Tag Archives: demand

An ancient building material could be the wave of the future

3-bottom, architecture, Citizen Journalism, Environment, Great Lakes, Local Business, Our Cities, Recycling, ,

By Cameryn Cass
Capital News Service

Michigan’s first mass timber building at Michigan State University, the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility, stores nearly 2,000 metric tons of carbon in its timbers, the equivalent of not burning more than 2 million pounds of coal. (Capital News Service/Cameryn Cass)

LANSING – Michigan businesses interested in reducing their carbon footprint are looking to build with large wooden panels instead of steel or concrete.

  

Nationwide, demand for what is called mass timber tripled between 2018 and 2021.

There are different kinds of mass timber, but the term refers to multiple wood panels either nailed or glued together and that are strong enough to replace concrete and steel, which contribute 8% to greenhouse gas emissions, according to Canadian architect Michael Green.

Mass timber is more sustainable, Green said.

 

Nearly half of America’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the building industry.

Why mass timber is a good option

Since a little more than a cubic yard of wood can store 1 ton – about the weight of the Liberty Bell– of carbon dioxide, mass timber is a great way to reduce our footprint, said Sandra Lupien, the director of MassTimber@MSU, a research and education group promoting mass timber in the Great Lakes region.

 

Half of the weight of a tree is from stored carbon in its wood, and the rest is water, oxygen, hydrogen and a mix of other elements. In other words, wood is a carbon sink.

Building with it can prevent or delay carbon from being released into the atmosphere when a tree dies or burns, Lupien said.

 

Last year, Michigan State University opened one of the first mass timber buildings in the state, the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility. Already there are two more mass timber projects underway in the state, one at a K-12 school in Kalamazoo and another at the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville.

 

Another 27 projects in Michigan on the drawing board plan to incorporate mass timber. One of those was in Muskegon where Grand Rapids-based Leestma Management was scheduled to constructe a mass timber building at Adelaide Point this summer.

The biggest hurdle: Getting it

At minimum, the building in Cedarville will have a roof made of mass timber, though those involved with its construction are hoping to build the whole building out of it, said Nikki Storey, the president of the Great Lakes Boat Building School.

The only thing stopping them is funding.

 

“That’s part of the problem with mass timber: I don’t know that the economy of scales exists yet to be able to get good pricing on it,” Storey said.

Since mass timber comes in sheets that are easy to put together – Lupien equates it to building with Lincoln Logs – there’s a major time savings with using it. But since there are no mass timber manufacturers in Michigan – the closest is outside of Chicago – it’s not always easy to get it.

 

Typically, mass timber products are made from softwood trees – think coniferous, like evergreens – which make up 30% of Michigan’s forests. The remaining majority of the state’s trees are hardwood, meaning they’re deciduous and lose their leaves, Lupien said.

Using Michigan’s resources

Researchers at Michigan Tech University are experimenting with making mass timber out of hardwood instead, a niche that might provide economic opportunity.

Mass timber advocates hope that Michigan State’s STEM Teaching and Learning Facility will be a place where contractors can learn to build with the more sustainable alternative. (Capital News Service/Cameryn Cass)

It is an untapped opportunity.

“Michigan is a forestry state,” said Conan Smith, the president of the Michigan Environmental Council. “If we can advance the construction materials that are rooted in wood, it’s to our economic benefit.

“It’s not just a great environmental opportunity, it’s a great economic opportunity for the state of Michigan.”

Each year, the state removes 30% to 40% of the forest’s growth, said Brenda Haskill, a forest marketing and outreach specialist at theDepartment of Natural Resources. That still provides enough capacity to harvest for mass timber and manage forests sustainably.

“We’re at a really interesting place in terms of moving the forest industry forward,” Haskill said.

Meeting the demands

Talks of attracting a mass timber manufacturer to the state are underway. However, an aging workforce and the rising cost of diesel fuel mean a decline in logging firms, Haskill said.

Making sure we have loggers to harvest trees and get them to the mill is really the biggest concern, Haskill said.

“I’m hopeful, but there’s a lot of pieces that need to be addressed,” Haskill said.

Michigan is in the same boat as the other Midwestern states. There’s more mass timber manufacturing and interest out west, Haskill said.

Looking at the building codes

Another challenge is the states outdated building codes, said Brian Craig, the board chair at the Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute.

