigan awards.
Michigan Green Communities
Michigan Green Communities (MGC) is a statewide network of local government and university staff. The group collaborates to move sustainability initiatives forward at the local, regional, and state level. Grand Rapids is not only a member of this network, but our Sustainability and Performance Management Officer, Alison Waske Sutter, sits on the steering committee. In 2018 and 2019, we received Gold Certification for the annual MGC Challenge.
Community Collaboration on Climate Change (C4)
The Community Collaboration on Climate Change (C4) is an evolution of what was previously the Community Sustainability Partnership (CSP) a diverse network of for-profit and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and governments in West Michigan. The CSP showed that the resources, experience, and knowledge already exist within the community, but organizations and individuals most concerned with the climate-justice movement are not always acting in the same spaces. In addition, although we are all negatively impacted by climate change, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted and aren't genuinely represented in the current environmental and climate change movement. The Grand Rapids community lacks a solid and stable infrastructure to challenge systemic barriers necessary to make bold changes necessary to create a just climate future, and the C4 intends to change that fact. In the C4 our vision is that, BIPOC and historically white environmental organizations will dismantle extractive systems and build new systems to combat climate change - centered in human wellbeing, the interconnectedness of life, and access to shared leadership. Alison Waske Sutter and Annabelle Wilkinson sit on the C4 Planning Team.