Microbes are busy -- and hungry -- under the surface of the South Kent Landfill in Byron Center as they gobble up buried trash. One byproduct of their munching is methane, a greenhouse gas that can be burned and converted into water and carbon dioxide. Kent County and Granger Electric are collecting and burning methane to provide electricity to more than 1,800 homes. See how its done.
Thanks to the growing LED market, SoundOff Signal, Inc. in Hudsonville continues to move forward with plans to hire five to seven more workers this year and expects to bring on board more in next several years
Hopes of conducting a large-scale wind energy research project offshore in Lake Michigan has moved a step closer with news of a $1.36 million energy efficient grant awarded to the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center (MAREC) in Muskegon.
After 42 years of teaching in the classroom, James Wolter is now setting up his own shop at the Muskegon facility he helped establish: the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center of Grand Valley State University.
Deborah Johnson WoodGrand Rapids-based OST (Open Systems Technology) plans to nearly double its revenue from $34 million last year to $60 million by 2012 and add 25 jobs to make that happen. OST is an information technology services company that provides services ranging from hardware sales to business process consulting in healthcare, manufacturing and finance.President Dan Behm owes the expected growth to a major shift in geographic operations and the recent addition of an advisory board. "We previously hired sales reps in Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Atlanta and Detroit and planned to have offices in every major city in the U.S.," Behm says. "Now we're only going to have two hubs – a corporate hub in Grand Rapids, a second hub in Minneapolis. We'll sell specialized solutions nationally and hire the people in Grand Rapids to service them. For example, security assessments. We hire all the sales reps here and our people here will do the assessments and security consulting; they'll go to the clients' sites, but a lot will be done remotely. "This geographic shift is really a big change for us. It will keep the jobs here in Michigan, but allow us to sell into the rest of the country," he says. The advisory board consists of two internationally known industry experts: Mac Reynolds, founder of ERL LLC, and Frank J. Feraco, managing partner of Chicago-based Great Lakes Equity Partners. "The advisory board is a big part of the picture in helping to guide us," Behm says. "Changing the whole geographic expansion came from Frank Feraco. They really are helping us with ideas in terms of making big picture decisions." OST employs 50, plus 51 contractors. The company hired two sales reps in January and will fill two technology positions in February. The remaining 21 positions will be mostly senior sales people and technical consultants. Source: Dan Behm, OSTDeborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com. Have a development news tip for Rapid Growth? Contact us at info@rapidgrowthmedia.com.
Got an innovative Web-based business idea you're sure will make money, but unsure how to successfully launch it? There is help for such would-be tech entrepreneurs through Momentum, a West Michigan investment and training program.
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