Environment & Sustainability

Coverage of green innovations, and climate and environment issues and developments, especially those told by local voices and that offer solutions for community concerns.

Great Lakes Culinary Center opens in Southfield

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

December 12, 2013

The Great Lakes Culinary Center opened last month in Southfield and has already become a draw for chefs, food business entrepreneurs and party planners. The 20,000-square-foot culinary center was designed to be a treat for the eyes -- and mouth and nose -- with its massive stainless steel kitchens surrounded by marble, natural wood, chic industrial light fixtures, all of it surrounding chefs and students that come here to hone their craft and test the latest in kitchen equipment and restaurant supplies. The Great Lakes Culinary Center is on 9 Mile Road and connected to Great Lakes Supply Company, a provider to the restaurant and hospitality industry. The idea is to be a launching pad for food business entrepreneurs as well as a spot for cooking classes for pros and non-pros. The center can also be rented for parties and events, and if founder Marc Israel's vision is successful it will lift up metro Detroit and Michigan's food and hospitality businesses. Successful metro Detroit chefs are on board, creating a menu of classes for everyday folks and culinary students and connecting with the chefs and others food business entrepreneurs to connect them with the latest in kitchen design, supplies, resources, cooking methods and much more. Source: Rachel Wolff, event coordinator, Great Lakes Culinary Center Writer: Kim North Shine

Latest in Environment & Sustainability

Woodward Ave. transformation revealed

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

December 12, 2013

Plans to redesign Woodward Avenue between Detroit and Pontiac into a thoroughfare that will be prepared for mass transit as well as welcoming to bikers and walkers are being aired on public access cable channels in Oakland County. Some of the organizations behind the plan, the Woodward Avenue Action Association, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and the municipalities that line the avenue, are looking for public feedback as local, county and state officials get behind the Complete Streets plan. Steven Huber, a spokesperson for Oakland County, says the plan could transform Woodward into a scenic thoroughfare in ways to promote business and usability. Engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff came up with a redesign of the 27-mile stretch of road in a master plan that's believed to be one of the largest of its kind in the nation. The planning and public feedback are moving at a faster pace as Oakland County and several municipalities work to prepare for the arrival of light rail on Woodward Avenue in Detroit. The idea is to unite metro Detroit through a major corridor that's easy to travel, to stimulate transit-oriented development, and to create jobs. Source: Steve Huber, marketing and communications officer, Oakland County Writer: Kim North Shine

Super heroes & Santa part of downtown Ferndale ice festival

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

December 12, 2013

Businesses in downtown Ferndale are celebrating the holidays and hoping to put some muscle in their sales by throwing an ice festival that showcases super heroes. More than 50 ice sculptures will be on display outside of businesses throughout downtown for The Holiday Ice Festival Saturday, Dec. 14, and visitors can go to the North Pole at Schiffer Park on W. 9 Mile and meet reindeer, have hot chocolate, write letters to soldiers and more. Santa will start the festival at 10 a.m. with an appearance on a fire engine and have lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. A heated trolley will ferry riders to and from shops and restaurants throughout the day. There will ice carving demonstrations, carolers, pictures with Santa, and running at the same time as the festival will be the Saucy Social & Food Truck Rally on Vester Street. Besides giving visitors a fun holiday outing, the festival is meant to stoke business activity by pulling in customers with holiday shopping lists, says Cristina Sheppard-Decius, executive director of the Ferndale Downtown Development Authority. Source: Chris Hughes, Ferndale Downtown Development Authority Writer: Kim North Shine

Macomb Comm. College students tool around in renewable energy-powered cargo trikes

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

December 12, 2013

Some enterprising students just gave junk a new green lease on life. Excerpt: Take 13 college students from diverse backgrounds, ask them to build something purposeful out of junk and voila! — the result is a pair of funky three-wheeled bikes, powered by renewable energy, that transport people and cargo anytime, anyplace. The band of students at Macomb Community College collaborated for 14 weeks on the "trikes,”"which run on a combination of pedal power and an electric hub motor using a battery charged with solar power. The students, who are earning certificates in Macomb’s renewable energy technology program, kept the designs environmentally friendly by incorporating the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra of the sustainability movement. More here .

GM’s Detroit headquarters’ landfill-free status sets green example for nation

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

December 12, 2013

Nothing in the waste basket goes to waste at GM's Detroit offices anymore. Excerpt: "General Motors Co.'s downtown Detroit headquarters complex now recycles, reuses or converts all its daily waste to energy, with efforts at the Renaissance Center keeping 5 million pounds of trash annually from landfills..." More here.

Downtown Royal Oak going to the gourmet dogs

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

December 5, 2013

The new year will welcome at least one new restaurant to downtown Royal Oak. Detroit Dogs will serve gourmet hot dogs made with Dearborn franks and buns made in a Hamtramck bakery alongside other Detroit-bred products: Better Made chips and Faygo drinks among them. Hiring and renovations on the space at 200 W. Fifth Avenue are underway and expected to be completed in early January. The owners bring with them extensive restaurant experience in Monroe County and were asked by local investors to roll out the gourmet dog concept in metro Detroit. Source: City of Royal Oak Writer: Kim North Shine

