2021 Michigan Energy Summit - Michigan Battle of the Buildings

Copy of Summit Sponsor & Exhibitor Packet 2021 (4)

About the Energy Summit

The 2021 Michigan Energy Summit recognized and celebrated competitors of the Michigan Battle of the Buildings ‘biggest loser’ competition. This year, the summit was hosted under the Grant Pavilion at beautiful Millennium Park in Grand Rapids, one of the nation's largest city parks with 1400 acres of natural landscape. The event featured Cheri Holman, Executive Director, USGBC WM, Brian Rich, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Consumers Energy, H.J. Decker, Sales and Marketing - DTE Gas, Webly Bowles, Project Manager New Buildings Institute, Alison Sutter, Sustainability and Performance Management Officer at City of Grand Rapids who delivered educational elements - with an outdoor twist. Guests participated in a hands-on day of interactive energy and carbon problem solving, fun yard games, and valuable in-person networking. View agenda with details and speaker bios below.

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Meet the 2020 Awardees

Michigan Battle of the Buildings is pleased to announce the awardees for 2020. Commercial Building Owners and Managers have had to balance significant changes in energy, water, health & safety measures since the onset of the pandemic. Through these tough times, we see innovation and leadership rise from those challenges. This year, the Michigan Battle of the Buildings recognized 6 local organizations who’ve managed their buildings under dynamic conditions and shared their stories of stewardship, resilience, opportunity, collaboration, and community service. Here are the 2020 awardees:

TCF Center Recognized as "Community Safe Haven"

TCF Center in Detroit, MI was recognized as "Community Save Haven" for the 2020 Michigan Battle of the Buildings. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the TCF Center pivoted responsively with the humble question, “How can we help?” Recognizing that they had a large building that could offer space and resources for those in need, the TCF Center quickly became a community safe haven for downtown Detroit. To learn more about their challenges and achievements, stay tuned for our upcoming newsletter highlighting each winner's story. Congratulations, TCF Center!

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University of Michigan's Office of Campus Sustainability Recognized as "Campus Collaborator"

A long-time champion, University of Michigan, crushed the competition once again! They were recognized as "Campus Collaborator" for the 2020 Michigan Battle of the Buildings competition. The Office of Campus Sustainability and fellow facilities departments formed a valuable collaboration named the HVAC COVID Workgroup to ensure high standards of safety, responsive building energy management, and holistic campus stewardship in such a dynamic year. Help us congratulate this amazing team!

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Emmanuel Episcopal Church Recognized as "Solar Steward"

Michigan Battle of the Buildings gives a big congrats to Emmanuel Episcopal Church, who was awarded as "Solar Steward" in the 2020 competition. Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s energy reduction journey spans a 4 year period starting with the replacement of incandescent light fixtures and the addition of smart thermostats and ends with a congregation mobilizing for a carbon impact bigger than themselves by advocating for policy change and investing in a 20 KW photovoltaic system installed at the 150-year-old church. Emmanuel Episcopal is now enjoying a 60% reduction in net carbon emissions from electricity and natural gas reductions. Thank you for being such a positive influence on the community!

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Fifth Third Bank Recognized as "Energy Opportunist"

Fifth Third Bank, another Battle veteran, was awarded as "Energy Opportunist" in the 2020 Michigan Battle of the Buildings at the 2021 Michigan Energy Summit. They accomplished this with an impressive lighting project that had an estimated savings of 1.6 kWh per year. A full-scale LED conversion of more than 6000 fixtures and integrated lighting controls system into the EMS system was proposed, approved, and completed within 2020, resulting in more than an 80% reduction in interior lighting load. Congratulations to Fifth Third and their dedicated team!

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Spectrum Health Recognized as "Frontline Energy Hero"

Spectrum Health has stepped up in more ways than one in 2020. They not only led the state and the nation in best practices for COVID pandemic response but were also diligent about energy usage. In the Michigan Battle of the Buildings 2020 competition, Spectrum was awarded as "Frontline Energy Hero". The Spectrum Health facilities team, with over 200 employees strong, worked around the clock, maintaining their momentum while adjusting almost daily to new health & safety protocols. During 2020, the team put in long hours as they adapted existing buildings and outfitted new structures in an immediate response to the COVID pandemic, continued necessary maintenance schedules, and seized the opportunity to complete projects in non-patient areas. Congratulations to Spectrum!

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General Motors Recognized as "Resilient Manufacturer"

Congratulations to General Motors for being awarded as "Resilient Manufacturer" in this year's Michigan Battle of the Buildings! GM strategically managed energy use in a diverse portfolio while responding to the healthcare industry’s supply chain needs by providing much-needed PPE to Michiganders at a critical time. To learn more about their challenges and achievements, stay tuned for our upcoming newsletter highlighting each winner's story.

