“In the past, just about every advertiser has assumed that in order to sell his goods he has to convince consumers that his product is superior to his competitor’s.
“This may not be necessary. It may be sufficient to convince consumers that your product is positively good. If the consumer feels certain that your product is good and feels uncertain about your competitor’s, he will buy yours.
“If you and your competitors all make excellent products, don’t try to imply that your product is better. Just say what’s good about your product – and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it.
“If this theory is right, sales will swing to the marketer who does the best job of creating confidence that his product is positively good.”
"I try to be a forthright economist. That means, I try to be right at least a forth of the time." So said George Christie, the former chief economist for McGraw Hill. Will his successor be as reliable?
McGraw Hill's Construction Outlook for 2010, prepared in October 2009, contains the following observations:
New construction starts have seen a 25% decline in 2009 compared to the previous year, continuing a downward trend of 13% in 2008 and 7% in 2007. Whereas the earlier retrenchment was led by single family housing, in 2009 substantial weakness was reported for multifamily housing and commercial buildings. Even the typically more resilient structure types, educational buildings and healthcare facilities, have lost considerable momentum this year.
Bright Spots:
■ The $787 billion federal stimulus act contains about $130 billion for construction.
■ The financial sector is stabilizing,
Cautions:
■ Employment will stay weak, with implications for commercial building sector as it relates to such market fundamentals as occupancies and rents.
■ Bank lending standards will stay tight.
■ State and local finances won’t be turning around soon, meaning deferral of construction.
Forecasts:
■ The overall level of construction starts in 2010 will climb 11% to $466.2 billion, helped by improvement for housing from extremely low levels and a more sustained boost to public works coming from the stimulus funding.
■ Single family housing will advance 32% in dollars. While the percentage gain is impressive, the level of activity remains weak – about the same as 2008, and more than 65% below the peak activity at mid-decade.
■ Multifamily housing will improve 16% in dollars after the steep reductions in 2008 and 2009. The 14% gain to 160,000 units still leaves activity about even with the bottom of the early 1990s recession.
■ Commercial buildings will retreat an additional 4% in dollars, after the steep 43% drop in 2009.
■ The institutional building market in 2010 will edge up 1% in dollar terms, helped by a growing amount of energy-efficiency upgrades to federal buildings, as well as continued strength for military buildings. The educational building category will see further declines, but healthcare facilities should stabilize after this year’s sharp correction.
■ Manufacturing buildings will drop 14% in dollars, hampered by the substantial amount of slack manufacturing capacity. Some cushioning may come from production facilities related to alternative energy.
■ Public works construction should rise 14%, given more wide-ranging strength across the various project types. Highways and bridges will maintain their upward track, to be joined more fully in 2010 by sewers and water supply projects, as well as mass transit work.
■ Electric utilities will slip 3%. Alternative power projects, such as wind and solar, are assuming a greater share of the electric utility total, and these projects tend to be smaller in scope than the massive gas-fired plants of recent years.
The above has been abridged from McGraw Hill's report. The complete report can be downloaded here or obtained from your McGraw Hill representative.
"Until now, I never really understood what we were selling."
That comment came from a senior manager working in the financial department at a building product manufacturer. Chusid Associates had just finished design and production of a new catalog for the company, a catalog that focused on positioning the firm instead of just listing products.
The manager explained, "I have been with the company for decades. I know every client we have, can tell you to the nickel what each contract was worth and how many pieces we delivered. But until I saw the new brochure you created, I never understood what what business we were really in or why our clients came to us."
Her comments reminds me that every company has both external and internal customers. The external cutomers -- including contractors, dealers, and consumers -- may make the purchases. But the internal customers -- staff, sales reps, suppliers, bankers, and other stakeholders -- also have to "buy the goods", They have to understand the company's mission and the value it brings to customers in order to know how their contribution fits into the whole.
Sure, the financial manager may spend most of her days poring over charts of accounts, but at night she needs to go home feeling good about the company and its image.
