Exhibitor Hall Open

Speaker:
Cheri Holman, Executive Director, USGBC West Michigan (Michigan Battle of the Buildings)

Cheri is a LEED Accredited Professional with extensive experience and a genuine passion for energy & water conservation.  Other areas of interest include indoor environmental quality, clean/renewable energy, access to healthy food and all things related to educating and promoting a healthy built environment.Prior to her work in non-profit Cheri spent most of her career consulting & partnering with private sector corporations to reduce resource consumption within their facilities through the implementation of energy conservation technologies and improved operational practices.

Mrs. Holman is Past Chair of USGBC West Michigan Board of Directors after serving as Treasurer for 2 years.  In early 2008 Cheri founded the LEED for Existing Building Advocacy Group. She served as a subject matter expert for the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) LEED for EB Operations and Maintenance test development in 2008 and the Commercial Reviewer exam test development in 2009.  In 2010 & 2011 Cheri served as a Greenbuild conference session reviewer.

Location:
Ballroom, Main Stage

Speakers:

Rick Blumenstock, Executive Director of Electric Supply Engineering, Consumers Energy
Jesse Douglas, Vice President and General Manager, Vicinity Energy
Bobby Boyd, Community Engagement for Midwest Region, U.S. Department of Energy
Alison Sutter, Sustainability and Performance Management Officer, City of Grand Rapids (Moderator)

Location:
Ballroom, Main Stage

Description:
There’s never been a better time to get money for your project. In this session you will learn about current and future financial opportunities in the State of Michigan. There are many ways to reduce the cost of your sustainability project from rebates, financing mechanisms, grants, and tax incentives. Each opportunity will be discussed in this breakout session.

Speakers:
Mike Dokter, Program Outreach Strategy Manager, Consumers Energy (DNV)
Todd Parker, Vice President, Michigan Saves
Jeff Spencer, Manager of Energy and Recycling Section, Materials Management Division, EGLE
Dru Ross, Account Manager, DTE (DNV) (Moderator)

Location:
Breakout Room C

Session Sponsored by Corewell Health

Description:
Learn from past and current competitors as they share their experiences navigating energy efficiency projects in their buildings. Learn about their successes, challenges, and best practices.

During this session details and updates will also be provided about LEED v5, a tool to help support current and future sustainability and high-performance goals.

This session is sponsored by Corewell Health. 

Speakers:
Fred Reddig, Director of Facilities, Ford Field
Al Vasquez, Engineer & Facility Services Director, Huntington Place
Renae Hesselink LEED AP BD+C, Vice President of Sustainability, Imperial Dade
Dr. Calvin Glass, Senior Pastor, Lord of Lords Ministries
Lana Crouse, Regional Director, Market Transformation & Development at U.S. Green Building Council (Moderator)

Location:
Breakout Room D

Session Sponsored by Belimo.
Organization speaker representative: Chris Bobrobetski, District Sales Manager

Description:
This session will explore the synergy between energy efficiency, electrification, and renewable energy. Hear from heat pump, solar, and geothermal experts on understanding these technologies and how to incorporate them into your projects! This session is sponsored by Belimo.

Speakers:
Kortney Lull, Vice President of Business Development, MidWest Geothermal
Ken Zebarah, Director of Commercial Sales, Harvest Solar
Kelsey Groesbeck, Director of Building Science, TowerPinkster
Kayla Snyer, Program Manager, U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan (Moderator)

Location:
Zapopan

Session Sponsored by Vicinity Energy

Description:
Join us for a walking tour of Vicinity Energy’s steam plant, located in the heart of Downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Location:
Meeting place in the JW Marriott TBD.
Group will meet and then walk together to the steam plant.

Description:

Sponsored by Vicinity Energy

This year's Keynote Address powered by Trane

Keynote Speaker:

Brenna S. Walraven
BOMA Fellow, BOMI-HP®, CPM®, RPA®
Executive Strategic Advisor
RE Tech Advisors

Biography:

Brenna Walraven is an internationally recognized leader in the commercial real estate and sustainability industry. She has excelled at leading large, diverse real estate organizations and has served some of the most discriminating institutional investors.

After almost 30 years in commercial real estate leadership, including nearly 17 years with USAA Real Estate (now Affinius Capital) and 10 years leading her own consulting firm, Corporate Sustainability Strategies (CSS), Ms. Walraven sold CSS to Legence, a Blackstone portfolio company, and merged with RE Tech Advisors, Legence’s award-winning sustainability advisory firm.

As Executive Strategic Advisor for RE Tech Advisors, Ms. Walraven provides best practice solutions for organizations by helping them develop and implement business-case-focused environmental, social, governance, and resilience (ESG+R) strategies for commercial real estate operations, asset management, and investor engagement. RE Tech’s clients include both publicly and privately held real estate organizations representing approximately $1.5 trillion in Assets under Management (AuM) globally and include assets in most property types and include debt investments.

Ms. Walraven has served in various executive-level roles, including CEO of CSS, as well as Head of Property Operations and Portfolio Manager, providing strategic leadership for national, multi-sector real estate portfolios. In these roles, she regularly engaged with investors, joint venture partners, and development partners, and oversaw property management, leasing, national accounts’ procurement, sustainability, risk management, and insurance for assets in every sector of commercial real estate (office, industrial, retail, hotel, multifamily, mixed-use, healthcare, storage, and development).

Ms. Walraven served on former California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Real Estate Leadership Council and has testified before the United States Congress on issues of energy efficiency and sustainability. Ms. Walraven is former chairman and chief elected officer for Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, the first woman to serve as chair in the association’s 100-plus-year history. She is a founding leader and developer of BOMA’s Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP ® ), which has trained over 36,000 real estate professionals. She also was part of the development of the BOMI International, Property and Facility Management Education, High-Performance Sustainable Buildings (BOMI-HP ® ) designation program, serving as an executive editor and instructor.

As part of her leadership within BOMA International, Ms. Walraven partnered with Clinton Climate Initiative to help develop a private sector approach to energy performance contracting (EPC) where retrofits are paid for over time out of savings generated by large scale retrofit projects. She also led the redevelopment and launch of the BOMA Energy Performance Contract (BEPC) model with refined tools, case studies, and implementation partners.

In addition to serving on several Advisory Boards, being an accomplished author, a sought-after speaker, and an instructor for over 25 years, Ms. Walraven thoroughly enjoys helping organizations and teams pursue excellence and do well by doing good. She is a BOMA Fellow, and she

Brenna Walraven – Biography - Narrative
page 1 of 1 holds a B.A. in Economics and MBA, with an emphasis in finance and real estate, both from the University of Southern California.

Location:

Ballroom, Main Stage

Speaker:
Cheri Holman, Executive Director, USGBC West Michigan (Michigan Battle of the Buildings)

Comments will be welcome!

Location:
Ballroom, Main Stage

We will be awarding the 2023 Michigan Battle of the Buildings Biggest Losers! Hear about their projects and achievements. You can also read more about these winners in our blogs, which will be posted closer to the event date.

End the day with the Detroit Lions Happy Hour. Grab a craft brew, enter to win prizes, network with fellow professionals, and have some fun! Craft Beer is Sponsored by Brewery Vivant.