Bold environmental action simply means protecting Michiganders and the places we love.
You’ve probably noticed that over the last decade we’ve experienced extreme weather and impacts from the climate crisis that have redefined our experiences as Michiganders. As those changes continue to negatively affect our communities and environment, we have a shared responsibility to enact bold policies that protect our people and preserve our state.
Our work
We have a vision for Michigan’s future in which every individual can thrive and our environment is sustained for generations to come. These core priorities bring that vision to life.
We must address the existential threat of climate change by enacting bold reforms that reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, complete the transition to clean energy and move our economy rapidly towards carbon neutrality.
We must cut red tape, restore transparency, streamline accountability and incorporate impacted environmental justice communities into decision making.
We must protect Michiganders by enacting policies that hold industry accountable for pollution; protect children from lead exposure; and keep toxins out of food, water, homes and communities.
We must restore protections for Michigan’s natural spaces, safeguard our state’s ecological systems and biodiversity, combat invasive species, and conserve lands for future generations.
We must expand our local recycling systems, grow our recycling economy and prevent waste in order to properly protect our land and water and create jobs across the state.
We must rightsize our road system; increase funding and functionality for multimodal transportation; and help local governments create thriving, walkable communities.
We must prevent dangerous pollution from entering waterways, improve stormwater infrastructure and make drinking water more accessible and affordable for all Michiganders.
Our approach
Our approach is rooted in four critical areas of work.
We have a long and respected track record of building functional coalitions of (sometimes unlikely) partners that get things done and advance smart public policies. We are just one of over 750 environmental and conservation organizations statewide. When united, we have the ability to scale up policy advocacy capacity in a big way. The Environmental Council strives to serve as a connector between these allies, building a movement that works collaboratively to combat our critical issues.
Every Michigander is impacted by our most pressing environmental issues, whether it be climate change, pollution, threats to outdoor recreation, or unsafe, unsustainable housing. We need each and every resident to help us advocate for big change. We work to bring these issues to the people through the power of storytelling. Then, we provide pathways to take action and ensure their voices are heard.
We have driven a statewide environmental agenda for more than 40 years, developing unwavering credibility and trust as experts in policies that protect the air we breathe, our water, and the places we love. Our policy experts are constantly engaging decisionmakers one-on-one, giving testimony and feedback on key bills and working collaboratively with environmental allies to build support for our priorities. Together, we drive high-level environmental wins like comprehensive climate protections, universal lead testing and more.
We look to convene the community around big-vision campaigns, ones that cannot be won through individual organizational advocacy at the Capitol and ones that have systemic impacts on environmental protection and the long-term strength of our movement. As we work to build relationships with decision makers through direct advocacy and to grow in our role as a “council” to convene Michigan’s diverse and powerful environmental network, these campaigns fuse those priorities to create exceptional impact.
Our Campaigns
We need legislation that would provide holistic funding and program support to create more affordable, safe housing.
We need bold legislative action that catalyzes movement towards a 100% emissions-free power sector, including pushing utilities to accelerate the transition to clean energy and removing burdensome restrictions to renewable energy.
We must ensure our leaders take cumulative impacts into account in air quality permitting to better protect communities facing multi-source pollution.
We need to modernize Michigan’s 1976 10-cent deposit law to ramp up Michigan’s recycling rates and reduce pollution of our land and water.
We must restore Critical Dunes Act protections to better preserve this globally rare resource.
We must reinstate the state's ability to change rules that protect our lakes and streams.
We must require companies to undertake full and robust cleanup of chemical spills.
We must establish a statewide code and inspection system to ensure failing systems are identified and fixed.
We must ensure our transportation leaders are determining the total greenhouse gas emissions for future transportation projects.
Power environmental change today.
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