Should we change our city’s name to Green Rapids??  Not likely, even in the month of March,  but with our reputation in the “Green Community”, we certainly could.  A full 11 percent of all LEED-certified buildings can be found in the Grand Rapids area, more per capita than any other city in the nation. Grand Rapids Michigan has a core city population  of about 200,000 people, which definitely means we are one of the “little guys” in the  green movement.

 Grand Rapids’ mayor, George Heartwell, spoke at the closing of the Chicago Greenbuild conference  in

November of 2007. Sitting along side mayors of several large cities, Albuquerque, Chicago, and Austin, Texas, he might have seemed somewhat out of place to some.  His speech can be viewed here, so you can see why we,  Grand Rapids, Michigan, are one of the leaders in the Green Movement in the United States. 

From the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the first LEED-certified art museum in the world, to the countless new buildings that have been designed using green principles, our communities have grabbed a leadership position in the Green  Wave.                                

                                                                        
Here are a few of the larger, more recent projects built to LEED certification:

• Grand Rapids Ballet performance hall
• 340-room J.W. Marriott hotel
• Grand Rapids Art Museum
• Grand Valley State University Engineering School
• Restored, century-old office building
• First restaurant in the Midwest to be LEED certified inside and out.

 There are also many area schools working towards LEED certification. Even our Habitat for Humanity chapter has committed itself to building only LEED-certified homes. We have green design firms, homes built with green materials, and corporations that have made sustainability a priority. We even offer one of the country’s first Sustainable Business Degrees ( Aquinas College).

If you want to be on the forefront of the hip, new GREEN WAVE, then there is no better place to be than our hometown, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Copyright by Terry Westbrook 2008

  Website url: Terry Westbrook.com  

 Email:  terry@TerryWestbrook.com

George Heartwell -world change photo ~ JW Marriot Hotel in Grand Rapids Mi courtesy of JW Marriot Corp.