Several friends and colleagues have asked me recently whether they should become LEED professionals. With the new hierarchical structure in LEED 2009, it's not easy to determine the appropriate level and specialty. As it happens, I've recommended to most of my colleagues that they seek the LEED Green Associate credential.
LEED Green Associate is the first step toward a specialty LEED Accredited Professional credential, but also represents a body of knowledge that is very helpful for a product rep or consultant to have. A LEED Green Associate understands the LEED application process, documentation requirements, credit interpretations, and standards that support LEED credits. He or she also has a basic understanding of the LEED credit categories and their environmental purposes. Project team structure and synergy, so important to the success of a green project, is also part of the exam. This is a great foundation of knowledge for any member of a LEED project team.
What this credential says about a product rep, consultant, or manufacturer is that the individual is "already on the bus", is already committed to sustainable design and construction. By investing time and energy in learning to be a LEED Green Associate, this person demonstrates the ability to support the project's team members in the critical tasks of LEED certification:
Selecting appropriate products that comply with targeted credits
Integrating products into high-performance systems
Documenting product compliance with credit requirement
Working together on coherent strategies to attain performance credits
The LEED Green Associate credential is similar to CSI's Construction Document Technologist, in that both credentials are prerequisites for specialty credentials. Like the CDT, the Green Associate shows a solid foundation of knowledge that benefits the team. Both credentials contribute to their holder's reputation as a trusted advisor, someone a design professional can turn to for help and good advice. Both credentials show that the holder understands the big picture of the project and its goals. If you're looking to distinguish yourself among your competitors, both credentials are great additions to your profile. The difference? CDT says that you'll be a good teammate for any project, and LEED Green Associate says that you can help get a project across the LEED finish line. (Why not do both?)
How will you know if LEED Green Associate isn't enough for you? I took the LEED AP exam when I had worked on enough LEED projects that colleagues already assumed I had the credential. Like CSI's certification exams, people frequently pursue the higher credential when they need to demonstrate a new level of commitment, either to clients or to employers. With the new specialty exams, you may find that you can distinguish yourself in a particular project type, like schools or retail, with that specialty exam. If you meet the qualifications to sit for the advanced exam, and pursuing LEED projects is an important part of your work or career goals, it may well be worth the effort to take the specialty exam.
If you are already on a LEED project team, you can fast-track to a LEED AP credential in your specialty by sitting for both parts of the exam at once. If you are a black-belt test-taker, by all means, take the plunge. Generally, though, as an exam coach, I've advised candidates to separate their exams by at least a month, to relieve the pressure on exam day and increase chances of success. This means, once again, that LEED Green Associate is your first step.
This is an example of a creative repositioning of a product line to gain a foothold in a growth market. Before, roof drains were primarily of interest to plumbing designers - now, they are the key to LEED points.
Environmental concerns are not the same throughout the country. Reclaiming brownfields is especially important in old urban areas, and water conservation in dry areas.
To recognize regional differences, the 2009 editions of LEED offer a bonus credit to projects that prioritize regional concerns. In each zip code of the country, local USGBC groups have identified six LEED credits that address local concerns. If a project earns four of the six credits, it qualifies for the bonus point.
Your sales reps should know the priority credits in their communities so they can determine if your products can contribute to any of them. Similarly, your marketing department can study the zip codes to identify where to target direct mail messages.
For example:
Urban Florida: SSc5.2, MRc1.1, WEc2, EAc1, MRc5, and EQc8.1, to incentivize decreased reliance on fossil fuels, reuse of existing building stock, decreased reliance on insufficient municipal wastewater plants, and utilization of abundant local sunshine.
Rural Michigan: SSc1, SSc6.1, SSc6.2, SSc8, MRc5.2, and EAc2, to incentivize preservation of prime agricultural land, reduction of light trespass into neighboring natural habitats, and minimizing the amount and improving the quality of stormwater into the Great Lakes.
Richmond Olympic Oval, Richmond, BC, Canada. The principal and lead project architect: Bob Johnston of Cannon Design.
