Page 10 – The Wege Foundation

Peter M. Wege – Obituary

July 7, 2014October 8, 2014Peter M. Wege

WEGE, PETER Peter Melvin Wege fulfilled his life’s mantra by doing all the good he could for as many people as he could for as long as he could before he died July 7,2014 to join his revered parents Peter Martin and Sophia Louise Wege. Born in Grand Rapids on February 19, 1920, this unassuming philanthropist and environmental visionary lived ninety (plus) full years of loving his family, his friends, his country, and his fellow man. A business man, Wege coined the word economicology to define his advocacy for striking the right balance between a healthy ecology and a profitable economy. He wrote two books titled ECONOMICOLOGY, the first in 1998, the sequel in 2010. In both books Wege wrote his version of the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not commit abuse against the environment, but rather honor it with respect for sustaining life…Wege was also a poet, photographer, painter, and accomplished athlete. He is survived by his children; Mary Goodwillie Nelson, Susan Carter, Peter Martin Wege II, Chistopher Henry Wege, Diana Wege Sherogan, Johanna Osman, Jonathan Michael Wege; 17 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Peter Wege’s father co-founded Metal Office Furniture in 1912 today’s Steelcase, the world’s largest office-furniture manufacturer. As an only child, Peter M. Wege always made sure people knew it was his father’s innovative genius that provided the wealth that he gave away to make life better for countless people in his home town and beyond. When Peter Wege gave his largest single gift to build the new Grand Rapids Art Museum, the GRAM board asked to rename it the Wege Art Museum. Peter’s response was typical. “This art museum belongs to the people of Grand Rapids, not the Wege family, and that’s how the name will stay. Peter M. Wege graduated from Brown Military Academy in San Diego in 1938 and from Lake Forest Academy in 1940. He entered the University of Michigan in 1940 where he set a freshman track record in the javelin throw that held up for half a century. After Pearl Harbor, Wege enlisted in the Army Air Force and served his country as a First Lieutenant multi-engine pilot until 1946. Wege joined Steelcase in 1946, working in a series of executive posts including sales, research, design, and as an officer of the Board of Directors and the Steelcase Foundation Board. He retired as Vice Chairman of the Steelcase Board in 2000. Peter’s visionary influence on Steelcase put the manufacturer on the map as one of the world’s earliest environmental manufacturers. Peter’s prophetic view of preserving Earth’s finite resources led to Steelcase becoming renowned for its environmentalism long before “green” became mainstream. In 1967, he created The Wege Foundation with the first project to clean up the water, air, and land in West Michigan through his new Center for Environmental Study. While best known for his environmentalism, as CEO of The Wege Foundation Peter’s favorite dictum was to “Educate! Educate! Educate!” He gave generously to educational causes, both Catholic and public supporting the youth he cared so much about: Aquinas College, Grand Rapids Public Schools, University of Michigan, Blandford Nature Center and Earth University. His active community service began in 1958 as President of St. Mary’s Hospital Board; state President of the American Cancer Society; Co-chairman: Calder Sculpture: 1969; President Grand Rapids Art Museum; Advisory Board Chairman Franciscan Life Process Center; Chairman National Pollution & Prevention Center, University of Michigan; President: Michigan Botanic Garden Foundation; Trustee: South East Economic Development Association; Chairman Aquinas College Board of Trustees among his many honors, Peter was particularly proud of honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan, Aquinas, and Saint Mary’s Hospital. National Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Achievement Award 2001: Honorary Doctoral Degrees from Aquinas College and St. Mary’s Hospital; Winner of Russell G. Mawby Award for Philanthropy 2006; National Wildlife Federation’s President’s Council; Founder: Economicology Collaboration University Conferences; Driving Force behind Muskegon River Watershed Partnership; Winner of the 2007 Paul G. Goebel Distinguished Alumni in Athletics Award; Grand Rapids First Honorary Fire Chief 2007; Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree: University of Michigan 2007; David Smith Humanitarian Award 2009, American Institute of Architects/ W. Michigan; Senior Neighbors 2009 Twilight Humanitarian Award Community Service: President Board of Trustees St. Mary’s Hospital: 1958 State President American Cancer Society: 1959 Founder (1969)/ Trustee: Center for Environmental Study Co-chairman: VandenBerg Center Calder Sculpture: 1969 President (1975)/ Honorary Board Member: Grand Rapids Art Museum President: Doran Foundation, St. Mary’s Hospital: 1984 Visitation will be on Thursday, July 10 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM at the Cathedral of St. Andrew. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, July 11 at 10:30 AM at the Cathedral of St. Andrew. Private internment to follow at Graceland Mausoleum. In lieu of flowers please make donations to you favorite charity. The family is being served by: Metcalf & Jonkhoff Funeral Service 4291 Cascade Rd SE at Kenmoor, E of I-96 www.metcalfandjonkhoff.com