 

Michigan State University revamped a power plant and added two mass timber wings to create a hybrid structure in the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility. (Capital News Service/Cameryn Cass)

The most recent version of the International Building Code is from 2021 and offers more flexibility and clarity for how high you can build and how much wood can be exposed with mass timber, Craig said.

Right now, Michigan follows 2015 codes, making it two cycles behind the current thinking on mass timber and fire safety, Craig said.

 

But mass timber doesn’t behave like a 2 x 4.

Instead, it behaves like a tree.

 

Think of an unsplit log in a fire pit, and how it chars on the outside: That’s what mass timber would do in a fire, Lupien said.

Craig said that timber can be even safer than steel when it burns.

 

“Think about what happens when steel gets hot. It sort of turns into spaghetti, whereas mass timber’s surface chars and then protects the rest of the timber,” Craig said.

 

Lupien said that even with the outdated building codes, builders in Michigan are still able to use mass timber, and they should.

Bringing the beauty indoors

People using the buildings – at least the one on MSU’s campus– express the aesthetic benefits of bringing nature indoors, Lupien said.

“There’s actually a word for that. It’s called biophilia,” Lupien said.

That’s a Greek word that translates to “love of life. ” It taps into our inborn desires of being close to nature. Biophilic design – like incorporating wood into buildings – has even been found to promote human wellness and productivity, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Putting the more sustainable, attractive alternative into Michigan buildings is a question of price and supply.

 

“It’s been used in Europe for better than a decade now,” Smith said. “It’s a product that’s far better for the planet than concrete.

 

“Why we’re not using it more, I don’t know.”

A Wyoming wedding vendor, like others in the industry, struggle to keep up with demand

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Food, Hard News, Local Business, Local Food, Recreation, Restaurants, , , , ,

By Lindsay M. McCoy
Capital News Service

LANSING – “We’ve been in business for 37 years, and this is definitely the craziest season we have ever seen,” said Kevin Humphrey.

While there have been more requests to book Adeline Leigh’s services than in an average year, the company had to reduce the number of weddings booked this year to deal with worker shortages. (Supplied)

Humphrey is the office manager for Adeline Leigh Catering, a Wyoming business located at 1132 Chicago Dr. SW, that prepares food for hundreds of weddings each year.

Across the state, vendors like florists and caterers are preparing for a frantic 2022 season as the number of weddings is up 15% nationally from normal, according to Wedding Report data.

While there have been more requests to book Adeline Leigh’s services than in an average year, the company had to reduce the number of weddings booked this year to deal with worker shortages.

“We actually cut back to mediate labor issues,” said Humphrey.

Humphrey said the business is also ensuring employees’ time-off requests are honored to keep workers on board.

Adeline Leigh has booked approximately 300 weddings for the upcoming months, about 100 fewer than in 2019.

“There was a point where we were turning down 15 events a day, and not everyone was so understanding,” Humphrey said.

Kalin Sheick, the owner of Sweetwater Floral in Petoskey, said she expects a busier-than-normal season in the months ahead.

Sweetwater will provide floral arrangements for about 100 weddings this year across the state, which is an “immense jump” compared with previous years, said Sheick.

“We will usually average around 65 or 70 a year,” she said. “We only stopped at 100 because of staffing. We could have booked way more than that.”

Sheick said the store has hired additional staff to help tackle the increase, and it is training its employees to focus on taking care of themselves to prepare for the looming, long busy season.

“We know that we need extra help and need to support them as best as possible,” Sheick said.

Other problems vendors are preparing for are supply chain delays and a shortage of products.

“We’re feeling the impact of delay, just like every other industry,” she said. “Stuff that used to be easy to get – vases, hard goods and supplies – there’s a delay and you need to be patient.”

 

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many large flower farms shut down, causing a smaller supply of flowers, said Sheick.

When it comes to food, Adeline Leigh Catering has had to remove only a couple of items from its menu due to supply issues. (Supplied)

“It really squeezes the amount of product you’re able to get. But at the end of the day, there’s a flower shortage because there’s more weddings happening than ever before,” she said.

When it comes to food, Humphrey said it was lucky that his catering business had to remove only a couple of items from its menu.

The time and effort put into ordering supplies has greatly increased as well. What used to be an hour-long project for Humphrey now can take up to an entire work day, he said.

“We order from many suppliers, and it used to be ‘they’ve got the best price, we’ll go there.’ Now you have to find whoever has it,” Humphrey said.