From Wikipedia: "It has been built on a site beside the Fraser River, a few blocks away from Lansdowne Station on the Canada Line. From the air, it is the first Olympic venue many visitors will see flying into the Vancouver, and the roof takes the stylized native shape of a heron's wing, a tribute to the Salish First Nation and the large wading bird that cohabited the riverbank at first European contact 230 years ago. It is a 33,750 m² facility, including a 20,000 m² main floor that includes a 400 m refrigerated track. It can accommodate 8,000 spectators. The Oval was built to qualify the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Scale (LEED) Silver certification; for example, the Oval's refrigeration plant is designed to heat other areas of the building through the utilization of what is otherwise waste heat from cooling the ice surface.
A distinctive feature of the Richmond Oval is its unique "wood wave" roof. This roof, which is one of the longest clear spans in North America, includes one million board feet of B.C. pine-beetle kill wood linked together in undulating sections to create a beautifully rippled effect. These one of a kind wood panels were designed by structural engineers Fast + Epp and constructed at the design build firm StructureCraft Builders Inc. in Delta, B.C. As a result, the Oval was given an award of excellence in architectural innovation by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada specifically for the innovative use of pine beetle-killed wood in its ceiling."
Comment from Michael Chusid: The photos are by Vladimir Paperny. His photographic, journalistic, and scholarly projects allow him to travel the globe, giving him a chance to stay on top of new developments and trends in architectural design. We are glad to have him as part of the Chusid Associates team.
Here are over one hundred of the most important prospects a building product manufacturer can know. Specifications Consultants in Independent Practice (SCIP) is a nationwide organization of professional specification writers who practice as consultants rather than on the payroll of an architectural or engineering firm. They are, by and large, fiercely devoted to their craft and passionate about understanding building products. Because they typically consult to several design firms, each independent specifier can have a broad reach within their community; their opinions and recommendations count. Make sure your local reps know the SCIP members in their territories and provide them with service. A directory of members is on their website at www.scip.com.
Building Product Manufacturers may start getting more questions about the origins of the products they make. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requires that designated federally and state-funded projects must use manufactured products and un-manufactured construction materials that are sourced domestically. The requirement does not seem to require components be made in the US, just assembled here. For applicability to your projects, download a copy of the legislation and look for the state-by-state breakdown of agencies that must comply for ARRA-funded projects. There is a rigorous procedure for qualifying non-domestic products which includes proof of 25% cost benefit, with a potential consequence of ARRA funding not covering the portion of the project that does not comply.
This does not mean you have to start smothering your website and literature with the Red White and Blue. But this will shift the competitiveness of some products.
One unintended consequence of this Act may be to encourage foriegn companies to buy ailing US firms so they can do "final assembly" in US.
Watch this website for further information.
Here's an example of a building product manufacturer waving the flag about this act:
If you are reading this blog, you should be a part of this group-- The CSI Product Representation Practice Group meets monthly to discuss various Building Product topics.
There were over 40 participants during the previous meeting in which we discussed topics such as how to organize websites for Building Products. Interaction between the 40 participants was very dynamic, making this an informative and worthwhile discussion group.
Placing an ad on the back cover of the Construction Specifier magazine costs $6,645. We have gotten several of our clients' projects on the front cover largely because when the editor called us we had the photo available. That's at least a $7,000 value, probably more because it gets online space as well; good return on the few hundred dollars our client spent to get the high-quality photo.
Magazines generally need a cover photo in a "vertical" or "portrait" orientation, or at least one that can be cropped to fit a cover. Pay attention to how the publication designs its cover; you don't want the magazines name, for example, to block the view of critical details.
Each magazine has its own look. For example, Construction Specifier runs images of completed buildings. If your product is a structural material buried beneath the surface of a wall, readers may not actually see your product. Still, there is value to providing a cover photo. For example, the use of your photo on the cover almost assures that your article will be named on the cover page, attracting greater interest to your article. It also enhances the proprietary value of the article or reprints by showcasing a project on which you worked. Read more...
