WMEAC Names 2012 Award Honorees

WMEAC announced honorees for its 2012 Annual Membership Awards at its Annual Meeting last week Thursday at the new Ballroom @ City Flats.  WMEAC has honored volunteer and member contributions annually since 1969.  We’ll be posting more complete profiles of the honorees over the coming week.

This year’s honorees include:

CR Evenson Award, given to the individual that had made the greatest contribution to the continued success of WMEAC during the past year
City of Grand Rapids Sustainability Director Haris Alibasic

Joan Wolfe Award for recognition of important contributions to WMEAC of the course of several years
Rob McCarty

Volunteer of the Year
Danielle Ostafinski & Amy Rotter

Intern of the Year
Adam Levick

Volunteer Accomplishment of the Year
Brock Rodgers for the Grand River Green Up

Member of the Year
Gene DeWys

Contractor of the Year
Plenty

Teacher of the Year
Lea Sevigny

Steward of the Year
Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance

Activist of the Year
Don Triezenberg

Citizen Journalist of the Year
Caitlin Otmanowski & Karie Schulenburg

Environmental Journalist of the Year
Joe Boomgard

Environmental Professional Deserving Wider Recognition
Starla McDermott

WMEAC Elects New Board Members

WMEAC last week elected six new members to its Board of Directors for a three-year term.  WMEAC thanks outgoing directors Erik Nordman, Christopher Reader, Michael Tuffelmire, Peter Boogaart and Joseph Doele  for their service.

Emily Burns, Facilities Planning Manager, Herman Miller

Emily started her career with Herman Miller in May 2012 and works on facilities projects. She’s excited to be a part of the Herman Miller family and to dive into her new position. Prior to Herman Miller, Emily was a Senior Manager at Priority Health, where she developed and maintained a company-wide business continuity program that addressed disaster recovery, business recovery, and emergency response management.  She also maintained company-wide sustainability efforts that lead to positive results for the annual triple bottom report. Emily received her bachelor’s from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is president of the International Facility Management Association (West Michigan) and has been an IFMA member since 2004. Emily lives in Grand Rapids and enjoys hanging out with friends, her rescue dogs and taking in all that the Grand Rapids and the lake shore areas have to offer.

Emily Green, Attorney, Rhoades McKee

Emily concentrates her practice in the areas of real estate and environmental law. She assists clients with diverse environmental and real estate matters.  In the environmental arena, she routinely assists lenders, buyers and sellers in navigating the environmental due diligence process to achieve and maintain liability protection.  Her practice also includes counseling clients with regulatory compliance matters. Prior to joining Rhoades McKee, Emily interned for the Environmental Protection Agency working in Regional Enforcement and Compliance and drafted regulations under the Clean Air Act for the National Vehicle and Fuels Emissions Laboratory. Emily received Master of Studies in Environmental from Vermont Law School, Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School, and a Bachelor of Science from MichiganStateUniversity.

Adam London, Environmental Health Director, Kent County Health Department

Adam London earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health from Ferris State (after doing an internship at WMEAC). He has also earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Grand Valley and is working on a PhD in Epidemiology. He is a Registered Sanitarian and has worked in environmental public health programs for local health departments during the past 14 years. Most notably, he served as Environmental Health Director in Ottawa County from 2005 – 2010 and currently works for Kent County in that same role. Much of his work has focused on protecting human health through protection of water resources. Adam is a past President of the Michigan Association of Local Environmental Health Administrators and currently serves as a Regional Vice-President on the National Environmental Health Association’s board of directors.

Brock Rodgers, Environmental Engineer, izzy+

As an environmental engineer at izzy+, Brock is the technical lead on environmental issues for izzy+ and its manufacturing sites, and leads the BIFMA level® certification initiative for izzy+ products. Brock conducts presentations for contract furniture professionals to explain the relationships between products developed for their sustainable attributes, and LEED and level® programs. His quest to make sustainability meaningful on a personal level led him to join West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum and its Social Responsibility committee. There, Brock helps companies define how their actions in social responsibility make a positive impact. Brock is a community sustainability advocate and volunteers his time to many West Michigan organizations. His education includes Bachelors in product design engineering from Ferris State University and a Masters of Management with a sustainability concentration from Aquinas College.

