By Zahabia Ahmed-Usmani and Erin Davison, Diversity Rocks the Book How do we empower and uplift children of all identities and backgrounds? How do we help children understand their peers’ experiences so they grow up empathetic to experiences outside of their own? The City of Holland’s Human Relations Commission took up this charge through a …
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By Anne Saliers, Holland Board of Public Works Many schools, churches, and community groups encourage people to use this time of year to look more closely at their consumption of energy and carbon. The term “carbon fast” has become popular as a way to highlight practices that conserve energy resources. Using less energy means your …
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By Beth Peter, MD, Ready for School If you’re reading this, you can read a book to a child. Look around you at the children in your life and consider your big hopes for them. Now consider this: Making reading a part of every child’s day is your way to start simple and build toward …
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By Ken Freestone, Holland Residential Energy Advisor In any conversation that I have about “sustainability,” I can bring attention to benefits for corporate systems, environmental stewardship, and social equity. It is like a dial on an appliance where all the subjects can be separate but yet all connected. We can turn the dial depending on …
By Jerilynn Tucker, Sustainability Film Series What happens when the masters of spin, of the distortion and misrepresentation of information, go to work on public threats like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or climate change? Confusion and doubt. And that’s the point, as explored in the film “Merchants of Doubt,” set to screen Tuesday, Feb. 25, at …
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By Peter Boogaart, Macatawa Creation Care There was a time when grown men rhapsodized over “that new car smell.” Ahh, the ambrosia of success! The experience went unchallenged. Nobody asked where the smell came from, or why it went away. Likely, it came from off-gassing of the plasticized interior components. Could this be a problem? …
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The Hope College Advocates for Sustainability present RecycleMania 2020 February 15 at 3pm Hope vs. Kalamazoo RecycleMania’s GameDay Basketball Competition compares schools based on recycling and waste minimization efforts made during a single home basketball game. Schools plan outreach and education activities, and report the corresponding weights for recycling, food organics and trash generated during …
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By Morgan Kelley, Holland Board of Public Works The opportunity to get a free tree to help save energy is back. For the second year in a row, through the Energy-Saving Trees program, Holland Board of Public Works residential electric customers can reserve a free tree to strategically plant in their yards this spring to …
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By Greg Olgers, Hope College The promise and peril of economic development of the world’s oceans will be the focus of an address by Daniel Vermeer, a 1988 Hope College graduate who is the founding director of Duke University’s Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment. Vermeer will speak on “Ocean Futures: Making the …
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By Marianne Manderfield, City of Holland Shoppers love it, and downtown business owners enjoy that it helps keep their entryways clean. It makes walkers and runners feel steady on their feet regardless of the conditions outside. It works so well that visitors may not even realize what is happening beneath the sidewalk they are navigating. …
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