Direct mail is not obsolete. As evidence, I note that even Google is using direct mail to sell their online ad words. Targettable, actionable, measurable, and affordable - direct mail should still be considered in the design of your marketing mix.
Anything that goes on the web is permanent, which means when mistakes happen – and they will happen – there is no way to undo them. So how can you fix them? Admit the mistake and issue a correction. Admitting your mistakes builds trust with your clients and gives you a chance to apologize, if necessary. It also gives you a chance to respond before your competitors do, playing a type of proactive defense. As an added benefit, search engines tend to prefer newer results for a given search, making it likely that people will see the correction before finding – and acting on – the erroneous information.
I have increased respect for STRUCTURE magazine because they did just that last week. An email announcing a new online video about BIM was sent to their mailing list before the video was available on the webpage. This is a good example of the need to double check that information is ready for release before posting, but more importantly within three hours the staff had noticed the mistake and sent out a correction via email. This simultaneously prevented the inevitable flood of “broken link” emails from readers and provided an additional point of contact, reinforcing the positive message that STRUCTURE is responsible and responsive to their readers.
It takes a lot of courage to admit when we are wrong; most of us don’t like to admit our mistakes, preferring to cultivate an image of competent perfection. But the truth is mistakes happen, and how we deal with them says a lot about who we, and our companies, are.
The other day I saw a startling piece of advertising.It was on a truck operated by a dog-poop scooping service (yes, there are such things, at least here in Southern California.)The truck had nice graphics explaining what they did and their contact info, but it was the copyline right in the middle of it that impacted me deeply… and I am a hardened copywriter with many years’ experience:
“Your dog’s ‘biscuits’ are our bread and butter.”
That line is a classic example of the slippery slope we embark on when following the temptation to be clever.
Everybody wants to be clever.Everybody’s heard a really good ad copyline, sometime, that really made you laugh.When you’re designing ads for your own company, it’s really tempting to be clever.
I have to admit that I will remember the dog biscuit line forever.It creates a vivid image in my mind.And advertising is about being memorable, getting attention, right?
Partially right.Advertising is about making the product or the brand memorable.And the biscuit line certainly did that.
So what’s wrong with it?Why do I call it a slippery slope?
Because, honestly, I don’t want to meet the person who thought to link dog poop to the phrase “bread and butter.”I don’t want to shake his hand.I don’t want to smell his breath.I can’t imagine doing business with him.
Clever and on-target can be very powerful.Clever but off target is confusing: it gets attention to your ad, but simultaneously steals attention away from your real message.Clever by itself isn’t automatically good.
The problem is, when you think of something really clever, pride of authorship can cloud your judgment.The urge to spread your bon mot around may make it difficult to know whether or not it’s appropriate.
How, then, to keep from going off the rails?The best way is to make sure that any ad you run meets three simple tests:
1) Before you write or design any ad, decide what the message should be, your advertising strategy.Define the task.Then let the cleverness begin, but make sure that any ad you consider stays on message.If it gets attention but nothing else, move on to the next concept.
2) Is the overall tone compatible with your company and product image?
3) The most successful ad-guy I ever knew said, “Never make ugly.”It was the rule that trumped all others.
To be on the safe side, if you write anything, get a few opinions on it as though it were written by someone else.
These basic rules can help keep your marketing from going wild.I take this stuff seriously.Every ad you publish releases ideas into the public consciousness.It should be approached responsibility, just as much as we’re trying to be responsible about what we release out of our smokestacks and into the atmosphere.
If we’re not careful about our ads… well, I don’t think I can ever look seriously at a basket of biscuits again.
"It is time that we quite seeing seeing ourselves as merely designing beams and columns, and start recognizing and proclaiming that we save lives for a living."
That's the advice given by a structural engineer in a recent article in Structure Magazine. It is good advice that many building product manufacturers can profit from.
For example, it isn't just a door -- it is a way to protect people from fire and smoke. Not just a screw -- but protection from injury due to falling building components.
