Triple Top Line Awards

Here's your chance to reward a business, organization or government that you think has done something significant to foster sustainability in our metro region -- all with the click of a button. But you have to act fast because voting ends on midnight next Thursday, April 15.

The West Michigan Environmental Action Council today announced finalists in three categories for its second annual Triple Top Line awards, which highlight local efforts to promote sustainability. The winners in each category will be determined by an online public voting process over the next week, capped off by an awards ceremony to be held during WMEAC's Eco Expo on Friday, April 16 at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids.

You can cast one vote in each of the three categories.

Sustainable Business Leadership

Clothing Matters is a Grand Rapids retailer established in 1996 that hopes to make West Michigan become the most sustainably dressed region in the nation. Clothing Matters supports practices that conserve natural resources, reduce pollution and promote social justice through the sale of apparel made from organic cotton, silk, soy, tencel, wool, hemp, recycled fibers, and bamboo for women and men.

Founded in 2008, Eden Environments is a design center in Grand Rapids that sells sustainable building materials, finishes, and furnishings for homes and offices, as well as offering sustainable architecture, interior and landscape design services. Owner Denise Hopkins says a primary goal is making sustainable and healthy living and work spaces accessible to everyone.

Community-Based Achievements toward Sustainability

Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance is a statewide coalition of individuals and organizations working cooperatively to protect and preserve the natural geography, historical heritage, and rural character of the Saugatuck Dunes coastal region in the Kalamazoo River Watershed, beginning with the former Denison property near Saugatuck. The grass roots organization has reached out to the entire state to protect the coastal dunes of Lake Michigan and the Kalamazoo River Watershed.

Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids conducted a sustainability assessment last year and implemented a plan to make the church's historic center of faith environmentally sustainable through mortar, study and social action. The church is using green cleaning, energy efficiency investments and stormwater capture at the church as learning opportunities for the congregation's youth and adults.

Friends of Grand Rapids Parks is an independent, citizen-led, nonprofit enterprize founded last year to protect, enhance and expand parks and public spaces in Michigan's second largest city. A primary goal of the organization is protect and create vibrant parks and public spaces that are essential to support the community's economic competitiveness, environmental health and cultural wellbeing.

Governments Implementing Sustainable Change

Spring Lake Township near Grand Haven has taken on the challenge of ensuring good development by shaping the Sustainable Community Assessment -- the tool is a part of the township's zoning ordinance and measures the long term sustainability of new developments in the Township. The tool borrows from the US Green Building Council's LEED accreditation, but tweaks that process to focus on the community's goals: Watershed, Scenic Landscape and Wildlife Corridor Protection.

Lower Grand River Organization of Watersheds (LGROW) was established last year by the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council to oversee restoration, protection and enhancement activities in the Lower Grand River drainage basin that encompasses more then 3,000 square miles starting at the confluence of the Grand and Looking Glass Rivers in downtown Portland in Ionia County through metro Grand Rapids to Lake Michigan. The watershed covers 10 counties and includes the Thornapple River, Flat River, and Rogue River watersheds.