How many times have you heard or thought that question over the past few months? One of our four statewide programs—announced on October 28 with an endorsement from Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm—is titled “Greening Michigan: Leveraging Natural and Human Assets for Prosperity”. Since that announcement, we’ve had plenty of questions and discussions about what “Greening Michigan” really means. I have some ideas, but I want to be clear that my thoughts are not meant to limit our vision. Many of you and many of our stakeholders have thoughts that can at once expand and focus our efforts to achieve our intended outcomes.
First, let’s be clear about those outcomes: our intention is to effect economic development in Michigan in a wide reach of opportunities that some call the “greening economy” and others call the “new economy”. Some call it a “post-industrial economy”, referring to the decline of automotive and related manufacturing industries that have been so critical to Michigan’s economic past.
President Simon frames it as a comparison and contrast with the agricultural and agribusiness sector that has been at the core of MSU Extension’s mission. A two-year old study from the MSU Product Center estimated the annual economic impact of the agri-food sector is more than $71 billion. MSU President LouAnna K. Simon has stated that for Michigan to succeed in the future, that $71 billion sector needs to continue to grow significantly. And our Agriculture/Agribusiness Institute’s mission is to help foster the innovation that will be needed to achieve that growth and expansion.
But growing agriculture and agribusiness is not a sufficient strategy for Michigan’s economic future. In addition, we need to foster the establishment, growth and expansion of the new economic opportunities represented by alternative energy, energy conservation, place-based attraction of businesses and workers, less costly and more effective local government, regional collaboration for development, natural resource-based enterprises that generate wealth in the communities surrounded by those resources, and the whole set of enterprises that comprise what is termed the “knowledge economy”—those enterprises that produce wealth and value by applying information technology and advanced analysis of data to the services and production of goods that reach markets worldwide.
So how does that come off as “greening”? As an ecologist, I still cringe when I use the term “greening” because it sounds trendy and loosely defined. Yet, there seems to be a generally accepted sense of what we mean by “greening”, enough so that we can use the term to represent our efforts to foster new opportunities in Michigan’s economy. And the qualification that follows the colon: Leveraging Natural and Human Assets for Prosperity was included to help clarify the opportunities that we think Michigan can build on—our tremendous natural resources and the people who live, work and recreate here—and the intended outcome: growing prosperity, or improved wealth and quality of life for the people of Michigan. From there, I hope we can tap the creative genius of MSUE faculty and staff members, the full breadth of MSU’s faculty, and the people of Michigan to co-create the enterprises that will grow to rival Michigan’s agriculture and agribusiness sector in economic impact.
Tell me what you think in the comments section.
Dr. Coon ~ I too, cringe at the term “Greening” for the same reasons – more often than not it is synonomous with “green-washing”, and implies superficial efforts at being less wasteful.
I believe that MSU and MSUE can show the citizens of Michigan and the globe how to take the next step toward impactful, systematic change. We can do this by making a commitment to define and provide models of true economic sustainability where the community, the environment and a reasonable profit all have equal importance. This effort would be truly transformative and take us above and beyond “greening”.
Thanks, Kristine. Perhaps another way to look at it is to define it in a new and deeper way by the way we demonstrate it in our programs. Sometimes it’s as simple and pointing to something we or someone is already doing and saying “this is what we mean by greening.”
It reminds me of having an email discussion with someone from Aguas Calientes, Peru about sustainability in agriculture after having spent the day hiking past 600 year old terraces that are still functional for farming purposes. Now THERE’S an example of sustainable agriculture – and it’s on a steep mountainside!