2004 MDB Award Recipients

This year, we once again recognized special efforts made by our own business associates, friends, partners and neighbors to build better, more sustainable communities in West Michigan . Being our 10th year also gave us a chance to see how far we have come by acknowledging not only three great MDB Award winners, but recognizing three other meritorious applicants as well.

I. West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum

Founded in 1994 through the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum has now reached new levels of accomplishment in the environmental arena through its dedication to producing the “triple bottom line” for West Michigan businesses: economy, environment and equality. Though its mission declares a clear intent to “to promote West Michigan business practices that sustain our environment”, it has more recently expanded its efforts for all parts of the sustainability equation. Though well managed and securely anchored in WMEAC, the WMSBF has really capitalized on the strength of its diverse membership across several industrial sectors to initiate several new and important projects including:

A partnership with the Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF) to enlist WMSBF member assistance in building “greener” low cost urban housing.
“Do-it-yourself” used motor oil recycling programs for employees at both Alticor and Crystal Flash now serving as a statewide model.
Volunteer wind-power purchasing commitments from WMSBF members to support the Bay Windpower company (founded by two WMSBF members).
Establishing a regional effort with multi-stakeholder partnerships to properly manage electronic equipment waste thus moving us toward solving the “triple bottom line” issue associated with such wastes.

In addition, WMSBF members have shared important “greener” industrial production practices with one another to attain overall improvements in VOC emissions, solid waste generation and recycling. These impressive more recent results are coupled this year with their original best-practices publications entitled “Concise Self-Assessment Guide to Sustainable Business Practices” and “Designing Products and Services with Sustainable Attributes”. All told, the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum has become a national leader in environmental sustainability and have clearly merited a Metropolitan Development Blueprint Award.

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II. Millennium Park , Kent County

With the much heralded opening last summer of its key amenity, a 100 acre lake with a six acre beach, Kent County 's Millennium Park is clearly a Metropolitan Development Blueprint Award winner. This project will restore and preserve 1,500 acres of mined-out land at the southwest corner of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. When it is complete, Millennium Park will provide the Grand Rapids metropolitan area with an impressive array of facilities including:

100 acre lake with 6 acres of beach. The lake will accommodate swimming, fishing and boating including launches, picnic spots, pavilion, equipment rental and food facilities.
Paved trails for active recreation inside the park. Trails will also eventually connect four regional trails including Kent , Paul Henry, White Pine and Musketawa.
Wildlife habitat access through boardwalk access.
Vegetative restorations including 1,000 trees (45 species), dozens of other native plant species including shrubs, perennials and grasses., and 35,000 cubic yards of topsoil.
Several educational/interpretive centers
Water and nature play areas.

The Millennium Park project has also been an outstanding example of regional leadership in West Michigan including not only Kent County and its Park Department, but the original Secchia Millennium Commission, several area foundations, private donators, The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Cities of Walker, Grand Rapids, Wyoming and Grandville. Planning for this project also involved a uniquely cooperative process involving area-wide planners, educators, conservancies, engineers, and others. Implementation of park plans has further fueled the “regional imagination” for resource sharing and intergovernmental cooperation in areas such as education, police protection, public access and environmental awareness. Though now managed primarily through the Kent County Parks department and its Kent County Parks Foundation, the origination, development and ongoing evolution of Millennium Park is clearly an exemplar of regional vision and cooperation.

If you squeezed all the concepts of the City of Grand Rapids Master Plan into a single building, it would end up with the Helmus Building . This project, built by Bazzani Associates, Inc., was awarded the MDB Award this year for high marks in many of the Blueprint Principles, most notably: land use (livable design, mixed use), transportation (supporting compact urban form), utilities (supporting compact urban form), and environment (designs for sustainability, conservation). The Helmus building was a complete restoration of a 9,480 sq. ft. abandoned warehouse in an economically stressed part of the city. What makes this project different from other renovations in our downtown area, however, is the multi-dimensional approach taken by the building owner, Guy Bazzani, to cover as many aspects of good urban and environmental design as possible. Respecting the existing human-scale streetscape at Wealthy and Diamond, the renovation established a viable mixed-use structure with businesses on the main floor and three residential units on the second floor. Building architecture and the urban aesthetics were retained, even enhanced, as the structure is sporting a LEED rated green roof and the site boasts ample provisions for cyclists, walkers and commuters. Parking spaces are provided for use by commuters of any one of three transit routes at the site. With over 500 visitors over the past year, the Helmus Building is becoming a learning experience in its own right helping to convey the original intent of GVMC's MDB.

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