502 Second St NW #200, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Founding Member
Catalyst Partners believes in both living responsibly and helping others find their pathways to a cleaner, more sustainable future. Since 2002, we’ve been developing a consortium of environmentally focused architecture, engineering, and business professionals who share a common vision. Specializing in high-performance and restorative design practices for buildings, interiors and products, we help others establish benchmarks and achieve their performance and certification goals.
Our LEED Platinum office building serves as a prime case study, where we took a century-old mill, an abandoned former tool and die shop, and gave it a new opportunity to shine to its potential. Looking deeper than just cosmetic changes, we pushed the envelope on conserving energy, water and materials while bringing it up to 21st century standards within a budget of $125/square foot. Our performance metrics over the past five years demonstrate compliance with 2030 carbon reduction goals by achieving energy improvements of 65%, including 18% onsite renewables.
The site was brought back to life as a Certified Wildlife Habitat, and a seasonal garden provides fresh vegetables for our team and neighbors. We’re a Bicycle Friendly Business, encouraging our employees to use alternative forms of transportation to reduce commuting impacts supported by incentives such as on-site showering facilities. Our next endeavor is to pursue LEED EBOM and WELL certifications and net-zero energy use to continuously lead by example. On an ongoing basis, we benchmark our performance and identify things we can do better.
Here are a few examples of how we help others to do their best for the environment:
- We led the sustainability efforts that guided Brewery Vivant to become the first LEED Certified brewery in the US.
- We helped Rockford Construction design their headquarters to comply with the 2030 carbon reduction goal by achieving energy improvements of 45% over code requirements.
- We oversaw the first LEED-NC v4 certification in the state of Michigan with Consumers Energy.
- We are actively managing the certification of a Michigan residence seeking Full Living Building Challenge Certification, including compliance with 2030 goals with net positive energy and water performance.
Our president, Keith Winn, was a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council and serves as an example for all of us in supporting sustainability beyond our business. Our team members actively participate in local organizations including B Corp, Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition, Sierra Club, WMEAC, WMSBF, USGBC West Michigan, Local First Grand Rapids, and the Grand Rapids 2030 District.
Catalyst was recently recognized by B Corp as a 2016 Best For The World company. This award recognizes diversity in the workplace, pay equity, community involvement and other characteristics that make organizations “best for workers, best for communities, and best for the environment.”
We aren’t finished yet. Our future goal is a big target: to deliver net positive energy, water and materials on all projects by 2030. We are committed and excited to continue our role in making our business and our global community a better place!
Company Website:
http://www.catalyst-partners.com/