Funeral Home

Metcalf & Jonkhoff Funeral Home
4291 Cascade Road SE Grand Rapids, MI 49546
(616) 940-7333

Published in Grand Rapids Press from July 7 to July 13, 2014

Click here for the mlive article and for a link to the guest book

Greens to Green: Golfing for Sustainability

June 18, 2014October 8, 2014Education, Environment

What begins as a fun day of golf at Blythefield Country Club ends up producing stellar young men like new Aquinas graduate Brendan Molony. Brendan represents the many outstanding Aquinas scholarship students who get vital financial help from the donors who play in the annual Peter M. Wege ProAm.

Brendan knows about Peter Wege. The reason he came to Aquinas from Kalamazoo’s Hackett Catholic Center “was the sustainable business program.” The text that most influenced him was ECONOMICOLOGY, the book Wege wrote named for his word calling for a balance between ecology and the economy.

“I see ECONOMICOLOGY as a guide to the future,” Brendan says. “It’s his vision on sustainability. His book showed me that businesses can be profitable and good to the environment…we learned that the triple bottom line (People Planet Profits) works.”

Besides academics, Brendan helped Aquinas’s cross-country team win their conference, make it to the NAIA (the NCAA of small schools) all four years, and this year finish fifth in the nationals.

Brendan Molonoy is now putting his business-sustainability education to work at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo where he interned last summer and hopes to work full-time. His job is to implement environmental changes that will save the hospital costs by reducing energy and waste.

Again Brendan is following Peter Wege’s vision for building green by earning his LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Associates degree. Now he is now working on the next level to become a LEED Accredited Professional.

Grand Rapids leads the nation in LEED-certified buildings because of Peter Wege. Ten years ago Wege said all capital grantees had to apply for LEED. That triggered the move that makes G.R. the top LEED city in the country. Brendan Molony says students in Aquinas’s sustainable business program “will lead the way to change.” His LEED credentials make his point.

This engaging student athlete also has a big heart. He helped his tired fellow cross-country team member Dan Foley the last mile in a recent half-marathon to finish one and two.

Among Peter Wege’s favorite sayings are “Educate! Educate! Educate!” and “Children are the hope of our future.” Brendan Molony is what Peter Wege’s legacy is all about.

Brendan Molony, a student athlete newly graduated from Aquinas’s sustainability program, holds his diploma in one hand and his cross-country running shoes in the other.

Running cross-country for Aquinas College, Brendan Molony helped the Saints place fifth in the nation in the NAIA championship.

18th Annual Wege Speaker Series – THE MAGIC OF WIND

May 18, 2014October 8, 2014Environment, Wege Speaker Series

Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, refers to the free potential of wind-energy as “the magic of wind” because it can “power a cleaner, stronger, America.” As this year’s presenter for the 18th annual Wege Foundation Speaker Series, Kiernan happily announced that wind-powered energy has increased ten-fold over the past decade

Today 4.4% of the USA’s electricity supplying the equivalent of 15 million homes comes from Mother Nature’s free, clean wind. By 2030, wind power is expected to account for 20% of this nation’s electricity. The state of Michigan is now the 16th biggest provider of wind energy in the country having tripled its capacity in the past two years.

Kiernan called wind energy a “perfect example of economicology,” Peter Wege’s term for finding a balance between the ecology and the economy. The for-profit electric companies using Shelley’s “wild spirit” now employ 80,000 people in 550 plants – 40 in Michigan – across the country. While Europe was the world’s early leader in wind energy, the USA has moved ahead with 900 wind farms now and 100 more under construction.

