RE/MAX agents from across southeastern Michigan recently donated seventy educational gifts to help children diagnosed with speech and language impairments. The gifts were donated to the RE/MAX Communication Preschool Program, part of the Beaumont Children’s Hospital.
Noodles & Company has moved its Royal Oak location to an 1800 square foot space at 420 South Main Street in Royal Oak. The new location is slightly smaller than its former location to meet changing customer dining habits and market trends, including delivery services and online ordering.
China, which once took some 30% of U.S. recyclables, has become less of a partner since raising its standards and making the decision to only take in materials cleaner than what most U.S. recycling centers are able to produce.
Michael Csapo, the general manager of the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, said the authority hasn’t been impacted greatly by the loss of China, noting it’s been awhile since the authority has done business with China.
“We haven’t sent any substantial amounts of material to China in nearly two years,” Csapo said. “(Our) materials are being sold into domestic and North American markets.”
However, the resulting hole in available markets has had an impact in many areas. Centers trying to adapt looking for a solution might take a look at what has been going on in Michigan’s Emmet County for decades.
Emmet County officials, relying on strong in-state relationships with facilities buying processed recyclables and an efficient dual-stream recycling system, say they haven’t had to change a thing.
“Here, we’re insulated from it,” said Andi Shepherd, the Emmet County Department of Public Works director. “But nationally there are articles all over saying ,‘Recycling’s broken, recycling’s dead. It’s China’s fault.’”
Angela Crase of Republic Services, which handles the material recovery facility for the RROSAC, said the company was forced to find new markets, both in the U.S. and overseas, for their recyclables. There is one problem, though, she said.
“China had been a reliable partner for nearly 25 years,” Crase said. “Before January 2018, 30% of the recyclables processed by Republic Services went to China. Now that number is zero.
“The difference is that the values of those materials are far lower,” she added. “The world’s commodity markets are oversaturated, meaning supply is high and demand is low, which drives down prices.”
Strong relationships
Emmet County Recycling has spent decades building relationships with nearby facilities that buy processed recyclable material, Shepherd said. Unlike other recycling centers, about 95% of the material from the center stays in-state. None of it goes overseas.
“A lot of places just send it all away, they just want it gone,” Shepherd said. “We intentionally are seeking out markets. We want to find the closest markets possible.”
Shepherd said Emmet County distributes to several buyers, depending on what type of recyclable they’re looking to purchase.
Milk jugs are sent to Clean Tech in Dundee after they are processed and baled in Emmet County, he said. Clean Tech then cleans, shreds and pelletizes the milk jugs so they are ready to make new materials.
Contamination is the recycling industry’s big challenge. It happens when materials are recycled with the wrong group. For instance, if someone put a cardboard box in a bottle return and it wasn’t caught in the sorting process, it would cause contamination. When materials are not properly cleaned before being recycled, they also cause contamination.
Meeting the challenge
Both the RRRASOC’s Csapo and Republic Services’ Crase agree contamination is the industry’s largest hurdle.
Across the country, about 25-30% of household recycling is contaminated,” Crase said. “That means 1-in-4 items are either soiled with food or other residue, or they aren’t recyclable in the first place. Aside from food and liquid, common contaminants include yard waste, hoses and even dirty diapers.”
But Csapo says the RRASOC has tackled the hurdle head-on.
“Our facility has consistently produced a product that meets whatever end-market standards are required by buyers of the material,” Csapo said. “Constant education using a multi-media, multi-modal approach that includes working with other stakeholders such as local communities, haulers, the state and the media” are measures that can be taken to ensure a contamination-free environment.
Emmet County’s Shepherd said one of the reasons in-state facilities want to work with Emmet County is the dual-stream method they use. While many centers will put all recyclables together, dual-stream separates cardboard and paper materials from glass, plastic and metal ones. This reduces the amount of contamination and makes the product more desirable to facilities buying the materials.
“What’s not moving is the low-quality materials,” said Kerrin O’Brien, executive director of the Michigan Recycling Coalition, a group representing recycling and composting interests statewide.
Educational focus
O’Brien said recycling literacy is essential.
“The real focus is on education,” O’Brien said, “really helping individual people understand what should go in the bin and what should not go in the bin.”
The Recycling Racoons, mascots used in Michigan to promote responsible recycling, is a step in the right direction, O’Brien said.
China didn’t start taking a significant amount of processed U.S. recyclables until the early 2000s, O’Brien said. After that, some centers adjusted to lenient contamination standards. With domestic markets overwhelmed by the new surplus of processed materials, centers will have to improve to appeal to these facilities.
Centers are slowing down the conveyor belts their materials are processed on to cut down contamination, O’Brien said. This leads to the production of a higher quality product, but it drives up processing costs.
Footing the bill
Excess supply driving down prices of processed recyclables combined with higher processing costs means that consumers are footing the bill. Late in 2018, Michigan lawmakers approved $15 million to be spent on recycling programs. O’Brien said that money is to be spent on education, modernizing facilities and growing domestic markets.
Emmet County is a leader in the recycling industry, but there will have to be some statewide changes for larger centers to follow its example, O’Brien said.
Many facilities Emmet County sells to can’t take in the quality or quantity of processed recyclables from these larger centers. This pressures the centers to produce a better product and creates a need for a larger market.
“We, at least in Michigan and I think across the country, are working on developing domestic markets and productive opportunities to use this material,” O’Brien said. “But it’s going to take time to do that.”
Despite the money and effort required, O’Brien sees new practices paying off.
“These smaller, more local efforts to absorb more of this material in Michigan and across the country are going to make way for better recycling,” O’Brien said.
Lucas Day of Capital News Service contributed to this report. Find his full report at http://news.jrn.msu.edu/2019/11/since-china-wont-buy-recyclables-centers-look-for-local-markets
Strategist Lindsay Pedersen says brand is what breaks through the millions of messages out there and persuades people to say, “Yes, out of all the products and services out there, I choose yours.” And she says there’s no time like now to focus on how you might deepen your customers’ love.