Dr. Michael Scantlebury, Associate Professor, Grand Valley State University

Dr. Scantlebury is an Associate Professor in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Prior to joining Grand Valley State University, he was on the faculty of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida.  Dr. Scantlebury has worked in travel and tourism since 1985.  His career began as a research officer for the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA).  Throughout his career he also served the organization as a marketing manager and relocated to New York City as manager of US Operations.

Jamie Scripps, Senior Consultant, 5 Lakes Energy

In her role as Senior Consultant, Jamie works with client of 5 Lakes Energy to offer services in clean energy and the environment. A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Jamie has practiced law with Sondee, Racine & Doren PLC in Traverse City, Michigan and Venable LLP in Washington, DC, where she specialized in environmental law. Jamie has also worked as Deputy Policy Director for the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) in Lansing. Jamie holds a JD (University of Michigan), a Master’s in Leadership Studies (North Central College), and a Bachelor’s in Education (Michigan). She lives in East Grand Rapids with her husband, Dan, and their son, Jack.

BetterBuildings for Michigan Presents GR1K Campaign, Program Now Available Citywide For Limited Time

On Monday, October 29, BetterBuildings for Michigan will launch its final program sweep, the GR1K Campaign, at an open house at WMEAC Headquarters, 1007 Lake Drive. Sign up for the program at the office on Monday between 3 pm and 7 pm and receive a special 50% discount (you must indicate that you saw this offer on The WMEAC Blog).

Roughly two years ago, the City of Grand Rapids and WMEAC launched an innovative home energy program to help local residents improve home energy performance, lower utility bills and make living spaces more comfortable.  Part of a statewide initiative funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and developed by the State of Michigan and other partners, the BetterBuildings for Michigan program provides a valuable package of home services that includes a complete energy assessment of the home, installation of energy saving amenities such as CFL light bulbs, pipe wrap and faucet aerators, and access to state and utility incentives for energy efficiency improvements.

To date, the program has only been available to select Grand Rapids residents through time-limited “sweeps” of neighborhoods, employers and social networks, with hundreds of qualifying Grand Rapids home owners taking part in the program.  Sweeps have been offered in to parts of the Eastown, Riverside, Creston, Oakdale and Westside neighborhoods over the past two years, with additional sweeps offered to employees of certain local universities and health care providers.

Now, due to strong demand, BetterBuildings for Michigan will be available to all Grand Rapids homeowners for a very limited time through the GR1K

“The program was initially designed partly as a research project,” said Selma Tucker, Regional Coordinator for BetterBuildings for Michigan. “We needed a controlled environment to evaluate how homeowners used the knowledge and services the program provided, but that meant turning away a lot of interested people.  The original intention was to be winding everything down right now, but thanks to some strong lobbying by city leaders, we’ve been given an opportunity to provide BetterBuildings for Michigan to another 1,000 homes, provided we get them signed up before the end of the year.”

The foundation of the BetterBuildings for Michigan package is a comprehensive, whole-home energy assessment provided by certified local contractors, typically valued at $350 to $500.  Much more exhaustive than the simple walkthroughs provided by utilities and local HVAC service vendors, the assessment employs cutting edge thermal imaging technology to create an objective scientific report on how efficiently the home is operating and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of common home energy improvements, primarily air sealing and improved insulation.  During the assessment, contractors will make the simplest improvements immediately, installing pipe wrap, faucet aerators, new light bulbs and programmable thermostats as needed.

Through the program, homeowners have access to industry-leading incentives to make additional improvements.  On top of applicable utility rebates, the current package of incentives includes a 1.99% APR exclusive home energy loan for up to $20,000 or an up to $1,500 discount on improvements.  Incentives may vary for homes outside of city limits.

A $99 copay is required to participate in the program.  Time is short, and availability is limited. The program will end after the first 1,000 homes or December 31, whichever comes first.  Sign up on Monday for a 50% discount.