The City of Grand Rapids, U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan and Urban Core Collective are launching the Grand Rapids Building Policies and Programs for Equitable, Healthy & Zero Carbon Buildings (E.H.Zero). Transforming the way buildings and homes are designed, built, and operated is one of the most important ways a city can support affordable housing, ensure clean healthy air in our communities and increase our resilience to the negative impacts of a changing climate. E.H.Zero will co-create with community policies and programs to equitably decarbonize Grand Rapids residential and commercial buildings and present them to Commission for consideration and hopeful adoption.
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 the 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 Leadership Team.