“Customers like brands because of the way they make them feel, not the way they message,” says Pedersen, author of “Forging an Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide.” The brands people love, she says, “are the ones that make us feel understood, that provide a solution to a deep problem, that help us transcend.”
Pedersen is a brand strategist, board advisor, coach, speaker and teacher known for her scientific, growth-oriented approach to brand building while working with billion-dollar businesses like Starbucks, Clorox, Zulily, T-Mobile, and IMDb, as well as many burgeoning startups.
She suggests four tactics to embrace that will deepen customer love.
1. Be sure you’re letting everything matter. Brand makes a promise to customers. Make a point to check yourself from the customer’s vantage point and ask if you have earned the right to make this promise. If you’re a high-end coffee house, it’s as important to keep the restrooms sparkling clean as it is to deliver a high-quality latte. In other words, brand shouldn’t be just a marketing activity; it must be reflected in everything you do.
“Brand encompasses your customers’ total experience of your business,” says Pedersen. “Let it mold their experience. The more you imbue everything with your brand, the more it can deepen customer love.”
2. Make a gesture to “model” your brand. Pedersen points to when CEO Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks in 2008, and perceived a growing gap between what Starbucks promised and what they delivered — and customers were losing trust. Schultz sought to close that gap in a sweeping, expensive way: He closed all U.S. Starbucks stores for an afternoon to retrain baristas on the art of espresso.
“Closing the stores for training was a public demonstration of the brand’s sacredness,” says Pedersen. “Though expensive in the short-term — an estimated cost of $6 million that day — the move was invaluable in the long-term. Within the year, the brand was flourishing once again, despite the Great Recession.”
3. Ask yourself, “How can we ‘ladder up?’” Your brand’s “benefit ladder” depicts the levels at which your business benefits your customer, from the functional and grounded to the emotional and transcendent, says Pedersen. Bounce dryer sheets started out promising “wrinkle-free clothes” and after gaining consumer acceptance eventually “laddered up,” moving from offering wrinkle-free clothes to the higher-order benefit of “attractive clothes.” A few years later, they laddered up to the benefit of “feeling pretty.”
“The higher on the ladder you can deliver, the more value you provide to your customers,” says Pedersen. “The more value you deliver, the more delighted your customers will be, the more loyal they will be, the more willing they’ll be to pay handsomely for your benefit, and the more likely they will be to tell others.”
4. Figure out a way to “plus it.” As you grow, Pedersen advises that you always consider ways that you can increase the thing that
customers love about you. As Disney used to tell his Imagineers, “plus it.” To “plus it,” you iterate and build and take the promise from awesome to mind-blowing. Disney plussed the earlier Mickey Mouse cartoons by adding sound to them, says Pedersen. He plussed the movie “Bambi” by bringing live animals into the artists’ studio so the Imagineers could observe and copy their natural movements.
“Brand is the meaning you stand for, so really stand for it,” concludes Pedersen. “To make customers love you forever, strive to make that meaning ever more resonant.”
While the number of businesses owned by women and minorities has grown, there are still a lot of challenges to overcome.
The U.S. has 8 million minority owned firms, which is a whopping 38% increase since 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency. Businesses owned by minorities generate $1.4 trillion in annual gross receipts.
Businesses owned by black women, a fast growing segment, grew 163% from 2007 to 2018. There were 2.4 million businesses owned by African American women in 2018, and most were owned by women age 35 to 54, the 2018 State of Women-Owned Business Report stated.
Lower income
However, annual sales at businesses owned by black women are two times smaller than the next-lowest demographic group, Hispanic women, and nearly five times smaller than for all women-owned businesses, according to a Federal Reserve report. The average income of black women-owned businesses dropped from $84,000 in 2007 to $66,400 in 2018, according to the 2018 State of Women-Owned Business Report.
Lack of finances, difficulty getting loans and insufficient mentors to help them navigate the business world are some of the reasons for this disparity, said Dr. Kenneth Harris, president and CEO of the Midwest regional office of the National Business League in Detroit, an advocacy organization representing 2.9 million black-owned U.S. businesses. These businesses are growing at three times the national rate. But it isn’t all good news. These business owners, he said, are prompted to start their own companies because they’re historically excluded from procurement and contract opportunities, and continue to fight for inclusion in the workforce.
“So, what’s happening is minorities are finding more success owning their own businesses, as opposed to going into environments to get a job, moving up the corporate ladder or being excluded altogether,” Harris said.
Minority to become majority
The minority population in the country will continue to change, according to a Brookings Institute report, which said that by 2045 the majority of the population will be black and brown. With these changing demographic shifts, most of America will be minority, Harris explained.
“That’s part of the reason why you see an increase in blacks and minorities going into entrepreneurship, because they are becoming the majority,” Harris said. “Black women are finding it easier to channel in a commodity good or service, rather than fit into systems that are discriminatory and limit professional growth. Black women are taking the entrepreneurial route and turning that into business success around the country.”
Detroit has the largest concentration of black women entrepreneurs in the country, he added. There are 108,000 businesses owned by blacks in Michigan, based on 2012 U.S. Census statistics, and there are more than 49,000 black-owned businesses in the city of Detroit, ranked behind Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston. However, most black businesses still lack access to resources and capital within the mainstream marketplace to further grow and expand, Harris said.
Help available
Minority business owners get help developing their companies from organizations like the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, a nonprofit organization that facilitates more than $26 billion annually in economic output between corporations and certified minority business enterprises.
“Development is a key part of what we do,” explained MMSDC President and CEO Michelle Sourie Robinson. “Today it’s helping to procure long-term suppliers.”
