Equity & Sustainability
Mobilizing Sustainable Business for Social and Environmental Justice
West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum advocates for an approach to sustainable business that centers social and environmental justice, providing a mechanism for businesses and institutions to dismantle and support alternatives to white supremacy. We believe sustainable business has a responsibility to work alongside under-resourced populations and communities of color to address historical disparate impacts affecting members of these communities due to public policy or market-based actions. Our work is highlighting the potential role of the business community as advocates for business practices and civic priorities that advance justice.
We are engaging businesses in an active process to identify and eliminate racism, while working to decrease barriers to participation in sustainability for diverse groups.
Accelerating Our Justice-Centered Program Model
With initial and ongoing support from the Wege Foundation, West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is mobilizing the sustainability field and our broader network of business and institutional stakeholders toward a justice-centered program model using a “boundary organization” approach to partnership development.
Example outcomes from the Equity & Sustainability Program:
- Campaign to reduce heavy-truck traffic from industry in Roosevelt Park neighborhood of Grand Rapids
- Transformando West Michigan Sustainable Business Education Series and Campana Verde with West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Sustainability support for City of Benton Harbor
- Zero waste program for Grand Rapids Hispanic Festival
Making Sustainability Accessible to All
We are working to ensure that sustainability programs, careers, and business opportunities are relevant and accessible to diverse communities, with a particular focus on BIPOC professionals and BIPOC-led businesses. We are collaborating with allies to develop programming and resources that communicate the value of sustainability to representative businesses and professionals, curating these to the interests of the neighborhood or constituency. And we are holding ourselves and our peers accountable to DEI practices and policies, providing support services to the sustainability industries, while identifying and eliminating barriers to access resources and opportunities, including participation in grant and incentive programs.
Our DEI projects and initiatives
- Equity & Sustainability Working Group
- DEI for Sustainability Professionals Education
- EGLE grant application support for disadvantaged businesses
- Technical support for sustainability applications for BIPOC-led businesses and initiatives
- Justice 40 advocacy
- Anti-racism in Sustainability Playbook
- Spanish-language resource guide
- Spanish-language presentations and partner facilitation
We provide DEI services to sustainability industries and professions in West Michigan and Michigan through events, workgroups and cohort training, and technical services, including policy and program design, translation/interpretation, engagement and advocacy.
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Developing Capacity for Systems Change
WMSBF is preparing business leaders for the work of environmental and social justice through civic engagement and collaboration, with a specific focus on the key issues of racial justice, addressing inequities in the food system, and improving the health and prosperity of local workers and immigrants. We are challenging businesses and institutions to adopt practices and policies that actively dismantle white supremacy through an anti-racism framework, including positions on public policy.
Some of Our Priorities
- Civic engagement and access to democracy
- Addressing heavy-truck traffic in frontline communities.
- Justice 40 Accountability
- Supporting Communities Impacted by Emergency Management
- Advocating for Immigrant Communities and Farmworkers
Serve as a Boundary Organization to Impacted Communities
MiSBF practices a “boundary-chain” methodology for partnership development. This begins as a form of deep-listening and participatory engagement that at minimum fosters increased collaboration and network depth, often presenting as contact facilitation, over time developing trust through a mutually beneficial flow of information, expertise, and resources. When opportunities arise, we contribute our capacity to the efforts of community partners through coalition membership, technical support, or educational programs.
Climate Justice
We are engaging business and institutional leaders in public policy advocacy in support of climate justice, including federal and state Justice 40 commitments.
Social Justice Action Plan
We are developing an advocacy and education platform in support of emerging social justice issues of relevance to sustainable business.
Engaging Business Stakeholders in Support of Roosevelt Park
Providing technical support and professional capacity to Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association on a campaign to improve public safety and environmental outcomes by reducing heavy-truck traffic on Grandville Avenue.
Fair Food Project
Our collaboration with Migrant Legal Aid partners with food producers, retailers, and employers to protect farmworkers through an alert system that leverages corporate responsibility to address and correct credible complaints of abuse and exploitation.
City of Benton Harbor Sustainability Support
By leveraging such investments and support networks, City of Benton Harbor could reimagine itself as a regional lab for sustainability innovation, decarbonization and the creation of a circular economy.