Southeast Michigan Sustainable Business Forum • 19th October 2021

Sustainability Goes Hand in Hand with DEI

While the scope of sustainability in business has broadened beyond environmental footprint—to include social responsibility and human rights, for example—the scope of diversity, equity, and inclusion has also broadened.

14th September 2021

This is Detroit’s moment to lead, says Sustainable Business Network of Detroit | U-M Erb

Detroit is poised to become a global leader in business sustainability, but this will require a new approach to collaboration.

Runner's World • 13th September 2021

This Nonprofit Fosters Connections Between Runners and the Land We Run on

Vic Thasiah fell in love with the natural world through running, when he was in college at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Capital & Main • 26th April 2021

Can a Community Park Turn a Post-Industrial Zone Into an Urban Oasis?

Many of us have found respite in parks and other natural spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. But some people have much easier access than others to these oases.

Planet Detroit • 18th March 2021

School siting report, Marathon consent order address concerns about pollution in schools

Pollution and other environmental hazards in and around schools can cause health problems for students and staff, as well as developmental problems that can hamper students’ learning.

Model D • 21st January 2021

7 things to do outside in Metro Detroit this winter

In the warmer months of 2020, some of Metro Detroit’s parks and outdoor spaces were full of visitors, as people looked for safe ways to get out of their homes during the pandemic. The temperatures have dropped, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay cooped up indoors all winter, even if you’re cold-intolerant.

Crain's Detroit Business • 6th September 2020

40 Under 40 - Jonathan Quarles

When Jonathan Quarles founded the BTL Group, he didn’t intend to get into the business of water. But in 2018, he waded into the Flint water crisis when helping a company get its water generation technology deployed.

Associations Now • 12th August 2020

Sustainability: Landscape Architects Take Steps Toward Carbon-Neutral Communities

You might not expect to find landscape architects in the army of professionals fighting climate change. But they are.

Planet Detroit • 14th July 2020

Detroiters Do Science: What we found (so far) in our urban neighborhoods

Since the Detroiters Do Science project began in May, citizen scientists across Metro Detroit have recorded nearly 2500 observations (and counting!) through the iNaturalist app as part of our Nature in Your Neighborhood project.

Planet Detroit • 11th June 2020

Why biodiversity matters in urban areas like Detroit

A church garden in Detroit might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of biodiversity, but each individual plant, bird and insect that inhabits the space is doing its part.

U-M Erb Institute | Business for Sustainability • 28th May 2020

Sowing doubt and undermining science

Science should be able to speak for itself. But people with a vested interest in undermining science are working behind the scenes to obscure it.

Model D • 17th March 2020

High water: Metro Detroit communities prepare for record-high water levels this spring

In an average year, Michigan gets about 31.5 inches of rain. But 2019 wasn’t an average year — more than 41.5 inches came down and wreaked havoc across the state.

U-M Erb Institute | Business for Sustainability • 11th March 2020

The Detroit water crisis and unexpected coalitions

Since 2014, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has shut off the water to 141,000 households whose bills were past due. Last year, more than 23,000 households reportedly had their water shut off.

U-M Erb Institute | Business for Sustainability • 4th March 2020

Climate change is not just an environmental issue

The term “environmental justice” still may be unfamiliar to some people, but you don’t have to be familiar with it to understand what it means when you see it. With the Flint water crisis and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the people who were hit hardest were poor and black.

Metromode • 9th January 2020

From Port Huron to South Haven: How the Great Lake to Lake Trail links up Metro Detroit communities

It may be frigid outside, but plenty of Metro Detroiters are still getting out on their local trails frequently. What they may not know is that some trails stretch all the way across the state.

Sierra Club • 27th November 2019

Kids With Disabilities Have a Right to Outdoor Field Trips

The benefits kids reap from nature are well documented, which is part of the reason school field trips often involve excursions into the Great Outdoors. Children with disabilities, however, sometimes get left behind.

U-M Erb Institute | Business for Sustainability • 14th November 2019

ICYMI: Special Feature: Sustainability in Detroit

What does sustainability look like in Detroit, a city that is going through changes that some consider a renaissance? The Erb Institute talked with five people who are working to make Detroit more sustainable—in wildly divergent ways, from bees, to dirt, to real estate development, to stormwater.

GlobalSport Matters • 28th October 2019

'No summit too high' for amputee climbers who tackled Cotopaxi

Seven amputees who found themselves atop a 19,347-foot volcano in Ecuador last month probably never envisioned themselves there together.

U-M Erb Institute | Business for Sustainability • 14th October 2019

Sustainability in Detroit, Part 4: The dirt

Detroit Dirt makes waste into a commodity. It takes food waste, green waste, spent grains and herbivore manure and uses an aerobic process to make it into high-quality compost.

U-M Erb Institute | Business for Sustainability • 27th August 2019

Sustainability in Detroit, Part 2: Making way for bees

Timothy Paule and Nicole Lindsey started the nonprofit Detroit Hives, transforming vacant lots into urban bee farms. They also teach the community about the importance of honeybees and conservation.