The organization recently announced a partnership with Plug and Play, one of the largest technology incubators in the country. MMSDC is responsible for selecting corporate partners and securing funding to start and accelerate growth for a Plug and Play incubator in Detroit next January.
“The mobility incubator is open to all businesses, with a specific focus on bringing in businesses owned by women and minorities,” Sourie Robinson said. “It’s all about identifying businesses we can bring in to achieve corporate business goals. We help not only the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), we help venture capitalists and lenders, as well as entrepreneurs who have a great idea but may not have the connections or know where to take their idea. Essentially, we open doors for those who typically don’t have access. That’s why this incubator and other growth projects are aligned with our mission.”
Reaching out to many
The MMSDC certifies 1,200 minority businesses that facilitate about 200,000 jobs annually. The organization is one of 23 affiliates of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, a nonprofit corporate membership organization that advances business opportunities for its certified minority business enterprises.
MMSDC also operates the Detroit Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Center, through a grant from the U.S Department of Commerce.
“In 2018, the Detroit MBDA Business Center was ranked number one out of 40 centers,” Sourie Robinson said. “It helps the corporate members and minority entrepreneurs that work with us. In fact, we are increasingly finding we have corporations outside of Michigan with operations in the state and they need to make sure their supply chains are strong. We identify their needs and help to fill in the gap by identifying strong supplier partners to meet business objectives. There are many challenges for business owners looking at an economy that is, at best, slowing and we’re in a period of uncertainty that impacts all business owners. You have things like strikes that are threats to any business owner, regardless of whether minority or majority.”
Women make their mark
Women are closing the gap on numbers of businesses owned nationwide. Businesses owned by women make up 39% of all privately held firms and contribute 8% of employment, according to the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Businesses owned by women rose from 402,000, or 4.6% of all firms, in 1972 to 12.3 million, or 40% of all firms, in 2018. Revenues rose from $8.1 billion, representing 0.3% of all firms’ revenue, in 1972 to $1.8 trillion, or a 4.3% of total firms’ revenue in 2018, according to a 2018 State of Women-Owned Business Report commissioned by American Express. The number of women-owned businesses skyrocketed 58%, from 2007 to 2018.
But the numbers of women in professional, scientific and technical services fell, compared to other women-owned sectors, such as those that provide services, including hair and nail salons and pet care companies, as well as health care and social service industries, like child care services and home health care.
Helping women navigate
The Great Lakes Women’s Business Council provides certification to help women get corporate procurement opportunities and contracts. It also provides a Women’s Business Center to aid in business development. GLWBC conducts classes and offers lending to small businesses and startups, explained Veronica Johnson, director of certification.
She sees a move toward women starting up companies in sectors previously dominated by men.
“We’re seeing an increase in women in construction and manufacturing,” Johnson said. “It’s nice to be able to see women start to dominate in some of those male driven industries, and that we’re being included in those types of industries.”
Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women (GROW) also lends a hand to women in business. The nonprofit organization focuses primarily on helping women, and also men, at various stages of business ownership. GROW helps entrepreneurs launch, advance, and sustain their businesses. They do this through business lending, training, coaching, counseling and networking.
Women, however, often start out at a disadvantage, since they hadn’t received equal pay and generally have less capital to begin a business, explained Bonnie Nawara, GROW’s CEO.
“It’s difficult for them to get the capital to grow and start their businesses,” she said. “Women-owned businesses have been one of the fastest growing segments of our economy, but they are traditionally smaller sized businesses. It takes a lot of capital, hard work and knowledge to build a business and, as it matures, it requires different skill set levels for the business owner to become more profitable. A lot of startups aren’t always willing to seek the help or they don’t know where the help is and that can be a barrier. It requires learning new skill sets, bringing in new resources.”
On another front
As of 2018, there were 1.1 million Asian American businesses owned by women, which represents growth of 7% from 2016. As much as 39% of Asian American women identify themselves as entrepreneurs, according to the Asian/Pacific Islanders American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship.
Asian American women own 9% of all women-owned businesses in the U.S. and they hire more than 1 million workers, generating $170.4 billion in revenue. From 2017 to 2018, businesses owned by Asian American women grew by 7%. At $184,669, the average annual revenue generated per firm by Asian American women-owned businesses is the highest among all businesses owned by minorities.
Asians have made strides in certain business sectors, but not others, said Grace Lee, Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce chair of the board emeritus. The Asian industries with the highest average number of employees per firm are seafood product preparation and packaging, employment services and management of companies and enterprises, the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy reported.
“A lot of minority and women-owned businesses are traditionally on the service side,” Lee said. “If you want to go into science, technology or as a construction carrier, you will raise a lot of questions, maybe trust issues, to give us the opportunities. It’s hard for women and minorities to scale up.”
It’s discouraging, too, that 80-90% of businesses owned by women have revenue under $1 million, Lee said.
Insufficient federal funding for all minority-owned small businesses is a challenge, she said, adding that finding mentorship opportunities and role models is one way to overcome that hurdle.
Seeking minority status
Arab American business owners have struggled in a different way, because they are not considered a minority in the United States. Arab Americans and North Africans have tried for about 30 years to seek minority status with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The efforts, however, failed.
The census bureau identifies minorities as Native Americans who are part of the North American Indian tribes, Eskimos and Native Hawaiians; blacks with origins in the black racial groups of Africa; Hispanics from Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean basin and some Brazilians; and Asians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Micronesia, Fiji, or any of the surrounding areas.
The U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency identifies historic economic hardship and systematically oppressed minority groups. Arab Americans are not considered a federal minority and they’re trying to obtain minority status.
“We can’t show the disparity, because we’re not counted as a minority,” said Warren David, president of Arab America (formerly ArabDetroit).
Strides were made and it looked as if Arabs would have their own box on census forms; however, President Donald “Trump’s administration came in and before Arabs would be listed as a minority it was taken off,” he said.
