Founded | 1970 Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States |
---|---|
Type | 501(c)(3) |
Focus | Environmentalism, Global Warming, Renewable Energy |
Location |
|
Method | Direct action, lobbying, petition, demonstration |
Key people | Mike Garfield, Director |
Website | ecocenter.org |
The Ecology Center is a membership-based nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It works at the local, state and national levels on environmental justice, health, waste, and community issues. It was formed after the first Earth Day in 1970 by community activists in Ann Arbor. Since its founding, it has run demonstrations and campaigns to promote recycling, health care, education, and awareness about healthy foods and products. [1]
After the first Earth Day in 1970, community activists in Ann Arbor formed the Ecology Center to promote safe and healthy environments for people. Among their demonstrations and projects the group created a recycling program which have since grown into a wholly owned green business. In the 1990s, the Ecology Center created one of the largest land preservation programs in the country. As of 2010 more than 8,000 acres of farms and natural areas in southeast Michigan have been protected. [2]
The Ecology Center led a statewide campaign that closed every single one of Michigan’s 157 medical waste incinerators—the second leading source of mercury and dioxin emissions into the environment.
A coalition led by the Ecology Center won federal mandates to remove lead and recover mercury from vehicles in the United States.
Beginning in 2005, the Ecology Center developed a unique resource, HealthyStuff.org, that tests common products for lead, mercury, or other toxic chemicals.
In 2011, the Ecology Center was named a "Green Leader" by the Detroit Free Press . The award recognizes "individuals, businesses and organizations who exhibit excellence in environmental responsibility."
In July 2011, the Ecology Center moved into an expanded office at 339 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor, known as the Handicraft Building. In keeping with the Ecology Center's mission, the new office space incorporated many green features, including sustainable and recycled materials. [3] Students from Eastern Michigan University designed furniture for the office using reclaimed materials. [4]
The Ecology Center's Clean Energy, Clean Fuels Campaign promotes policy solutions that increase United States energy independence, decrease Michigan's global warming pollution, and encourage sustainable agricultural and forestry practices that improve soil quality, enhance wildlife habitat, and preserve other conservation values
The Ecology Center brings hands-on environmental lessons to schools throughout southeastern Michigan. Programs include classroom visits, teacher training and curriculum development and web links and printed resources for teachers. [5]
The Ecology Center is a member of the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health which aims to promote healthy and safe environment for children through advocacy, education, outreach, and cooperation with health professionals, health affected groups, and environmental organizations. [6]
A website launched by the Ecology Center, HealthyStuff offers a listing the amount of lead, arsenic, mercury, chlorine, and bromine in over 900 products including toys, school supplies, car seats, automobiles, pet products, apparels, and home improvement tools and supplies. [7]
The goal is to preserve farmland and natural areas, concentrate development where infrastructure exists, and reduce traffic congestion.
Founded in 1977, Recycle Ann Arbor is a nonprofit organization that grew out of the Ecology Center recycling program. It is Michigan’s first curbside recycling program in 1978 and currently operates dropoff stations and reused building material and household supply shops for Ann Arbor residents. [8]
The ecology center works with hospitals across Michigan to provide locally and sustainably produced foods for their patients and staff. To date over 300 hospitals across the nation have signed on. [9]
Green chemistry is a scientific movement aimed at replacing toxic chemicals with safer alternatives. The Ecology Center has been involved in the movement shortly after its founding and received a Green Chemistry Gubernatorial Awards in 2009 by the state governor. [10]
The Built By Michigan coalition brings together small business, large business, workers, families, electric vehicle owners and car aficionados, environmental and faith based organizations, and more to advance the manufacturing and sales of the electric vehicle in Michigan to strengthen the local economy and increase employment in the state. [11]
Energy Works Michigan was a non-profit technical resource building foundational capacities for a sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future in Michigan. [12]
This program no longer exists.
Greenwashing, also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Companies that intentionally take up greenwashing communication strategies often do so in order to distance themselves from the environmental lapses of themselves or their suppliers.
Minamata is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is on the west coast of Kyūshū and faces Amakusa islands. Minamata was established as a village in 1889, re-designated as a town in 1912 and grew into a city in 1949. As of March 2017, the city has an estimated population of 25,310 and a population density of 160 persons per km². The total area is 162.88 km².
