Businesses have had a rocky history with the environment. At best. Corporations were notorious for setting rivers aflame with their pollutants and razing wildlife. Now, they collectively continue to be the world’s largest polluters, waste generators and Superfund site creators.
But this past decade has yielded something remarkable. Businesses are becoming models of sustainability. They are cutting their emissions and waste while investing in their communities and the natural world around them.
The most stalwart of such businesses in Michigan make up the Great Lakes Business Network, which protects the Great Lakes and the millions that live and vacation in its basin by advocating for clean energy and against manure pollution and oil spills.
Chief among its advocates are Larry Bell and Bob Sutherland. Bell is the president of the Comstock-headquartered Bell’s Brewery, which makes clean, efficient use of its water, heat energy and waste. Sutherland is the president of Cherry Republic, a cherry-centric company headquartered in Glen Arbor that has given $2.5 million over its 30 years in support of clean energy, farms, recreation and youth development.
Join Bell, Sutherland and MEC President/CEO Conan Smith as they discuss the role the Great Lakes Business Council and its members play in making Michigan’s natural resources and communities more resilient and how business can catalyze bold, swift, positive change.

The Capitol Connection webinar series is generously sponsored by Steve and Judy Dobson.