Since Arabs aren’t listed on a separate box with the census bureau, it’s difficult to be specific about populations, but David estimates there are 4 million Arab Americans in the United States and between 500,000 and 1 million in the Detroit metro area.
David said the Commerce Department says “you need to show hardship,” but wonders how someone can do that “when there’s no data.”
“A constant problem in our community is we’re not counted as a minority and there’s no accurate data about disparity,” David said. “If we had a box on the census, we would be counted and then the proper data would be formulated. That would allow us to go to the commerce department to get minority status. It’s a Catch 22.”
Michigan’s farmers are looking forward in 2020, hopeful for resolutions or at least relief from longstanding issues such as international trade uncertainty, rising costs when it comes to their land and maintenance of equipment along with homegrown challenges such as tighter lending from local banks and financial institutions.
The outlook for the state’s agricultural industry is a positive one overall, experts say, but there are lingering weather patterns and governmental indecision that will affect the farming community – issues that will continue to hamper these small- to medium-sized enterprises in the New Year.
“There were two significant impacts” on Michigan’s farmers in 2019, said Stephen Weber, a director at O’Keefe, a consulting firm based in Bloomfield Hills.
Weber works with clients in the fields of turnaround management, business refinancing, litigation support, forensic and fraud evaluations, as well as performance and operational improvement. He has worked with business in industries including: manufacturing, real estate, resort, construction, electronics, food service, agriculture, and non-profit organizations.
“First, it was the weather,” Weber said. “This spring was horrible. Farmers could not get out to plant – they were pushing up against the deadline to get crop claims before they expired. … The fall was wet again, impacting their being able to get the crops out that were actually planted.”
Weber said the most recent figures show Michigan’s crops of corn and soybeans could be 15 to 20% below average.
China syndrome
The other challenge Michigan farmers faced were international trade issues, especially with China. Tariffs on important crops such as soybeans has hurt the overall market, and the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement hasn’t been ratified yet, so there is a lot of indecision for farmers to balance in the months ahead, Weber said.
“2019 is going to prove to be the most challenging year for agriculture that we’ve seen,” agreed Jim Zook, the executive director of the Michigan Corn Growers Association. “It’s maybe worse than what people think at this point.”
The effects of a rainy spring that delayed planting are felt now at harvest, Zook added.
“There isn’t anything that [farmers] can do at this point. The maximum yield had already occurred probably four months ago,” Zook said.
The outlook is even bleaker for soybeans, Zook said. “It’s not as critical in corn as what it would be in soybeans because the fruit of the soybean is within inches of the ground.”
Wet corn and soybeans have to be dried for processing, an additional cost passed on to the farmer, said Theresa Sisung, an associate field crops specialist for the Michigan Farm Bureau. That shrinks them and so they do not produce as much revenue.
“You’re not going to get paid on the weight they come in at. You’re going to get paid on the total weight you have once those soybeans are dried down to that acceptable level,” she said.
“Because everything got planted later it didn’t have time to dry,” she said. “We had some challenges with wet soybeans last year and we’re having them again this year, but I think this year is probably more widespread than what we had in the past.”
Soybeans “are one of the commodities that was hit the hardest with all the trade challenges because we do export a lot of soybeans so the prices were impacted pretty dramatically,” Sisung said.
Production growth
Farmers also are delaying purchases as they don’t have the funds at hand, and banks are not as willing to lend to them, Weber noted.
Michigan’s dairy industry also has seen some of the lowest milk prices around for several years. These farms are just “too good at producing,” Weber said. Some product is getting exported out of state, to Florida and others, he said. But there is good news on the horizon: Greenville is getting a dairy processing facility and a large cheese factory opening in mid to late 2020 that should absorb a good portion of Michigan’s milk.
“Rather than suffer through lower prices (lower prices cover the freight cost), more production capacity will help dairy farmers,” Weber said.
To help, farmers should look at new crops, economies of scale and financing options that should help their 2020 forecast, Weber said. They’ll likely have to wait and see on trade issues and tariffs – but if those get resolved, that will be a bonus for the new year.
As for the weather? “Barring a polar vortex, if we get back to normal, that will be a big improvement,” Weber said.
Evan Jones of the Capital News Service contributed to this report. See his story at http://news.jrn.msu.edu/2019/11/stress-can-plant-suicide-thoughts-in-isolated-farmers
The Quell Group announced the promotion of Chelsea Komblevicz to account supervisor, branding and marketing services, and Catherine Pace to account executive, branding and digital services. Both professionals are involved in developing and executing integrated communications programs for clients.
MedNetOne’s Chief Medical Officer, Al Juocys, D.O. has received the first Lawrence Abramson Distinguished Service Award from the Wayne, Oakland and Macomb County Osteopathic Medical Associations, created to honor physicians dedicated to their patients, their community, and osteopathic agencies.
For many, 2019 was a year of highs and lows. For the lows, there were a lot of conversations around political unrest, economic uncertainty as well as social concerns. Workers felt stressed by burnout, long commutes and the desire to earn more.
But there were lot of great things, as noted by a Robert Half survey of Detroit employees and companies. For example, 79% of Detroit employers planned to offer year-end bonuses, and 59% planned to increase them. Moreover, people who found those better-paying jobs said they would be willing to move for a job with salary and perks being the top reason for a move.
Over in East Lansing, Michigan State University’s Center for Economic Analysis sees further growth in the Michigan economy in 2020. This comes from the MSU Economic Forecast Model that tracks and projects the economies of the state of Michigan and the metropolitan areas of Detroit-Warren-Dearborn and Lansing-East Lansing.
The model forecasts employment and wages by industry, economic output and total personal incomes based on economic conditions and projections at the national and regional levels.