Another change vendors are seeing is a growing number of events booked outside of the prime wedding season of May through October.

Shannon O’Berski, the director of external relations at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester, says the event venue is handling more weddings on less typically booked days.

“We have seen an increase in interest in off-season events throughout the fall and winter,”O’Berski said. “And more couples are choosing to host Friday and Sunday weddings.”

Meadow Brook Hall is often booked for the entire season.

“We are certainly receiving many inquiries!,” O’Berski said, and reservations are already filling up for 2023.

 

Though the months ahead will be busy and stressful for wedding vendors, Sheick said her team at Sweetwater Floral is excited about the upcoming season.

“It’s just a really fun job and a good thing to be a part of.”

Capital News Service is provided by the Spartan News Room located at Michigan State University. CNS reporters cover state government for member newspapers and digital media outlets across the state of Michigan.

Advocates say more work needed to maintain drop in homelessness

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Health, Non-Profits, Our Cities, Politics, Volunteers, West Michigan, ,
Increasing more affordable housing would reduce the need for shelters, according to Family Promise of Grand Rapids officials.(pxhere.com)

By Emerson Wigand
Capital News Service

As winter approaches, local officials worry that a reported drop in homelessness is misleading or temporary based on short-term pandemic relief.

Michigan’s Campaign to End Homelessness recently reported a 19% decrease in those seeking emergency shelter since 2019.

“Those numbers don’t tell you that homelessness is down,” said Cheryl Schuch, the chief executive officer for Family Promise of Grand Rapids. “What they tell you is that the number of people being served by our shelter system is down.”

 

Family Promise operates the only family shelter in Kent County. There’s been an increase in families facing homelessness here, Schuch said. Collecting data on the issue can be challenging, especially in the case of families.

Despite the reported decrease in homelessness, Family Promise is at capacity, she said.

 

Full shelters aren’t limited to West Michigan.

 

“I don’t see that the homeless population is going down,” said Michelle Munn, the case manager at New Hope Center, in Cadillac. “The numbers look good, but it’s only because there’s extra funds right now for COVID.”

New Hope Center is the only shelter provider in Wexford and Missaukee counties. Its shelters are generally full, with vacancies filled quickly by walk-ins or those on a waiting list, Munn said.

While Munn said she thinks this drop is positive, she worries about what will happen when pandemic relief programs end.

COVID impacts were a large part of the statewide decrease, said Eric Hufnagel, the executive director of the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.

The biggest help was the eviction moratorium, which ended in August, Hufnagel said. Another factor was the Covid Emergency Rental Assistance funds that are still available.

“That was the No. 1 reason we saw our numbers decline,” Hufnagel said. “We believe that’s slowing down what could be a flood of evictions.”

Imagine a front door and back door, Hufnagel said: The front door is how people come into homelessness, the back door is how people are rehoused.

“Our hope is that we can put a dent in the flow through the front door,” he said. “The challenge we are seeing now is that back door.”

Michigan’s affordable housing stock is the weakest it’s been in decades, Hufnagel said. That means higher prices and rental rates for the housing that is available.

 

It’s even harder for people to move to new housing because there are fewer options, and existing options cost more.

 

“The majority of our families can’t afford housing even though they’re working,” Schuch said. “That has really been magnified in West Michigan.”

Family Hope of Grand Rapids has been working with Eastbrook Homes which is developing more affordable homes for the area. Also, Holland Home sold its former Fulton Manor to Hope Network, which plans to turn the former nursing home into a 120 affordable home. The nonprofit housing corporation ICCF is currently working on several affordable housing projects.

The pandemic has decreased shelter space in part due to fewer volunteers to staff facilities, Hufnagel said. Additionally, distancing recommendations have reduced available space in some shelters.

Rising COVID-19 cases adds to these concerns, said Susan Cancro, the executive director of Lansing-based Advent House Ministries. Increasing positive cases could halt new admittances for areas with limited shelters.

“That’s a problem for those on the street who are homeless,” Cancro said. “Especially as the weather becomes more cold and wet, and there’s nowhere to go.”

Schuch said it’s important to increase access to temporary housing to keep people safe for now.

 

“We have families staying in cars and other places,” Schuch said. “We have to make sure there’s adequate shelter available.”

Without more affordable housing, those problems will only get worse, Schuch said.

“Only investing in shelter doesn’t make sense. They won’t need our shelter if there’s enough housing.”