A wind farm typically consists of 50 turbines that have increased in height since the 1980s from 20 meters to 100 meters, the three spinning blades 100 meters long. At the same time, the per-kilowatt cost of electricity powered by wind has decreased 90% since 2000.

Kiernan, the former President of the National Parks Conservation Association, advocated for federal tax credits that triggered the growth spurt in wind energy. He urged the audience to vote this year for candidates who will support increasing wind energy by renewing tax credits.

In stressing the importance of clean energy, Kiernan told his audience in Aquinas’s PAC that “the future of the planet, life, and wildlife depends on what we do in the next ten years.”

tomkiernan — Tom Kiernan wearing the Wege Foundation’s ECONOMICOLOGY pin based on Peter Wege’s word calling for a balance between the needs of ecology and the economy.

tomkiernansisteraquinas — Tom Kiernan, Sister Mary Aquinas – Aquinas College’s Emeritus honoree, and Patty Birkholz, Director of Michigan League of Conservation Voters, at the dinner following Kiernan’s talk on wind energy.

tomkiernanradio — Tom Kiernan, Shelley Irwin, GVSU Public Radio host, and Susan Lovell, Wege Foundation consultant pictured at the radio station after their interview about wind energy and economicology.

Beetles to Bees to Bacteria Fighters: Nature’s Teachers

April 14, 2014October 8, 2014Environment

Ever since Leonardo da Vinci drew a flying machine patterned after birds’ wings, humans have looked to nature for good ideas. And why not, as biologist Janine Benyus says, since Mother Nature has been perfecting her designs for 3.8 billion years while we humans have barely arrived on the planet. This year’s speaker for the 13th annual Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability at the University of Michigan, Janine Benyus’s topic,A Sustainable World Already Exists, was all about looking outdoors.

While the word biomimicry is now a global term, Benyus was the one who coined it with her first book in 1997, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Benyus has written five more books on the subject since and co-founded the world’s first consultancy bringing nature’s sustainable designs to over 250 clients, many of them Fortune 500 companies.

The many national honors she’s won, including Time Magazine’s Hero for the Planet in 2008, attest to her passion for sustainability by educating people about where the best designs have already been created and tested. Mimicking the cochlear shape of a calla lily, for instance, led a method for circulating water than cleans it with less chlorine.

Then there are the beetles that teach humans in parched lands how to make water out of fog. Fireflies have shown LED makers how to make their bulbs produce 55% more light. And why can appliance manufacturers now make their products talk to each other calling for only the energy needed? At peek hours there’s enough energy but at down times the appliances reduce their energy draw by mimicking the swarm technology of bees and ants.

Steelcase, Inc., the company founded by Peter Martin Wege, is turning to sharks to make their office furniture healthier. The microscopic ridged texture of sharkskin rejects bacteria. By copying the shark’s skin pattern, Steelcase can manufacture their products’ surfaces with germ-resistant finish.

Janine Benyus’s mission is much bigger than new products. She knows that the more we learn from Mother Nature, the more we’ll want to protect her.

um-wege-speaker-series — Janine Benyus, the biologist who coined the word ‘biomimicry,’ is pictured at the lectern giving the 13th Annual Peter M. Wege Lecture in Sustainability at the University of Michigan March 31, 2014.

uofmspeaker-series-group — From the left, Jack Hu, U of M Interim V.P. for Research; Ellen Satterlee, CEO of The Wege Foundation; Janine Benyus, speaker for the 13th Annual Wege Lecture at the U of M; Dr. Marie Lynn Miranda, Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment; and Dr. Gregory Keoleian, Director of the Center for Sustainable Systems holding framed posters of Benyus’s lecture on Biomimicry.

GREAT LAKES PEOPLE: MARK YOUR TV CALENDARS!

April 1, 2014October 8, 2014Education, Environment

APRIL 27 4 p.m. or April 28 11:30 p.m. on PBS

Those are the debut times for a new documentary about the good work going to restore and protect the Great Lakes. Titled “Growing Up Green,” the 28-minute PBS show takes viewers on a journey into schools through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI).

Professional film maker Bob Gliner describes his documentary as a profile of ” a unique statewide, hands-on environmental education program … For the very first time, both rural and urban schools across the state are working to increase academic performance by involving students in local efforts to improve the environments they inhabit.”