Recession trends
On multiple occasions in this past year, it looked like a recession was just on the horizon. Leading indicators that have proved to be good predictors of a recession consistently triggered recessionary concerns. But many of those old predictors just don’t seem to work in this information-driven economy. The one predictor that trumps all – growth in gross domestic product – continues to point to further growth.
Regardless, parts of the economy are not doing so well. Manufacturing, in particular, had a rough year, leaving many to claim we are in the midst of a manufacturing recession. However, the national data suggest that while manufacturing activity has weakened, it is not in decline.
Trade relations were in the news throughout 2019. It’s hard to keep track, but the U.S. has imposed 10% to 25% tariffs on about $524 billion of imported goods from a slew of countries and commodities. (The U.S. imports about $3.1 billion annually.) It appears that the U.S. tariffs have not led to their intended effects of reducing imports and advancing domestic production. Rather, since the first quarter of 2017, imports have increased almost 4% over exports, exacerbating the long-term trade imbalance.
Consumers remain the driving force of this economy. Consumer expenditures make up about two-thirds of the overall economy and consumers remain poised to spend. Consumer debt remains stable and confidence remains high – giving consumers greater reign on spending. First indications of the holiday spending reinforce this conjecture.
Overseas issues
Threats to the national economy abound from inside and outside the U.S. China’s explosive economic growth continues its slow ebb, though it remains robust compared to the U.S. The International Monetary Fund has reduced global outlook projections twice this year and projects the European Union to grow at its slowest rate since 2013. Of the EU countries, Germany’s economy, steeped in manufacturing, has lagged the rest of the EU. However, recent projections are for a modest boost, tempered by slowing global growth – but growth, nonetheless.
“For the U.S., we peg 2020 forecast of U.S. gross domestic product at 3.3% growth and on par with 2019 projections,” Steven Miller, director of the Center for Economic Analysis said in a statement. “National employment is expected to remain at capacity with low levels of unemployment.”
While 2019 was projected to tack on 2.2 million jobs nationally, the researchers predict 2020 will only add on 1.44 million new jobs. Manufacturing sectors are expected to shed jobs and retail sectors are expected to remain flat in light of productivity gains that allow more to be done with less workers. Other service sector jobs are expected to continue to grow at a stable rate, just south of their long-term trends.
“We will likely see some upward pressure on wages due to tight labor markets, but wage gains have been reclusive over the last few years of full employment,” said Trey Malone, MSU agricultural economist.
State forecast
What happens nationally has consequences for the state. The researchers don’t expect Michigan’s economy to turn in 2020, but due to dependence on manufacturing, expect Michigan’s economic growth to slow in 2020.
At the same time, they anticipate Michigan economic growth, measured as state-level gross domestic product (gross state product), to trail the nation at 2.3% growth in 2020. This follows projected growth of 2.9% in 2019. That is, the growth in Michigan’s gross state product will be the lowest it has been in five years.
Despite projected economic growth, the center anticipates state employment growth to remain flat to negative in 2020; 2019 to close out with 26,000 new jobs; and 2020 to have no change to slight declines. Weakness in Michigan’s manufacturing sectors is tempering the researchers’ growth projections as both durable and non-durable goods manufacturing is expected to lose jobs in 2020.
Job gains in professional and businesses services and education and health services are expected to offset most of these manufacturing job losses, as other services sectors remain largely flat. Expect government jobs to also grow at a moderate pace. The jobs shuffle will add to unemployment projections, raising Michigan’s overall unemployment rate to around 4.5%, up from 4.1% in 2018.
With less friction in local labor markets, Michigan’s wage and salary growth is not expected to keep pace with the nation. With that, total wage and salary growth should be up about 2.3% at the close of 2019 and up by 1.6% in 2020. Adding other sources of income, total personal income is projected to be up by 2.3% in 2020, or just under the rate of inflation.
Lansing looks forward
The Lansing-East Lansing Metropolitan Area is expected to fare somewhat better than the state due to its favorable mix of sectors, which is heavy on government and lighter on manufacturing. Researchers expected 2019 to add 2.6% to metropolitan-level gross state product and 2.3% in 2020. In real terms (adjusted for inflation), this means no change. For employment, 2020 is expected to see less than 2,000 new jobs added to payrolls. About 720 jobs will be shed from manufacturing sectors, while growth in service sectors and government will more than offset.
Despite job gains, researchers expect an increase in overall unemployment. Where the 2019 projection is for an unemployment rate of 3.4%, 2020 will see a marginal increase to 3.7%, mostly due to additions to the labor market. The Lansing labor market will continue to be tight. Therefore, wage and salary growth should be about 2.6% in 2019 and 3.1% in 2020. However, even with this level of growth, the metropolitan area’s per-capita income growth is still not keeping pace with the nation.
Detroit Metro looks modest
The Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metropolitan area is expected to see modest economic growth through 2020. But like the state, it will largely miss employment growth. The 2019 metropolitan-level gross domestic product growth will be limited but healthy at 2.9% annually. This will moderate some in 2020 to 2% largely due to weakness in manufacturing sectors. Wage and salary growth are expected to be tepid through 2020, dropping as low as 1.3% growth, or well below the rate of inflation. However, other components of income will boost overall personal income growth to 2% in 2020.
Overall, Detroit’s employment projection for 2020 is for no change to a slight decrease of about 0.3%. Like the rest of the state (and the nation), the goods producing sectors show the greatest amount of weakness in 2020 with projected losses of about 9,200 jobs. New service sector jobs will likely not be sufficient to make up for the loss. The effect on unemployment is a modest increase from 4.4% unemployment in 2019 to 4.8% in 2020 for the Detroit area.
As the only comprehensive state and regional economic forecast estimates that are accessible without a subscription, the MSU Economic Forecast Model is an important resource for businesses and residents wanting to know where the economy is going.
