Energy Efficiency First

Through energy efficiency - defined as using less energy to provide the same or improved level of output - is often seen as less spectacular than a wind turbine or a solar panel, it represents one of the largest opportunities for mid-Michigan businesses to gain significant financial savings while reducing stresses on our environment. Energy efficiency strategies for business fall into two major categories; employee behavior, and building and technological improvements.

Encouraging employees to engage in energy efficiency is key to any businesses overall energy strategy. Just this year, Ford announced that an estimated 60% of its employees were not turning off their computers after businesses hours. As a result, Ford instituted an employee policy and installed software that will save the company over $1.2 million annually. In regards to building and technological improvements, there are countless measures that businesses can undertake to reduce energy consumption, but often the list can seem too daunting and the measures too costly.  Luckily for mid-Michigan businesses, there are a number of resources that can help make pursuing energy efficiency less intimidating. Michigan Energy Options and the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) both offer energy audits for commercial buildings. Additionally, local utilities, the BWL and Consumers Energy, also offer a number of incentive and rebate programs to help reduce the upfront cost and shorten the payback period for businesses looking to invest in energy efficiency improvements.  

There has never been a better time to invest in energy efficiency and it is one of the full-proof means for mid-Michigan businesses to ensure positive financial and environmental returns.

Green Investments, Green Returns

The ongoing BP catastrophe has revealed many vulnerabilities in the supply and our demand for fossil fuels, but it has shed further light on the increasing importance of investing in companies and industry sectors that conduct business in a environmental and socially responsible manner (BP’s stock has plunged more than 50% since the beginning of the of the spill). Businesses are now increasingly looking for green and socially equitable investment opportunities. Also known as Socially Responsible Investments (SRI), SRI mutual funds offer a way for businesses to diversify their investment strategy, while also supporting companies that take environmental and social responsibility as a priority.

Stay Grounded

It is of little surprise that flying may be the quickest way to travel, but it also results in high emissions of air pollution and climate inducing carbon dioxide (global aviation currently accounts for 2-5% of human CO2 emissions). Businesses, however, can reduce their air travel budget and their ecological footprint by encouraging employees to take alternative means of travel. Web tools, such as GoToMeeting, Webex and Skype have become increasingly popular and accepted amongst the business community over the last several years. Though web interface tools may not entirely replace the face-to-face interactions businesses have with partners and clients, they can help to significantly reduce and even eliminate unnecessary travel, and subsequently, emissions. If long-distance travel is unavoidable, employees should be encouraged to explore their travel options and utilize air travel as a last resort. Though an Amtrak trip from East Lansing to Chicago may not be as quick as an equivalent air commute, it is less costly, less carbon intensive, and often, far more relaxing.

Smarten Your Commute

Another way Greater Lansing area businesses can go green is by offering employees’ incentives to smarter their commutes to and from the office. By simply encouraging employees to carpool, bicycle commute, take public transit, or make more trips by foot to and from the office, employers can help their staff members save money, get fit, and have a positive impact on the environment.

Even more effective than simple encouragement programs are payroll incentives for employees. The federal government has granted nice tax breaks for some transportation-related employee fringe benefits, including transit passes, vanpool programs, parking cash-out allowances, and a new bicycle commuter tax credit.

Buy Green to Go Green

If your business is a larger purchaser of office supplies, paper products, or electronics, consider adopting green procurement policies and practices. By making a conscious choice to buy eco-friendly, recycled, and Energy Star-rated products through your regular company procurement practices, you can save money, improve supply-chain performance, and have set your business apart as a green company.

A growing number of product suppliers are coming to recognize that the eco-friendliness of their products can be a competitive advantage in courting and maintaining relationships with corporate customers. Meanwhile, suppliers recognize that poor environmental performance can just as easily put them at a disadvantage. This recognition is making it easier for managers and executives to team with their procurement departments to investigate their current purchasing practices and make a conscious effort to go green.

Written by: Tremaine Phillips and Rory Neuner

So What's Driving Greater Lansing now... from Leap, Inc. on Vimeo.

 Greater Lansing is making headlines!

Greater Lansing has had a little over a week to take pride and marinate in the fact that Lansing was named by well-respected finance and business news publisher Kiplinger as one the “Ten Great Cities for Young Adults”. The ‘Top 10’ list made several rounds throughout the Twitterverse and conventional media. What was refreshing was that a number of media sources cited our region’s amorphous, but ever growing “Love Lansing” movement as being significant in elevating our community to compete right alongside Washington D.C., New York City and Chicago.

Kiplinger’s analysis really does speak volumes for the strengthening Love Lansing ethos and the significant economic impact it is having upon the Greater Lansing region already. Several favorable statistics, such as Lansing’s “Medium monthly rent” - almost $200 lower than the national average- did place Lansing in contention.  However, the pervasive efforts of the Love Lansing movement to nurture this region into a “hotbed for young professionals” are what propelled the Capital City to make this esteemed list.