One example in “Growing Up Green” shows Lansing’s Gier Park Elementary School’s students releasing salmon into the Grand River watershed. Another segment films students from Dollar Bay High School near Houghton using ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) to explore the deep waters of Lake Superior.

In addition to viewing “Growing Up Green” in its entirety on PBS, the public can purchase DVD copies of the film via videoproject.com.

To learn more please click here.

International filmmaker Bob Gilner working in northeast Michigan for his latest documentary Growing up Green, coming to your local PBS station in April.

Steelcase Honors Wege For All the Right Reasons

April 1, 2014October 8, 2014Environment

The March 18, 2008, New York Times titled a major news article in the business section, “Corporate Sponsorship for a Wind Farm.” The corporation covered in this national and international news story is Steelcase Inc., the company Peter Martin Wege founded in 1912 as Metal Office Furniture. But the story gets even better.

Because Steelcase has committed to buying all the renewable energy credits that will be produced by this huge wind farm under construction in Texas, the Grand Rapids corporation gets naming rights to the farm. Such an opportunity for the office-furniture maker to promote itself by calling it the Steelcase Wind Farm would seem irresistible. Certainly after that such a big investment, most corporations would not consider doing otherwise. “Green” sells these days so the marketing possibilities are stunning.

But Steelcase did not blink. With everything to lose in advertising and nothing to gain financially by honoring one low-profile individual, Steelcase chose to pay tribute to the man whose environmental vision has influenced corporate policy for half a century. The eight wind-tower turbines going up on a new wind farm in Panhandle, Texas, will be known as the Wege Wind Farm, named for the retired Steelcase executive and head of The Wege Foundation, Peter Martin’s son Peter M. Wege.

Working in collaboration with John Deere & Co. building the windmills, Steelcase will be able to use the clean energy produced by the Wege Wind Farm to offset 20% of its carbon footprint (amount of carbondioxide/greenhouse gas they emit) in Steecase facilities across the United States. The expected 35,000-megawatt hours of electricity generated by the Wege Wind Farm each year is enough to operate 2,925 homes and three times more than needed to run Steelcase’s global headquarters in Grand Rapids.

Steelcase is now a national role model for committing to buying RECS before the Wege Wind Farm is built. If other corporations similarly sign up to purchase the clean energy during the planning stage of renewal power facilities, they, like Steelcase, will ensure those green producers of energy get built.

Students Tackle a ‘Wicked Problem’ for $30,000

March 18, 2014October 8, 2014Education, Environment

Consider what these things have in common. A vegetable garden in every living room; potato-made plastic bags; a hands-on cradle-to-cradle learning center in the now vacant Grand Rapids Public Museum. If you said whiz-kids’ solutions for creating a circular economy, a gold star for you. Another star if you know that in order to “save our planet,” as Peter Wege phrased it four decades ago, we must build a circular economy.

What Wege addressed by starting The Wege Foundation was the hard fact that we are depleting Earth’s finite natural resources at an unsustainable rate. In short, we are using up what we can’t replace. Herein lies the wicked problem. Enter the Wege Prize, a competition for West Michigan college students to come up with the best ideas to help jump-start a circular, cradle-to-cradle economy.

(First place team – FusionGRow)

Run by the Kendall College of Art and Design, the rules were simple and reflected two of Peter Wege’s driving principles. The first is economicology. Wege coined the word to mean balancing the needs of the ecology with those of the economy by requiring contestants to represent at least two different academic disciplines. Second, collaboration: students had to come from at least two different colleges.

Six teams competed and March 3 the judges heard presentations by the three finalists and chose the winners. Team FUSIONGROW members shared the top $15,000 prize with their plan to make hydroponic stands for growing vegetables indoors using recyclable aluminum in an attractive, sculptural design.