The full forecast details and numbers can be found on the MSU Center for Economic Analysis website at www.cea.msu.edu.
The 2020 Wege Prize competition is just getting started, yet the 7-year-old annual international student design competition is already setting records.
Wege Prize, an international student design competition that inspires collaboration across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to solve persistent real-world problems and rethink the way economies work, drew a field representing 24 countries, 64 academic institutions and 100 academic disciplines, the largest field to date for the competition, organized by the Kendall College of Art and Design at Ferris State University in Grand Rapids.
Largest crop of young leaders
Organizers are calling the field the “latest crop of young leaders” drawn to Wege Prize, a field of 29 teams of five, each required to represent different academic institutions and disciplines. It’s the largest and most diverse field in the competition’s seven-year history.
Each team has identified a complex, systemic problem (also known as a “wicked” problem) they’re interested in addressing, and has begun building a foundation of research to identify where the best opportunities for intervention exist.
Over the next six months, they’ll grow that research into a product, service, business, nonprofit organization, or other solution that solves the problem through the lens of the circular economy, a rapidly emerging economic model that emphasizes designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.
Along the way, teams are guided by feedback from Wege Prize Judges, a diverse and accomplished group of professionals whose collective expertise spans the circular economy, sustainable business, green chemistry, industrial design, UX/UI design, digital fabrication, biomimicry, public policy, education, and more. In addition to this intellectual and professional growth, teams have the opportunity to win a share of over $30,000 USD in total cash prizes to help move their project forward.
Education meets action
Gayle DeBruyn, a professor of collaborative design at KCAD, called Wege Prize a “space where education meets action.”
“We’re empowering young people to actively learn how to approach problems from multiple perspectives and how to solve them by collaborating with others whose expertise and experiences differ from their own,” DeBruyn said. “But we’re also giving them support and resources to understand how they can make their ideas a reality.”
Past Wege Prize winners have developed a sustainable, circular online tourism platform for indigenous communities in Mexico, designed a system to convert harmful waste byproducts from cocoa bean farming into powerful and affordable organic fertilizers, and created an on-site waste treatment system for hospitals that minimizes environmental impact while maximizing the potential for resource recovery, among many other innovative solutions.
Wege Prize 2020 teams are tackling a wide variety of issues, from reducing dependence on single-use plastic by turning an abundant invasive water weed into bioplastic, to using big data to help homeless individuals in Brazil make a positive transition back into society, to reimagining Detroit as a city of the future through an influx of sustainable infrastructure.
As the competition progresses through its four distinct phases, those teams whose ideas inspire the greatest hope for real-world success will advance, while others will carry the constructive feedback they’ve received from the judges into their future problem-solving efforts, and more broadly, their personal and professional lives.
Follow along with Wege Prize 2020 on Facebook (@wegeprize), Twitter (@wegeprize), and at wegeprize.org, where competition updates are posted regularly.
Generally speaking, foresters count on Michigan’s 3.9 million acres of state forest for two primary things: Maximizing a steady supply of timber, and providing a habitat for wildlife.
A third value could soon be found in the potential for storing carbon, leading to Michigan’s forest land being recruited for a fight to limit climate change.
The director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources points out that climate change, at its base, can be boiled down to a math problem.
“We are contributing a lot more carbon into the atmosphere than we are able to sequester, consume and store,” said DNR chief Daniel Eichinger.
Sequestering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, refers to storing it in some manner. Michigan’s state forests, some of the largest in the nation, have plenty of room to store carbon.
Because older trees have already stored most of the carbon they’ll ever handle, Ed Golder, a public information officer for the DNR, said it amounts to planting more trees because “young trees have more carbon storage potential.”
Sequestering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, refers to storing it in some manner. Michigan’s state forests, some of the largest in the nation, have plenty of room to store carbon.
That amounts to planting more trees because younger trees have more carbon storage potential, said Ed Golder, a public information officer for the DNR. Older trees have already stored most of the carbon they ever will.
Some forestry experts, though, are worried the new emphasis on carbon storage might come with a cost: Restrictions on harvesting the forest.
Scott Robbins, the public affairs director for the Michigan Forest Products Council, said he hopes the new value doesn’t interfere with timber production.
“We don’t see any reason to be alarmed,” Robbins said. “Although it can get sticky if they start putting restrictions on there that you can’t manage the timber.”
Sen. Ed McBroom, a Republican from Vulcan chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. His Upper Peninsula district includes Copper Country and Escanaba River state forests.
Restrictions could be problem
He agrees restrictions on cutting trees down could become a problem.
“I love to plant trees. I think it’s great,” McBroom said. “I also don’t want us to get into any sort of position where we don’t recognize that trees need to be harvested eventually.”
According to Eichinger, another way carbon sequestration is maximized is by using timber from older trees to construct buildings. That way, he said, the carbon stored in them can stay for as long as the building stands.
McBroom lauded Michigan Technological University in Houghton for the work it’s doing in this area.
“We should be doing a lot more when it comes to building with wood,” he said. “(MTU) is doing some tremendous work on large scale wood buildings. If there’s a benefit in continuing to sequester the carbon, that’s an added bonus.”
Storing carbon in forests could grant the state access to the carbon credit market, Golder said. These markets allow companies that emit greenhouse gases to buy credits from places that store carbon in an effort to be more environmentally friendly.
In this case the state would sell the carbon storing capacity of trees on state forests to companies that need to reduce their emissions.
Cap and trade
California runs a regulated cap and trade program now, but it is largely filled up and difficult to access, Golder said. The California program is regulated with specific caps for polluters, he said. A cap and trade program is more robust than a voluntary market.
Michigan’s DNR is hoping for renewed national momentum.
“What we were thinking of doing is getting ourselves well-positioned, anticipating there probably will be some sort of a national carbon tax or cap and trade system put in place within the next two years,” Golder said.