Pierogi Gals’ pierogi take off in Metro Detroit stores

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

December 5, 2013

Pierogi Gals, a fledgling business based in Grosse Pointe Woods, got its start like so many food businesses do: from a family recipe. For many years the pierogi-making fell to the family matriarch. When she became terminally ill her daughters, Karen Andrews, Victoria Les and daughter-in-law Helen Les, realized they should learn from the master before she was gone. Eventually they were giving away dozens and dozens of pierogis until they finally heeded repeated advice that they should sell their family's version of Polish dumplings. "People would ask for them and we'd say sure. We'd give them as gifts. Our list kept getting a lot longer and longer. Since people kept saying,, 'These are so good you should sell these,' we thought what the heck. I was getting close to retirement, my sister was getting close to retirement. "That was 2011…it took us a couple of years before that to figure out how to start a businesses, what licenses we needed, what did we have to do. We'd never done anything like this." The trio -- two of them teachers, the other a computer tech -- initially sold pierogi online and by phone orders. It didn't take long before they were in the freezer case of the first store, Oxford Beverages in Grosse Pointe Woods. They got major help from Michigan State University's Product Center and also from MSU packaging students who helped them correct their original, less-than-ideal container. Once the business was going and they were selling pierogi at farmers markets and such, more stores came calling: three Randazzo's markets in Macomb County and more recently Holiday Market in Canton. Now suddenly, sort of, the commercial kitchen and mixer where they make several varieties -- their family's favorite farmer's cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom; potato cheddar; redskin truffle; spicy potato cheddar; and seasonal apple and blueberry -- are no longer large enough and they're looking for more space, more supplies and help. "We're just amazed at how it's gone, and we don't know how far it will go," she says," but it's been a wonderful experience so far." Source: Karen Andrews, co-founder, Pierogi Gals Writer: Kim North Shine

“Spiritual revolution” stokes Boston Tea Room expansion

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

December 5, 2013

When the Navarre sisters and their mother decided to open a second spiritual services store in 2009 in downtown Ferndale, friends and acquaintances told them they were crazy, that there was nothing good in the cards for such a specialized business during such a stall in the economy. They were wrong about the Boston Tea Room, which has a yoga studio in Wyandotte, a meditation practice in Ferndale and many other services, including tarot card, tea leaf and other readings, and its future. "Within two years our Ferndale store was matching the sales of our Wyandotte store without pulling any business from there," says Heathleigh Navarre, one sister in a sister-sister-mother team that runs Boston Tea Room. Just short of its five year anniversary in Ferndale, the Boston Tea Room in Ferndale is proving the naysayers wrong by moving into a 3,000-square-foot space -- more than double its previous spot -- to keep up with demand. "We're a destination spot," says Navarre. "People drive from Holly, Saginaw, Kalamazoo." She is a certified meditation specialist, a tarot card and mediumship reader. Her sister, Vanessa Navarre, is a yoga instructor, and their mom, Carole Navarre, who took over the family business in Wyandotte about 18 years ago, is the one who makes sure the customers and staff are happy. Each shop has 8-10 readers on staff. "We've grown organically by responding to customer demands and feedback" says Heatherleigh Navarre. "When we decided to add a second location I don't f anyone was thinking about the future. We were growing pretty quickly. This was not one of those entrepreneurial five-year plans. We were just naturally responding to the market." And even with the economy in a downturn, she says, the number of people looking for spiritual healing, self-discovery, and internal analysis kept increasing. "It's part of a spiritual revolution," she says. "People still want products, but they want a product with meaning, something that goes beyond a gadget." Source: Heatherleigh Navarre, co-owner, Boston Tea Room Writer: Kim North Shine

IMET technology cleans diesel exhaust, improves MPG

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

December 5, 2013

IMET is racking up more recognition and gearing up to start selling its clean-diesel technology next year. The Northville-based startup's GreenPower Muffler system reduces diesel fuel emissions and helps improve MPG for heavy-duty trucks. It made the semifinals of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition in Detroit last month and won a $750,000 matching grant from the Port of Los Angeles before that. The startup's team of six people is leveraging that recognition and money to get its technology to market. It needs approval from the state of California to make that happen, and it expects to receive that early next year. "Once we have that we can go into full production," says Nick Cherasaro, director of marketing for IMET. IMET's technology was developed by Julius J Rim, an engineer who worked at the GM Tech Center for decades. He launched IMET after retiring and now serves as the company’s president. "We have room to improve (diesel fuel technology)," Rim says. "That's why we're doing it." The GreenPower Muffler System is different from traditional mufflers because it doesn’t use precious metals, like palladium and platinum, and instead uses water and carbon-silicon composite filters. It recovers muffler-waste heat to generate water vapor to be re-combusted in cylinder combustion chamber at low combustion temperature for nitrous oxide reduction without Urea-SCR. This allows the technology to reduce particulate matter by 95 percent and cut nitrous oxide emissions by half. It is also half the cost of a regular muffler because it doesn’t use precious materials like traditional mufflers. "It can pay for itself on an average truck within 18 months," Cherasaro says. Source: Julius J Rim, founder & president of IMET and Nick Cherasaro, director of marketing for IMET Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Local turkey farmers have full plates of business this Thanksgiving

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

November 21, 2013

Detroit-area turkey farms see demand for local, organic as something to be thankful for this year. Excerpt: "Christine Roperti, owner of Roperti's Turkey Farm in Livonia, is gearing up for Thanksgiving. "People are always thanking me for being here," she said. "They say, 'I don't care if it's $5 a pound. You can't beat your turkeys.' I love doing it."... Mike Liabenow, manager of meat and seafood at Joe's Produce in Livonia, said his department began carrying organic turkeys raised in Michigan for the first time this year. "It's something that's been on the rise a couple years in the business," he said. "Everyone wants to keep everything in Michigan." More here.