Green chemistry, also called sustainable chemistry, is an area of chemistry and chemical engineering focused on the design of products and processes that minimize or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. While environmental chemistry focuses on the effects of polluting chemicals on nature, green chemistry focuses on the environmental impact of chemistry, including lowering consumption of nonrenewable resources and technological approaches for preventing pollution.
In the field of waste management, extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a strategy to add all of the environmental costs associated with a product throughout the product life cycle to the market price of that product. Extended producer responsibility legislation is a driving force behind the adoption of remanufacturing initiatives because it "focuses on the end-of-use treatment of consumer products and has the primary aim to increase the amount and degree of product recovery and to minimize the environmental impact of waste materials".
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes, are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.
The sustainable city, eco-city, or green city is a city designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact, and resilient habitat for existing populations, without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 defines sustainable cities as those that are dedicated to achieving green sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. They are committed to doing so by enabling opportunities for all through a design focused on inclusivity as well as maintaining a sustainable economic growth. The focus also includes minimizing required inputs of energy, water, and food, and drastically reducing waste, output of heat, air pollution – CO2, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register first coined the term ecocity in his 1987 book Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future, where he offers innovative city planning solutions that would work anywhere. Other leading figures who envisioned sustainable cities are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, as well as authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.
Cradle-to-cradle design is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature's processes, where materials are viewed as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms. The term itself is a play on the popular corporate phrase "cradle to grave", implying that the C2C model is sustainable and considerate of life and future generations—from the birth, or "cradle", of one generation to the next generation, versus from birth to death, or "grave", within the same generation.
Sustainable Development Strategy for organizations in Canada is about the Government of Canada finding ways to develop social, financial, and environmental resources that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs in Canada. A Sustainable Development Strategy for the organization needs to be developed that establishes the Sustainable Development goals and objectives set by the Auditor General Act of Canada and provides the written policies and procedures to achieve them. Sustainable Development is based on responsible decision-making, which considers not only the economic benefits of development, but also the short-term and long-term, Canadian environment and environmental impacts.
A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in an environmental sectors of the economy. Environmental green-collar workers satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability. Formal environmental regulations as well as informal social expectations are pushing many firms to seek professionals with expertise with environmental, energy efficiency, and clean renewable energy issues. They often seek to make their output more sustainable, and thus more favorable to public opinion, governmental regulation, and the Earth's ecology.
The University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) is an interdisciplinary professional school focused on the environmental natural and social sciences, environmental justice, and sustainable landscape architecture. SEAS provides graduate-level degrees at the master’s and doctorate levels, along with undergraduate degrees through the Program in the Environment (PitE), a university-wide collaboration.
This page is an index of sustainability articles.
The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, includes all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth.
Land recycling is the reuse of abandoned, vacant, or underused properties for redevelopment or repurposing.
Energy Works Michigan was a non-profit affiliate of the Ecology Center based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Energy Works employs seven staff members.
Environmentally sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability and also aimed at improving the health and comfortability of occupants in a building. Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, the health and well-being of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments.
Green Action Centre (GAC) is an environmental non-profit organization based in Manitoba, Canada. It includes promoting greener living through environmental education for households, workplaces, schools, and communities. It also develops and advocates environmental policies for the Manitoba communities. Its primary areas of activity include; green commuting, composting and waste, sustainable living, and resource conservation.
A sustainability organization is (1) an organized group of people that aims to advance sustainability and/or (2) those actions of organizing something sustainably. Unlike many business organizations, sustainability organizations are not limited to implementing sustainability strategies which provide them with economic and cultural benefits attained through environmental responsibility. For sustainability organizations, sustainability can also be an end in itself without further justifications.
The Ecology Center is a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, California to provide environmental education and reduce the ecological footprint of urban residents.
Resource recovery is using wastes as an input material to create valuable products as new outputs. The aim is to reduce the amount of waste generated, thereby reducing the need for landfill space, and optimising the values created from waste. Resource recovery delays the need to use raw materials in the manufacturing process. Materials found in municipal solid waste, construction and demolition waste, commercial waste and industrial wastes can be used to recover resources for the manufacturing of new materials and products. Plastic, paper, aluminium, glass and metal are examples of where value can be found in waste.
Eco-friendly dentistry aims at reducing the detrimental impact of dental services on the environment while still being able to adhere to the regulations and standards of the dental industries in their respective countries.