Update: Better building codes for all homes and building have been adopted in Michigan! You can read about it here.

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At the confluence of ever-rising housing costs and an ever-changing climate comes a single opportunity: make Michigan's homes, old and new, cleaner, greener and cozier. 

In 2024, we spent time on the pod going over what these homes look like and how we create them en masse. Now, Carlee Knott, the Michigan Environmental Council's climate and energy policy specialist, gives a recap and an update on the state of things.

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 Learn about climate, energy and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. 

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Michiganders have used their state's bottle deposit system to keep billions of beverages out of our communities, nature and landfills. Now, as the system nears its 50th birthday, a plan is forming to make the system even better. More recycling. Less hassle.

A proud history. A bright future. But where does the bottle deposit system stand in the present? Trent Wolf, the Michigan Environmental Council's strategic campaigns director, gives us a sense in our latest podcast episode. He talks dropping recycling rates, public polling and the secret way we can improve our bottle return experience and clean up contaminated places.

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 Learn about waste reduction and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe via email and follow on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. 

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Last year, we brough you a miniseries on the ways in which politicking has frozen and muddied longstanding water protections Michiganders expect their Great Lakes State to have.

Reese Dillard, Environmental Council water policy specialist, joins us for an update on where water laws stand in the wake of a changed state and federal government and why she has hope for the future, near and far.

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Learn about water protections and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

It's a special, standalone episode of the Common Groundwater podcast, and it's packed with urgency, policy and opportunities for action.

In 2025, Michigan and the nation will undergo power shifts, and if we take our new leaders at their word, we can expect roadblocks and rollbacks to environmental progress.

This month is a prime moment for legislators to pass a good environmental policy into law before a regime change—a time we call “lame duck.”

But despite great legislation in the works, lawmakers are seemingly willing to forgo bold action out of personal slights and corporate interests.

The Michigan Environmental Council’s own Megan Tinsley, Ross Gavin and Samantha Pickering talk about the three big issues at stake: water, transit and plastic pollution. 

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Our dunes miniseries has focused on, well, dunes thus far, but the conversation we're really having is on the relationship between development and nature. Jake Parcell, executive director of Scenic Michigan, joins us to provide other perspectives of this relationship: aesthetics and sight pollution.

In our fourth episode, we'll talk about scenic byways, dark sky parks, nature nearby and the mundane polluters of sight we may come to accept (but certainly shouldn't).

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You can also check out Scenic Michigan's site for ordinances and viewing events.

Learn about water protections and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

UPDATE: The legislation discussed failed to pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest updates on our efforts, click here.

In Saugatuck, it's symbiotic. Hundreds of acres of preserved, rare, freshwater dunes can be found along the area's coast. That, in turn, has created delightful small towns with big tourist economies. But all this goodness did not come from nothing, and there's still goodness still to protect.

Saugatuck's dunes and economy have come about through years of yeoman's work building relationships, working through the courts and organizing. David Swan, its president, joins us in the third episode of our Gears in the Sand podcast series to talk about Saugatuck's story and how proposed legislation can help other towns find similar success without as much slog.

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Learn more about the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance here.

Learn about dunes and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

UPDATE: The bills discussed in this podcast episode did not pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest update, click here.

Last episode, Tanya Cabala took us through the geologic, social and political histories of Michigan's globally special freshwater dunes. That last bit of history, the political, has recently not been too pretty.

Emily Smith of the Michigan Environmental Council joins us in this episode to expound upon that. She'll go over how recent changes have put both dunes and nearby communities at risk and how new legislation can make both nature and society thrive together.

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To learn more about dunes, head over to the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Buy a pop. Pay a little extra. Drink it. Rinse it. Return it, and then get that little extra back. Michigan’s bottle deposit system sounds simple, and yet it’s internationally known for keeping bottles and cans out of our landfills and landscapes.

Now, as its 50th anniversary nears, it’s time to bring this beloved and successful system from the 70s into the present. The Michigan Environmental Council and groups across the state have a vison: (Almost) any beverage returned at almost any place with more environmental protections to boot.

Join Environmental Council President & CEO Conan Smith in our latest podcast episode as he cracks this effective yet aged system open.

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We want your Bottle Bill thoughts and stories! To share, fill out our form here.

To get exclusive updates about our better Bottle Bill effort, fill out our email form here.

Learn more about waste reduction at the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Michigan is home to the world's largest assemblage of freshwater dunes. They run up and down the west coast of the Lower Peninsula and dotted along the Upper Peninsula. They're beloved by just about anyone who visits (and many do), and they help power both multimillion-dollar local economies and some of the most diverse wildlife in the state.

Tanya Cabala of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, a self-proclaimed "dunista," takes us through the environmental, social and political histories of dunes and where they intersect.

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To learn more about the geographic, social and economic power of dunes, check out the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Michigan’s bottle deposit system: Buy a beverage, pay a bit of upcharge, drink it, return it, get that upcharge back.

It’s as routine an experience for us Michiganders as talking about the weather. Yet, it’s extremely powerful. It's a way for us, as individuals, to come together to make collective change. That’s also how the law came to be: through a ballot campaign that 63% of people voted in favor of back in 1976. Now, people love it even more. Over 9 in 10 bottles have been returned through the system over 48 years.

Bill Rustem was the man behind that ballot drive. He joins us to talk about the behind-the-scenes stories of it all, the bottle deposit's success and what he thinks its future should look like.

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To learn more about Michigan's bottle deposit system, head over to the website of the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

To learn more about Bill Rustem and Gov. Bill Milliken, click here.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.