The Nature Conservancy in Michigan is finalizing an assessment from Bluesource to gain revenue from the carbon storage potential in more than 6,000 acres of its Wilderness Lakes Reserve in the Upper Peninsula, said Richard Bowman, the association’s director of working lands.
The Nature Conservancy plans to enter California’s regulated market, Bowman said. Voluntary carbon credit markets work, just not as quickly as their regulated counterparts, he said.
“The fact is, there’s more and more pressure on companies not only to be environmentally responsible, but to prove they’re being environmentally responsible,” Bowman said.
Take some timeBut for the scale of Michigan’s state forests, a regulated carbon market may be necessary to generate the environmental benefit state officials desire.
“Absent some sort of mechanism to force that transaction, it would probably take a long time to utilize the carbon that’s being sequestered in the state forest system to offset that many emissions,” Bowman said.
Michigan could model California’s policy, but would face political opposition, Bowman said.
“I’m opposed to any sort of mandate from a government that would force somebody to go to this marketplace,” McBroom said. “As long as it remains a free-will thing, that’s A-OK with me.”
Still, the benefit for the state government to begin managing state forests in this way has an immense environmental benefit, Bowman said.
“What we don’t want to lose in all of this is that managing forests in a sustainable way that they both produce an ongoing supply of timber and wood fiber for human needs, but they are also managed in a way that sequesters carbon, is one of the really positive things that we can do to try to offset emissions,” Bowman said.
“We’re going to need to do everything we can think of to offset emissions,” he said.
Evan Jones of Capital News Service contributed to this report. See the story at http://news.jrn.msu.edu/2019/11/plant-trees-store-carbon-save-the-environment
The Savings Bank of Danbury has been named as the Most Locally Inspired Decorations for their participation in Danbury’s 2019 Downtown Holiday Decorating Contest.
The downtown business booster group CityCenter ran its annual holiday decoration contest.
The Food Bank Council of Michigan just added a formidable ally to pursue its vision of a food secure Michigan. Dawn Opel, JD, PhD, assumes the role of FBCM’s director of research and strategic initiatives starting Dec. 18.
Lt. Annie Scroggs, from Detroit, explains functions of pilothouse consoles to Maj. Gen. Tracy King, director of Expeditionary Warfare (OPNAV N95), aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay (LPD 20) during a ship tour. Green Bay, part of the Commander, Amphibious Squadron 11, is operating in the Indo-Pacific region to enhance interoperability with partners and serve as a ready-response force for any type of contingency. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Anaid Banuelos Rodriguez)
What happens when you bring together a fashion-forward nonprofit group with one of the best-known retailers of fast fashion? Something great for Detroit and its kids.
Recently, GLAM4GOOD, which describes itself as an empowerment platform and nonprofit organization, partnered with global retailer H&M in the spirit of the holiday season to help hundreds of kids-in-need keep warm this winter.
Together, H&M and GLAM4GOOD put together its #BUNDLEUP Detroit event at H&M’s new location on Woodward Avenue. The Detroit flagship was closed to the public from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. so the GLAM4GOOD recipients could shop for free to find new coats, cold-weather clothing, and accessories to keep them warm this winter.
This GLAM4GOOD x H&M empowerment initiative is a winter-themed event for 250 underserved youths, ages 5 to 17, and their families to provide an inspiring shopping and self-esteem building experience. This event allowed recipients to shop for winter clothing essentials and receive winter hats and gloves needed for the upcoming winter season, all at no charge, courtesy of H&M.
Working together
This event is a continuation of the successful philanthropic partnership between GLAM4GOOD and H&M, who most recently selected the nonprofit as its holiday charity gift card campaign recipient. This year, H&M is supporting the GLAM4GOOD Foundation by donating 5% of all gift cards sold from November 7th to December 25th, both in store and online for an amount up to $400,000.
“Our Motor City #BUNDLEUP initiative, like all GLAM4GOOD programs, uses fashion to empower self-esteem, dignity, hope, health and happiness as well as addressing critical need. We are grateful to H&M for their continued support of our mission and their dedication to provide clothing and accessories to our recipients free of charge! This is fashion sustainability at its best! Christmas is coming early in Detroit,” Mary Alice Stephenson, Founder and CEO GLAM4GOOD, said in a statement.
Alongside GLAM4GOOD celebrity stylists and H&M influencers and employees, the recipients can shop and be styled in H&M’s latest coats, sweaters and winter essentials. The event helps GLAM4GOOD’s youth community head into the winter months empowered with confidence that they have new, fashion forward clothing, accessories and winter wear.
“We at H&M are thrilled to continue our partnership with GLAM4GOOD by hosting #BUNDLEUP Detroit at our brand-new store on Woodward Avenue and help 250 children start off this season prepared for the Detroit winter,” said Emily Scarlett, Head of Communications, H&M.
Sonitrol Great Lakes, a leading provider of verified electronic security, has announced the hiring of Ted Efros to Director – Health Care Market. Efros will work directly with wide range of health care businesses, developing and providing a large array of electronic security needs.
As the vice president and practice leader for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Marsh & McLennan Agency, Gary Abernathy is well aware of the benefits of having a strong diversity and inclusion program.
As the leader of the diversity and inclusion efforts at MMA, he has helped oversee the growth of the company’s D&I strategy, including the creation of Advantz, a joint collaborative designed to help clients with their diversity goals.
He’s also a member of the first D&I committee at MMA, insurance consultants that assist its clients with their risk, culture, and people objectives.
For his efforts, Abernathy was named the overall winner in the Diversity Business Leader category at Corp! magazine’s annual diversity awards.
He said he was honored just to be mentioned, much less actually win.
“I actually had no idea I would be named one of the winners originally,” Abernathy said. “Becoming the overall winner was a huge surprise and honor. Just to be mentioned in the group with so many D&I leaders was definitely a proud moment personally and for MMA.”
