Events

Energy Office members attend Green Communities Leadership Academy

Posted by Joel Howrani Heeres

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Ferndale, Huntington Woods, River Rouge, Roseville, St. Clair Shores, Washtenaw County, and Ypsilanti participated in the Michigan Green Communities Leadership Academy held at the beautiful, LEED-certified University of Michigan Business School. The event was co-facilitated by Michigan Green Communities Network and the Institute for Sustainable Communities from Vermont. The Energy Office was also an integral partner in getting participation from the City of Detroit.

The Green Communities Leadership Academy audience prepares for the day.

This conference was a great opportunity for different staff members from 18 different governments around Michigan to get together and understand how they can break down the “silos” within their institutions to bring greater sustainability to their organizations and their communities. The workshop offered several opportunities for municipal teams to “huddle” to brainstorm major issues and potential solutions to those issues, based on the information that they were learning. In addition, Energy Office staff worked directly with teams from each member city, which allowed staff to get a more intimate understanding of the challenges the city staff face in implementing sustainability initiatives

Ferndale’s Green Communities team huddles with Energy Office staff member and Ferndale resident Debra Jensen..

The conference was organized around several key themes:
• Economic Development
• Health, Quality of Life, and Sustainability Planning
• Making the Case for Sustainability

These themes were developed based on interviews with participating staff members from all of the municipalities that took part in the workshop. Participating local government staff presented about their challenges and successes in panel discussions and breakout sessions on each of these topics.

Staff and elected officials from Energy Office member communities played an integral part in the workshop, both by contributing their own ideas through sessions as well as sharing challenges that helped to inform the topics of the workshops.

This workshop was a powerful example of the power of collaboration and the sharing of local knowledge and lived experiences. We were very glad to see such great participation from Energy Office member communities.

Roseville’s Green Communities team huddles with Energy Office staff member Jennifer Young.

Filed in Events. Tagged Ferndale, Huntington Woods, River Rouge, Roseville, Saint Clair Shores, Washtenaw County, Ypsilanti.