The Wicked Solutions team members won the second-place $10,000 prize for their idea to make plastic grocery bags out of PLA, a plant starch found in potato wash, charging a small deposit to ensure return and recycling. Wicked Solutions also took home $5,000 for winning the on-line Public Vote.

wegeprizefirstplace — First place team FusionGRow (left to right) Jacob Czarniecki (General Business, GVSU), Aziza Ahmadi (Public Administration and Sustainability, GVSU), Philip Han (Collaborative Design, KCAD), Yulia Conley (Applied Economics and Urban Planning, GVSU), and Eric Choike (Industrial Design, KCAD)

wegeprizesecondplace — Second Place team is Wicked Solutions Inc (left to right) Justin Burton (Industrial Design, KCAD), Evelyn Ritter (Mechanical Engineering, Hope College, Matthew Johnson (Industrial Design, Kendall College of Art and Design, and Kristina Raiz (Sustainable Business, Aquinas College)

wegeprizejudges — Wege Prize Judges (left to right) Michael Werner (Sustainability Strategist, Haworth Inc.), Gretchen Hooker (Biomimicry Specialist, Biomimicry 3.8 Institute), Colin Webster (Education Programme Manager, Ellen MacArthur Foundation), Ellen Satterlee (CEO, Wege Foundation), and Nathan Shedroff (MBA Program Chair, California College of the Arts)

Photos courtesy of Kendall’s Matt Gubancsik

Clock Ticking on Keeping Asian Carp Out of The Great Lakes

February 18, 2014October 8, 2014Environment

The huge, ugly, leaping Asian Carp now threaten the $23 billion fishing-boating economy of the Great Lakes. Five years after Congress ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to find the best and fastest way to stop the invasive fish, the Corps could not come up with a solution. Instead their new 232-page analysis listed eight possibilities and endorsed none of them.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, and Rep. Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, said the Corps should have picked one approach. They favor separating the two watersheds and have sponsored a bill to do that. Stabenow and Camp also wrote the bipartisan 2012 Stop Invasive Species Act that required the Corps to submit a report now instead of the original 2015/16 deadline. With the carp nibbling at the Chicago foot of Lake Michigan, three more years was too long for these two elected officials to wait for a solution.

Now Stabenow and Camp are calling on Great Lakes residents to contact their Senators and Representative urging the Corps to act before it’s too late. They are also pressing the Corps to work with Congress on a concrete project that can be voted on to get started on the work stopping the carp as soon as possible.

Of the eight proposals – including doing nothing – one would reconstruct Chicago’s waterways, take 25 years, and cost over $18 billion. The single proposal supported by environmentalists and five of the Great Lakes states is to permanently separate the Mississippi River from the Chicago waterways by building two dams. The two Great Lakes states opposing this permanent solution are Illinois and Indiana, both lobbied by their local shipping industries.

The movement to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes started with Peter Wege’s Healing Our Waters conference in Grand Rapids ten years ago. That work has evolved into the $20 billion Great Lakes Restoration Initiative federal legislation now funding environmental restoration projects throughout the five Lakes.

Michigan Democratic Senator Debby Stabenow is shown at Cabela's in Grandville in a joint news conference with Great Lakes conservation leaders calling for swift actionto keep the invasive Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes. — Michigan Democratic Senator Debby Stabenow is shown at Cabela’s in Grandville in a joint news conference with Great Lakes conservation leaders calling for swift action to keep the invasive Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes.

**To learn more on the fight against Asian Carp please visit: http://www.stabenow.senate.gov — **To learn more on the fight against Asian Carp please visit:
http://www.stabenow.senate.gov

Collaboration at Its Miraculous Best

January 18, 2014October 8, 2014Health Care

Born four years ago, pretty blue-eyed Harmony Taylor was perfect except for missing her right hand. She used her toddler-sized prosthetic until she outgrew it last fall and the insurance company wouldn’t pay for a bigger hand. Enter the teenagers who belong to West Catholic High’s robotics team, funded by The Wege Foundation. Working with the experts at Mary Free Bed who deal with prosthetic limbs every day, these bright West Catholic teenagers gave Harmony the best Christmas present ever.

cedarspringlittlegirl — Harmony Taylor, 4, tries on her new hand built by the West Catholic robotics team at Cedar Trails Elementary School in Cedar Springs on Thursday, December 19, 2013. Taylor has a condition called Limb Difference and was born without a hand. (Lauren Petracca | MLive.com)

cedarspringgirlsparts — Pieces of equipment that were used to build a new hand by the West Catholic robotics team

**Top photo – Tim Liu, 18, helps Harmony readjust her new hand built by the West Catholic robotics team.