The City of Portage was once again recognized for its environmental leadership as one of 25 communities to achieve gold status through the 2022 statewide Michigan Green Communities (MGC) Challenge. As part of the annual MGC Challenge, 48 local governments were awarded bronze, silver, or gold seals of achievement reflecting community leadership in areas such as energy efficiency, climate adaptation and resilience, recycling, and environmental justice.
For the second consecutive year, Portage was awarded the highest achievement, gold status, for exemplary action in multiple categories, including planning, economic development, climate resilience, energy efficiency, renewable energy, materials management (such as recycling and composting), water conservation and protection, clean mobility, and community engagement. This year the MGC program added metrics to the challenge for communities to track their success in reducing water use and greenhouse gas emissions, adopting renewable energy and electric vehicles, and more. Portage was recognized as one of only twelve communities that completed the metrics portion of the challenge.
Accomplishments the city achieved in 2022 include completion of energy audits on municipal facilities, upgrade of HVAC systems in City Hall, and Department of Public Safety buildings, initiatives to digitize processes within the city and reduce the printing of documents, updating its Brownfield Redevelopment Incentives Policy to include sustainable development and promoting utilization of multimodal transportation.
Questions regarding sustainability and environmental efforts by the City of Portage can be directed to Jamie Harmon at harmonj@portagemi.gov.