This article will also result in more than just good vibes and high fives for those in Greater Lansing. It will also lead to increased exposure, interest and eventually economic activity in our community. Recent developments at the Knapp’s building in downtown Lansing as well as projects in REO Town have further helped to reinforce the economic impact of Love Lansing.

In early March of this year, the always heavily anticipated and well attended Ignite Lansing held its third event in the historic and long vacant Knapp’s building in downtown Lansing. Hundreds of enthused and inquisitive Greater Lansing residents packed the atrium of Knapp’s and breathed life back into the forlorn structure. Just one month after the Ignite Lansing 3, the owners of the Knapp’s building announced a $20-plus million redevelopment project for the site. The owners of the property stated that Ignite Lansing was not only influential, but was pivotal in the owners decision to explore and pursue a redevelopment strategy for the location.

Another example of Love Lansing’s economic influence can be seen in the continual transformation of REO Town. Following in the footsteps of the resurgence of downtown Lansing and Old Town, many in the Love Lansing community have set their sights and ambitions on revitalizing REO Town. In particular, many see REO Town as being the epicenter of Lansing’s artistic revival, and just this July, two initiatives have sought to infuse positive art projects in the community. In early July, the Center for New Enterprise Opportunity (NEO) hosted its inaugural event in its REO Town storefront and invited the community to view exhibits from Greater Lansing artist.

In late July, Leap employee and Accelerate Lansing Vice Chairperson Joe Manzella, local artist Samskee DeBourbon and Ingham County Treasure and Land Bank Director Eric Schertzing developed a formidable partnership with the goal of transforming the Deluxe Inn property at the gateway to REO Town. In one weekend, they invited an eclectic group of 40 accomplished graffiti artist from throughout the Midwest descend on the Deluxe Inn property  and transform it from a site of depravity and despair, to one of creativity and community.

This increased interest and commitment to a REO Town resurgence has also culminated in what should be the neighborhoods’ largest investment and makeover to date; the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL’s) announced plans to  invest $182 million for a new natural gas steam and electricity plant REO Town. The BWL’s development, which will also incorporate the reuse of Lansing’s historic train depot, would probably have not been pursued if it were not for the increasing interest and efforts by Greater Lansing residents in REO Town.

These examples, coupled with the Kiplinger article, are firm proof that the Love Lansing movement is paying dividends. Like our investment in the markets on Wall Street, Greater Lansing cannot undervalue and must continue to invest in the Love Lansing movement. Leap’s Greater Lansing Next plan is a prime example of continual investment in this ever growing movement. To those who continue to propel the Love Lansing movement forward –whether you self-identify with the tagline or not- keep up the amazing and increasingly potent work. And to those in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Los Angelas, Boston and other great metropolitan areas around the country who still can’t fathom Lansing being on this list ( kids now a days would call them the ‘haters’), we still love you. However, be warned that this is only the start for Greater Lansing and that we fully intend to make more ‘Top 10’ list in the near future. 

It doesn't take long to find great national press and top ten rankings about the Greater Lansing community.  In fact, the community and businesses within it, have been highlighted in Inc., Entrepreneur magazine, Kiplinger, and several other business news outlets in the past year alone.  It's no mistake, however, that this praise follows a great dipping point in our local economy.  The Greater Lansing community merely went back to what made us great to begin with: Innovation.  The region is moving forward and we have all of the tools in place to make this the next great century in Greater Lansing.

 Pulitzer nominated author and journalist will begin his tour in Greater Lansing following the Leap board meeting. Clifton and Gary Schoeniger, founder of Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative will be touring the country on and speaking on the power of an entrepreneurial mindset. The event will be held on August 10, 2010 at 4pm at the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union Headquarters, 3777 West Rd. East Lansing, MI. Please RSVP at LeapInc.biz 

View more information here. 

 Arel Moodie of the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour will be hosting a Free Webinar on July 15 at 8pm EST. 

'It's going to be some insanely awesome content guaranteed to help you and your students achieve more in less time. Spots are limited, reserve your space and get special access here. "

 I have lived in Lansing most of my life (minus a wonderful year or so in New York City), and I am constantly inspired by the plethora of events, offerings, and outlets that Lansing, and Michigan has to offer for its residents. 

But I am supposed to be talking about my hope for the Lansing region.  Well thank goodness this is an ON-GOING blog, because I could list a lot of things that fall under my hope for the Lansing area, my town, the place I love.  I was fortunate to be at TEDx Lansing a few weeks ago, and it was so inspiring to see everyone there with a name tag, not just announcing their name – but trumpeting what they were passionate about.  Imagine if we all got to talk about, engage in conversations every day, and actively wore what it was we were passionate about around out necks.  IMAGINE!  We would become a community that not only constantly got to occupy our own time and thoughts on things we really cared about, but also were given a glimpse into other people’s lives and souls and desires through what excited them.  What a very humanizing and inherently pure action that could become. 