Abernathy was one of three overall winners recognized. The others included Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health, as the overall Diversity Focused Company, and Disability Network Oakland & Macomb, named overall Diversity Champion.
In addition to their internal efforts, MMA has become corporate partners with the National Diversity Council. Staffers who sit on MMA’s national D&I committee are enrolled in training to achieve their diversity professional certification.
“We have become more intentional in our diversity recruiting efforts, while striving to create a more inclusive environment for all colleagues,” Abernathy said. “It is one of the most important, if not our most important, objectives.”
In addition to providing diversity- and inclusion-specific workshops and consulting for internal and external clients, Abernathy also volunteers with several organizations and boards, including those of Gleaners Community Food Bank and the Michigan Diversity Council.
All of MMA’s leadership team is required to attend unconscious bias training. It’s also strongly encouraged for all staffers.
Abernathy knows diversity and inclusiveness is not only the right thing to do, but “the smart thing, as well.”
“Studies show that diverse organizations drastically outperform their competition,” Abernathy said. “Organizations that focus on diversity in the workplace attract top talent and have higher engagement among team members.”
That’s why MMA places such importance on the culture.
“We’re known for having a dynamic culture, but we know we can’t have it unless it’s one where all our colleagues feel included,” Abernathy said. “We’re making great strides.”
Diversity Champion
Kelly Winn knows there’s one sure way to make for a diverse workplace and that involves keeping diversity and inclusion at the forefront of the decision making process.
And promoting an inclusive workplace, Winn said, is “the heart of our mission” at the Troy-based Disability Network Oakland & Macomb, where more than 51% of the staff is comprised of people with a disability, or as she calls it, “different abilities.”
“If you always keep diversity and inclusion at the forefront of your decision making process, a diverse workplace will naturally occur with the best and brightest individuals for the job,” said Winn, the organization’s executive director. “I work to continuously create an inclusive culture that is staffed with diverse abilities.”
DNOM, a Center for Independent Living, is a nonprofit organization Winn said is committed to promoting inclusion for all “by breaking down barriers and opening paths” towards independence and personal choice through resources, advocacy, information, support and education. Independent living provides people with disabilities the opportunity to pursue a course of action and the freedom to exercise choices.
“Independent living is about having choices and about having the right to make those choices, to make one’s own mistakes, and to learn from them in the same way that people without disabilities can,” Winn said. “People with disabilities must be empowered to take control over their own lives.”
DNOM provides Disability Awareness Presentations to various communities. Staff members are available to educate on disability etiquette and how to work and interact with people with disabilities. The result is increased customer satisfaction, service delivery, and employee relations.
Winn said diversity in the workplace “goes far beyond the written policies put in place.” In DNOM’s case, she said, having a diverse workforce also helps to know more aspects about the people being served, in order to be able to provide the resources needed.
“It is a culture that is created, implemented and is at the heart of an organization,” Winn said. “Diversity in the workforce brings different talents together, working toward common goals. It brings perspectives to the table that someone else may not have thought of, thus enabling more creativity for ideas.”
Diversity Focused Company
With nearly 15% of its employees being minorities, Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health knows the value of a strong diversity and inclusion program.
In establishing — and then living up to — a strong D&I culture, Spectrum has taken several steps, including the use of social media and a variety of trainings and events to push the program forward.
Its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion can also be found in its January 2019 appointment of Spectrum’s first chief diversity officer.
Among diversity initiatives, Spectrum has undergone culture diversity and sensitivity training for its employees, targeted recruitment via minority organizations, established a minority mentoring program, created an on-site diversity learning center and formulated a formal affirmative action plan.
In addition, according to Tina Freese Decker, Spectrum’s president/CEO, the company made public commitments through the Talent 2025 CEO Diversity & Inclusion Pledge, the American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity pledge, and joined the Healthcare Anchor Network.
“These commitments align with our five areas of focus, including cultural competence, equity of care, community engagement, supplier diversity and workforce diversity,” Decker said.
Using social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the company encourages its 26,000 employees to engage with diverse audiences. The company also participates in a variety of workshops that help suppliers better understand Spectrum’s system.
For instance, Spectrum Health co-sponsors the West Michigan Project One Chapter, focusing on engaging minority-owned suppliers with corporate businesses to support their growth and development.
A reverse “meet the buyers” event last spring engaged community partners with local minority-owned businesses and introduced them to Spectrum contracting staffers.
Decker told Corp! that the company’s diversity efforts have “improved health care for the diverse population of the communities Spectrum serves, increased innovation, connected it more with communities it serves and improved the economic health of its community.”
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Center of Expertise has trained more than 20,000 employees in various aspects of cultural intelligence, established eight inclusion resource groups to increase employee engagement and coordinated more than 350 staff throughout 13 cities and 76 projects in volunteering on Martin Luther King Day of Service.
“We’ve enhanced visibility of our system’s Resident Diversity Council to work toward eliminating health care disparities,” she said. “Increasing and sustaining racial and ethnic diversity of our workforce at all levels of the organization will help to improve access to health care for communities of color, increase innovation and improve the economic health of our community.”
Dawna and Al Kelly of Abrakadoodle Detroit exemplify the pinnacle of achievement and were awarded an original painting produced by Elisabeth Estivalet of France. An original piece of art seemed the ideal way to recognize this original pair, who have reached new heights of brand performance.
Roncelli, Inc. demonstrated its commitment to environmental stewardship by achieving Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) Conservation Certification for its Pollinator Garden at its headquarters in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Fenner, Melstrom & Dooling, PLC Managing Partner Brian J. Hunter Named Chair to Integra International Global Board. Integra International operates under the guidance of its 16-member Global Board and the two-year term for the role of Chair begins on January 1, 2020.
