LIVING SUSTAINABLY: Business talent pipeline begins with Ready for School

By Shandra Martinez, Ready for School Herman Miller employees were among the volunteers who fanned out to meet soon-to-be kindergarten students on a sunny August morning to personally present each child with a bright green backpack. Inside each was an outfit of pants, shirt, and shoes, plus school supplies, such as a pencil box, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, and …

Living Sustainably: Energy seminar focuses on comfort, health, savings

By Andrea Goodell, Herrick District Library Making your home more comfortable, healthy and cost-effective doesn’t have to break the bank.  Everyone knows the No. 1 tip: Lower your thermostat a couple of degrees in winter and raise it a couple of degrees in summer. (You won’t notice the difference, but you’ll notice the savings.) There are dozens of …

Living Sustainably: Harvest Festival Saturday Celebrates Hope and Inclusion

By Sara Hogan, Benjamin’s Hope Harvest Festival at Benjamin’s Hope has become a much-anticipated annual event that inspires hope for hundreds of families in West Michigan impacted by disability. The entire community is welcome for this annual family-friendly evening of fun. Families will enjoy pony cart rides, hayrides, roasting marshmallows around a campfire, games, and more at the Harvest …

JIM AND MARTIE BULTMAN STUDENT CENTER EARNS LEED GOLD CERTIFICATION

JIM AND MARTIE BULTMAN STUDENT CENTER EARNS LEED GOLD CERTIFICATION; WOOD FROM STORM-FELLED TREES LINKS PAST AND PRESENT September 17, 2018 — by Greg Olgers Organizations seeking LEED certification for their construction projects have many ways to earn it, including by using regional materials. In developing the Jim and Martie Bultman Student Center, which recently …

Living Sustainably: Noise and neighborliness kicks off sustainability series

By Andrea Goodell, Herrick District Library A sustainable community takes more than just environmental health or economic health or social health. It takes everyone working together for all of those things.This month, Living Sustainably Along the Lakeshore will kick off its fall series of events addressing ways in which Holland is becoming a more sustainable community and telling …

Living Sustainabily: Food Waste Film – Just Eat It

By Ken Freestone and Lisa Uganski, GreenMichigan.org and Ottawa Food The issue of food waste is about more than disposal of food scraps from our tables at home or uneaten food at restaurants. It is about hungry families and individuals, about wasting environmental resources during growing and processing, about over-purchasing, and about creating methane in landfills. There are at …

Living Sustainably: Celebrate Local Food on the Lakeshore This Fall

By Kate Bolt, LivingLark.com Growing up between fields of wheat and corn in East Saugatuck, farming and living close to the food we eat has always been an important part of my life.  My parents always came home with local produce from our neighboring farms, and every year at the tractor pull down the street there was an …

Living Sustainably: Holland Stands Out in Governor’s Energy Excellence Awards

By Anne Saliers, Holland Board of Public Works More finalists have been selected from Holland for the 2018 Governor’s Energy Excellence Awards than from any other city in the state. Of the 21 businesses, organizations, and individuals across the state that have been honored this year, three are from Holland, a fourth is honored because of its work …

Living Sustainably: Elephants in the room – Plastic waste is a big issue

By Madison Ostrander ’18 and Eighth Day Farm Intern Try to picture just over 1 billion elephants roaming around. Maybe at first the elephants would be a fun novelty, but I’d be willing to bet after a short while we’d have had enough, with things getting dangerous and crowded. This bizarre scenario relates to the dilemma our …

Living Sustainably: Booming bike use benefits Holland

By Meika Weiss, Pedal Holland The number of people bicycling in Holland has increased an incredible 281 percent since the year 2000, far outpacing the national increase of 51 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. This is great news because of the positive effects bikes have in cities like ours, even for people who don’t ride: …