Our Mission
The Northwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is united in their commitment to achieve sustainability by coming together to:
- Enhance the bottom line
- Protect quality of life
- Improve the community
The Forum provides workshops, networking, and sharing of technologies. Members include businesses, municipalities, universities, research scientists, chambers of commerce, tribes/casinos - a diversity of regional interests coming together to explore sustainability practices.
A thermal imaging camera isn't the type of tool that's typically used on a home renovation project. But it was just one of things students from the Traverse City site of YouthBuild Northwest got to see when they took a field trip to learn about energy efficiency and energy audits.
"Every building is different," said T.J. Ewing, an energy auditor and the owner of Empowerment Energy Analysts. "Every material and how it's put together can affect what's going on."
The field trip was organized by the Northwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum. Ewing and Trevor Williams from Brown Lumber used a home that was being remodeled so they could easily show the students some of the things that can be done to make a home more energy efficient. That can include replacing windows, adding insulation, and reducing air leaks.
"A lot of the older homes, there's so much that you can do," said Williams.
"I learned that there's very small, little things that people don't think about inside of a house that make a big difference when it comes to the heat loss and energy efficiency of a home," said Emily Parks, a YouthBuild student.
Williams and Ewing also talked about the tools and techniques energy auditors use to help home and business owners find ways to cut their energy bills.
"Part of an energy auditor is helping the building owner understand what's actually going on," said Ewing. "How is that building performing? Is it performing the way they expect it to?"
The students also found out there's expected to be a growing number of job opportunities tied to energy efficient building and energy audits.
"Economists are forecasting billions of dollars to be spent in this industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs to be created," said Williams.
"The future is green," said Tim Caputo, a YouthBuild student. "The construction industry is headed that way. If we incorporate that into our business that's going to help us make more money and be more successful."
Energy auditors are going through county owned buildings in northern Michigan looking for ways counties can cut their energy use. The audits are funded by a Michigan Public Service Commission grant and which was awarded to the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments. Watch the video to find out more about the energy audits.