Environment : Innovation & Job News

The people behind Energy Sciences aren't focused on providing their customers with what they want so much as what they need. The downtown Birmingham-based consulting firm that specializes in energy efficiency is focusing its efforts on assisting commercial companies with the best possible strategy for lowering their energy costs.

"We wanted to give them what they really needed," says Frank Schulmeister, energy strategist for Energy Sciences. "What they really need is a comprehensive energy strategy."

Energy Sciences specializes in demand-side energy management services for the commercial, industrial and municipal sectors. It tailors solutions and develops strategic programs that reduce operating costs and minimize carbon footprints. Its customers range from small heating-and-cooling companies to large auto suppliers.

The 4-year-old company has doubled and tripled its bottom line in each of those years. That has allowed it to grow to three employees and a handful of independent contractors. Much of the growth has come from word-of-mouth. This year the company iintends to expand its client list by investing in marketing efforts.

"We would like to be a company of about 10-12 employees," Schulmeister says.

Source: Frank Schulmeister, energy strategist for Energy Sciences
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Paragon Leadership International, a Novi-based corporate coaching and training outfit, is launching Epprentice, where rising leaders put their minds together to solve energy and food issues in the state of Michigan -- and have the opportunity to have their ideas judged by some of the area's top executives in that field.

On October 1, the Food Epprentice Experience will be held, focusing on food safety, nutrition, and the agriculture economy. On October 15, the Environment and Energy Epprentice Experience will take on energy efficiency, sustainability, alternative energy, and energy economy. Two teams will take on a challenge in each given topic -- such as designing a social media plan for the WARM Training Center -- which will be judged by top names in the field. The winning teams will be feted. "We're working on some high visibility recognition," says Paragon's Diane Ring.

Ring says Paragon was motivated to develop Epprentice to take action on what the group sees as "challenges to our region." As an example she cites DTE Energy, a client since the firm's inception in 2001, which has a mandate to develop alternative energy while still having to deliver electricity on the grid it currently operates. It is onto issues like this that Paragon is hoping that Epprentice can shed light.

Ring expects Epprentice days to be "high energy, very busy, very intense days" with much "innovation, imagination and collaboration." Find out more here.

Source: Diane Ring, Paragon
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh

Parks equal green space, so they must be "green," right?

Negative.

Many of them waste a ton of resources with non-native plantings that require frequent watering and fertilizer. These plants can overtake native ones, meaning that land meant to preserve nature instead re-imagines it in a suburban-friendly palette.

One park in Oakland County is turning that notion on its head with an enhanced effort to consider park maintenance as a kind of environmental stewardship. The county hopes that its "green" effort at Independence Oaks County Park includes initiatives that are easily transferable to other parks in the area.

Independence Oaks is 1,088 acres. It has a 68-acre glacial lake and is home to the headwaters region of the Clinton River -- a watershed encompassing 760 square miles of land in four counties. Its ecosystem consists of wetlands, rolling grasslands and a large portion of wetlands that are hardwood-conifer swamp which has been identified as a rare natural resource in Michigan.

The parks department started its efforts in 2006. First up was combating invasive species including buckthorn, phragmites, honeysuckle and autumn olive. These efforts, which have included mechanical removal and chemical treatment, continue to the present.

Next up: a prescribed burn program, which began in 2007. "Our goal is to combat non-native species and give our native, fire-adapted grasses and wildflowers a competitive edge in landscape," says Brittany Bird, natural resource planner.

The burns, conducted in spring to minimize disruption to nesting birds and snakes, are part of a long-term strategy that aims to restore historical natural communities like prairies, oak-hickory woodlands and wet meadows. They take place under the supervision of both park staff and local fire departments.

The results: so far, so good. Increased abundance of native plant species has been observed, as well as nine species of butterflies never before seen at Independence Oaks.

The park has also instituted a Natural Resources Stewardship Program to conserve rare species, including the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake. It conducts frog and toad and grassland bird surveys, butterfly counts and nest box monitoring programs as well.

It turns out that just 35 miles north of Detroit, in Clarkston, lies a real slice of nature.

Source: Desiree Stanfield, Oakland County Parks and Recreation
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
Photos by John Meyland

As more and more people embrace the locavore movement, it makes sense to introduce it to a young and impressionable audience -- especially when they are captive.

I'm not talking jailbirds here, but schoolkids.

Which is why the news that the Food System Economic Partnership in Southeast Michigan will receive $40,000 to support the expansion of its Farm to Schools lunch program from the Kellogg Foundation is so great.

Last year was the pilot program for Farm to Schools, and it worked with multiple schools in Chelsea and Ann Arbor as well as one in Dearborn. This year, they will spread more into Wayne County and out to Jackson.

"Farm to Schools is a win-win for students and farmers and the community," says FSEP's executive director, Jennifer Fike. "We are promoting farmers being able to keep farming in this region and allowing them another avenue to sell what they produce; for the students, eating food tends to taste better when it's fresher and it's healthier; and it's cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions."

The pilot year helped the organization work through the challenges -- like outsourced food service providers and working with distributors -- of getting fresh local food into schools, says Fike. She points out that seasonality can also be an issue, but that Michigan products like apple sauce, canned beans and whole grains can be worked into menus in the winter months.

Food to Schools also works on educating students by bringing in local farmers explain to then where their food is coming from. Hint: That banana was not grown in Michigan, Johnny.

Kellogg is funding Food to Schools via its People and Land (PAL) initiative -- part of its efforts to increase regional collaboration and promote Michigan prosperity in the emerging knowledge-based economy.

Source: Jennifer Fike, FSEP
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh