This article was originally published by Cutter on April 26, 2022. By Neil Hawkins, President, Erb Family Foundation And Laura Asiala, Chief Sustainability Officer, Wholeworks All systems are perfectly designed to produce their results — even when their results are far from perfect. W. Edwards Deming observed that decades ago. Don’t like the results? Change the...
Category: Blog
Foundation Shares Study About Keeping Sewage Out of Rivers
For over 10 years, the Foundation supported programs and projects to improve Great Lakes water quality and reduce untreated combined sewer overflows, which pollute the region’s rivers and lakes. In total, the Foundation’s support for combined sewer overflow reduction efforts amounted to more than $20 million over the last decade. The Foundation recently commissioned a...
New Ranking of Great Lakes Twitter Influencers Promotes Positive Dialogue
Launch of the #GreatLakes Top 500 Launching September 13th, the #GreatLakes top 500 ranking of influencers on Twitter will be an online community resource and business network to help promote positive dialogue and increase stewardship engagement across the entire Great Lakes Basin and beyond. Sponsored by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation...
Three Ways the Arts Help Make Metro Detroit Vibrant
Fred and Barbara Erb understood and valued the role that the arts played in daily life and the collective impact that artists, organizations, and audiences have on our community. Today, Erb Family Foundation works to further strengthen the sector in the Detroit area in recognition of the role it plays in creating a culturally vibrant...
We Can End Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Detroit Children
Environmental justice is hard work – and complex – but just because we can’t do everything doesn’t mean we can’t do something. And this particular something is really, really important: lowering elevated blood lead levels in babies and children. The amount of lead in kids’ blood has decreased dramatically in the past several decades thanks...
A ‘Value Proposition Framework’ for Sustainable Development
This article was originally published by GreenBiz on July 7, 2021. By Neil Hawkins, President, Erb Family Foundation and Laura Asiala, Chief Sustainability Officer, Wholeworks Value. It’s the name of the game. Create it economically; capture it distinctively. Whatever theoretical economic framework (such as game theory or decision analysis) or business model you want to...
Four Ways Jazz Education Impacts Youth
Kris Johnson has first-hand knowledge of the impact that jazz education can have on youth in metro Detroit. Over the years, he’s learned and played with each of the JazzEd Detroit partner organizations—and has returned to share his artistry and inspire students in those programs as an educator and professional jazz artist. In this video,...
How Michigan Water School Advances Great Lakes Stewardship
Michigan Water School helps city and county staff and elected and appointed officials increase their knowledge about critical Great Lakes issues impacting local watersheds. Since 2017, over 500 leaders have attended the two-day in-person workshops or virtual convenings. MI Water School covers four topics: water quality, water quantity, water economics, and the blue economy, and...
June 2019 Grants
We are pleased to share the news of $3.8 million in new and continuing grants approved at our June board meeting. Six grants totaling nearly $500,000 will continue Detroit’s strong jazz tradition by educating the next generation of jazz musicians. The funding will: Continue intensive jazz education programming at the Carr Center, Detroit Jazz Festival,Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and MSU...
Great Lakes Watersheds Map
We like to say that everyone lives on waterfront property. This is because everything people do on their land – no matter if it’s located on a river or lake or not – ends up in one of the Great Lakes. To illustrate this, we worked with The Nature Conservancy to create a new map of the Great Lakes.