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Michigan Energy Summit Agenda

**Click on the sections to the left to see times and full descriptions.

11:00 AM - Registration & Lunch 11:45 AM - Welcome & Opening Plenary 1:00 PM - BREAK 1:20 PM - Planning for a Zero Carbon City: A Collaborative Approach 2:40 PM - Award Ceremony 3:00 PM - Yard Games sponsored by Hedrick, Exhibitors & Networking 4:30 PM - Detroit Lions Happy Hour & Raffle

11:00 AM - Registration & Lunch

11:00am - 11:45am

Registration, Lunch, Exhibitors, Networking - Grant Pavillion - Exhibitor Space Open

**Click on the sections to the left to see times and full descriptions.

11:45 AM - Welcome & Opening Plenary

11:45am -12:10pm

Welcome Grant Pavillion

Cheri Holman, Executive Director

USGBC West Michigan

12:10pm -12:35pm

Opening Plenary | Grant Pavillion

Brian Rich, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer

Consumers Energy

12:35pm -1:00pm

Opening Plenary | Grant Pavillion

H.J. Decker, Sales and Marketing - DTE Gas

DTE Energy

About the Speakers:

Cheri Holman is the Executive Director of the USGBC of West Michigan, Director of the Grand Rapids 2030 District and Creator of the Michigan Battle of the Buildings Biggest Loser-Styled energy competition.

Cheri is an effective business and community leader with a passion to transform our built environment by prioritizing positive human health outcomes. Her focus areas include energy and water conservation, indoor environmental quality, advancement of clean/renewable energy, and smart mobility solutions that result in the advancement of equitable social & economic opportunities.

Prior to discovering her purpose as a non-profit leader, Cheri partnered with private-sector corporations to uncover opportunities for improved operational practices that reduced wasted resources and redirected millions of dollars toward sustainable business growth.

Mrs. Holman served on the Governor's Energy Excellence Award Steering Committee and 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.

Mrs. Holman is a partner in Holman Heating & Cooling, a residential HVAC company based in Greenville, MI

Brian Rich is Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of CMS Energy and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy. He was named to this position in 2019.

Rich is responsible for the company’s overall customer experience and satisfaction, and for customer programs such as energy efficiency, renewables and economic development. He also oversees customer operations, digital and IT and security.

Rich last served as Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO). He was responsible for the company’s technology strategy, security and IT operations.

Rich joined CMS Energy as CIO in 2014 to advance the company’s strategic goals with resilient integrated information technologies.

Rich is an energy industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience, including more than 14 years at Accenture and four years as a vice president at San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

Rich holds a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from The George Washington University, and completed an executive management program in cyber security policy at Harvard College in 2015.

H.J. Decker is currently Director, Sales and Marketing for DTE Gas, DTE Energy’s natural gas utility which provides service to 1.3 million homes and businesses in Michigan.

H.J. is responsible for industrial and residential natural gas sales and marketing, home appliance repair marketing and operations, natural gas procurement for utility customers, and midstream transportation and storage services.

H.J. has been with DTE Energy for 7 years. Prior to his current role, he served as Director, Strategy and Planning for DTE Electric, DTE’s electric utility. He has also been Director, Corporate Strategy and Development within DTE Energy’s corporate functions.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master’s of Business Administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

In addition to his professional achievements, H.J. is passionate about investing in his local community and serves on the Finance Committee for the United Way of Washtenaw County. He has two children, one boy and one girl, and enjoys golfing and traveling throughout Michigan.

1:00 PM - BREAK

1:20 PM - Planning for a Zero Carbon City: A Collaborative Approach

1:20pm - 2:40pm

Planning for a Zero Carbon City: A Collaborative Approach

with Webly Bowles, Project Manager

New Buildings Institute

Session Description:

Local governments and private organizations are setting zero carbon goals aligned with the Paris Climate Accord. Successful implementation will require coordination between government officials, citizens, and community partners. Lessons from the design and development community and non-governmental agencies will identify and support the outreach, education, and financial tools necessary for delivering zero carbon solutions. This interactive session will explore the policies, plans, and programs needed to achieve carbon reduction goals locally. Come prepared to work with your peers to envision decarbonization policies and programs to equitably implement these strategies across markets, economic sectors, and industry.

About the Speaker:

Webly Bowles is a Project Manager at New Buildings Institute. As an architect, she brings her systems thinking approach to her work to research and promote net zero buildings. She heads NBI’s lifecycle carbon research and collaborates with jurisdictions’ energy and carbon reduction goals. A strong advocate of the integrated design process, Webly often presents at conferences and facilitates charrettes to encourage the understanding of successful net zero building implementation. Her current research efforts include: embodied carbon in codes and carbon neutral building messaging.

2:40 PM - Award Ceremony

3:00 PM - Yard Games sponsored by Hedrick, Exhibitors & Networking

4:30 PM - Detroit Lions Happy Hour & Raffle

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