By Madison Ostrander ’17 Eating seasonally is one of the best ways to thank your community and environment. Doing so feels especially whimsical and effortless in the spring, summer, and early fall, when the Holland Farmers Market is filled with beautiful flowers, fresh fruits, and a wide variety of vegetables. But with cold and snow coming, many …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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: …
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By Analise Sala ’19 and Micaela Wells ’19, Hope College Travel has consequences. Thanks to an increasingly connected world, American forests house more than 360 non-native insect species, 30 percent of which have become serious pests. By relocating and displacing organisms, we are effectively homogenizing our planet’s landscape in a period of great human influence on the environment …
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By Hannah Schulze, Local First of West Michigan One sure-fire way to guarantee yourself an A+ when it comes to planning your family vacation is to emphasize unique, exciting experiences that will result in priceless memories for years to come. And a way to add to those experiences is the human connection that can be gained by …
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