So on my name-tag, I put two things: on one side, I named my near-perfect niece and nephew, and on the other, I put “theatre”.  If you know me, this doesn’t come as a surprise.  And it’s that passion that drew me to working on one of the subcommittees for the Lansing CED plan.  For quite some time now, I have been really focused and driven by the need for a common performing arts center in Lansing that is affordable and accessible for all arts groups.  I am operating in a field that boasts over 12 different theatre groups (for a town the size of Lansing, that’s equivalent to the city of Portland!), and yet TWO of those groups closed their doors this year.  While there is always more than one reason for a decision like that to be made, one of them was the need for a performing space that didn’t comprise more than 50% of their budget.  Of those 12 theatres in Lansing, only two of them own their own space.  The rest are itinerant.  I have been the Artistic Director for Peppermint Creek Theatre Company for over 15 years, and we are one of those itinerant companies. I like to believe that as a company and arts organization, we not only have a positive impact on our patrons, but that we are teaching them something as well that they take away from any given performance and then hopefully effects their outlook on life.  Now imagine if Michigan State University, also an organization that effects people in a positive way and hopefully creates change in the world, had to consider where they were going to set up their campus EVERY school year.  Suddenly, their entire focus would need to go toward constantly securing a location to simply do their work from year to year rather than continually doing good work and bettering the Lansing community.  Often times it feels that way for any Arts organization that doesn’t have a location they can rely on to simply do their work.

You can imagine my joy, after years of traveling from one performance space to another, and of peering into empty storefronts that could be potential locations for a theatre, to discover that the CED also recognized the necessity of a common performing arts space.  Hallelujah!  I believe in Lansing and the tremendous opportunities and assets it houses.  And I am grateful to be part of a community that relishes looking forward to a better future.  How fortunate we all are to be able to raise our voices (or write on a name-tag) to proclaim for everyone to hear, just what we’re passionate about and for Lansing as a collective to rejoice and support those passions.  We’re THERE Lansing – and we’re going THERE as well.  That’s exciting!

Chad Badgero is a member of the Cultural Economic Development Attract and Retain committee and guests blogs as a member of Greater Lansing Next Cultural and Creative Strategy Team. 

This past spring, I had the opportunity to visit Madison,Wisconsin to study how they are addressing the issue of talent infusion. My trip to Madison was part of a larger research investigation conducted by Spotlight Michigan, a student group studying talent retention issues in Michigan. 

Madison seems to have the “spark” of a community that naturally attracts smart, talented individuals but what I discovered is a web of talent retention experts working to create the spark. I found that one of Madison’s greatest assets is that when people have a question related to talent retention or business relocation, they can ask anyone remotely involved in community building and quickly be directed to the correct contact. When one of my counterparts set up the meeting in Madison, he sent one email to the head of the young professionals organization who, after hearing what kind of work we were interested in, brought economic development corporations, university technology transfer offices, representatives from incubators, and other young professionals to the table. One email yielded contacts with over six different groups focusing on talent retention in Madison. 

Lansing is lucky: unlike Madison, we have many more organized groups working on talent retention issues. Together, we are committed to creating a young, vibrant culture. But, what would happen if, like Madison, those groups worked together to develop a holistic talent retention strategy? The impact of this collaboration would be immense!

Part of Spotlight Michigan’s research found that the number one asset that a young entrepreneur would like in a community is a strong and supportive entrepreneurial network. Yet, I believe that this attraction to networks is not limited to just entrepreneurial support. People naturally like to be around connected people. In order to cultivate a sustainable culture of inclusion (and ultimately talent attraction), the initial connections between interest groups need to be visible, meaningful, and sustained.

Talented young professionals want to be connected to their community in some way. In order to do this, we must first network the connectors.

Amanda is an MSU graduate from the James Madison College. She is an intern at Capital Area Michigan Works! working on connecting students to opportunities in Lansing. She was formerly a Director for Spotlight Michigan, a student led research group addressing young talent in the Greater Lansing community. 

Post By Becky Cunningham

Last Wednesday, I attended the Legislative Breakfast at Capital Area Michigan Works! The topic was attraction and retention of students to Lansing. I was thrilled to see that the community, as well as representatives from our capitol are actively branding this city as a place for ALL—families, retirees, entrepreneurs, young professionals and students. As one of several students at the breakfast, I remembered how I became part of the Lansing community—and why I love it.

I started my education at MSU in 2008, and with my roots an hour and a half away from me, I was intimidated to make connections and explore a new community. After a while, East Lansing seemed less foreign, I found my niche on campus and even inadvertently memorized each CATA Bus route. I had successfully transformed into a college student, but I was also looking to belong to a community outside of the university.

Becky Cunningham grew up in Ravenna, MI and is currently a junior at MSU studying Communication and Public Relations. You can also follow Becky on Twitter @BSC07.