I became an architect because I saw the nobility of protecting the public health, safety, and welfare through design. I became a consultant to building product manufacturers when I realized that building materials were the tools architects use to protect the public.
Barcodes may have new opportunities in building product marketing thanks to cell phone applications and improved bar code technology. There are now cell phone applications that can read bar codes to launch other programs. Consider, for examples:
Your product label has a bar code. In the field, an installer shoots a picture of the barcode, reads the picture, and then connects the installer to an online demonstration about how to install the product. When the installer downloaded the app, he or she registered created a profile so the cell phone app can connect the installer to the right data for the climate, location, and preferred language. You are able to collect valuable data on who is using your product.
An architect is scanning your print catalog or reading a magazine add. A quick snap of the bar code promptly directs the designer to additional information.
Reading the barcode is potentially faster and less prone to error than typing in a long url address for a website.
Golf Digest is already using a similar barcode system. According to the Christian Science Monitor, "Those who pick up the November issue of Golf Digest magazine will see similar two-dimensional barcodes accompanying certain articles. These, when scanned with a smartphone equipped with the Microsoft Tag app, take readers to video tutorials related to the article they accompany. Some might say it’s surprising to see such innovation from a golf magazine, but the move makes sense – golf is one sport dominated by ever-changing technology. Why wouldn’t a publication committed to following it be the same?"
Read more...
CSI is offering an iPhone app to convert MasterFormat 95 section numbers to Masterformat 2004. This is not only handy but timely, since CSI has announced it will discontinue support for MasterFormat 95 on December 31, 2009.
They are also offering a MasterFormat 2004 Search app. See their website www.csinet.org for more details, or go directly to theiTunes app store.
If you have not already converted your product literature to MasterFormat 2004, call Chusid Associates for help converting.
What are people saying about your brand? Your products? Here is an example of why its so important to monitor your online brand:
We have search engine set up to alert us when our clients are mentioned online. We monitor for trends, positive and negative mentions, and especially for inaccurate information. In the construction industry, inaccurate information can be a safety and liability issue, not just a marketing one.
A few days ago we got a hit on one of our clients, an engineered stone manufacturer. Here’s what we found (company names have been removed, but you know how to search for the quote if you want to):
“As a kitchen and bath designer do I continue to recommend or specify man made stone counter tops to my clients? Has a manufacturer like XXXXX or XXXXX been linked to the inclusion of coal ash in their product. I wrote to XXXXX but I doubt I'll get an honest reply. I can see the manufacturers of man made stone products ducking and covering as I type.”
This type of post creates several kinds of hazards. First, by naming specific companies it impacts search engine results, especially if the story it’s linked to becomes popular. Second, it attacks the companies named on two fronts, implying the presence of harmful materials as well as poor customer service. Either of these attacks could be damaging individually; combining them increases the impact.
The third major issue is the forum’s anonymity. We don’t know who is behind the user name; I suspect the poster is a shill for a competing company or industry. Reading through the comments, only one other poster mentioned counter tops – as part of a larger list of products – and no one else mentioned “man made stone products” at all. The fact that this post specifies material, product, and company – and does so vehemently – makes it suspect.
An anonymous, inaccurate “whisper campaign” such as this can be incredibly detrimental to a company, especially since people tend to base purchasing decisions on word-of-mouth and online reviews. If a story becomes popular, millions of people could be exposed to the comment, tainting their opinions, and you would never know it was happening. We only found this one because we had set the alert. We cannot prevent postings like this, but it does give us and our clients the chance to respond immediately.
Chusid Associates' staff and associates have recently published two books:
Vladimir Paperny published his book, Mos-Angeles 2 (Russian for "Moscow–Los Angeles, Vol. 2"). It contains essays on Russian culture and art from an American perspective and how American culture and art appears from a Russian perspective. It is his third published book on art, architecture, and social criticism (see http://paperny.com/writing_eng.php)
Michael Chusid's book, Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn, is published online at www.HearingShofar.com. Hearing shofar, the ram’s horn, is the primary ritual of the Jewish High Holy Days including Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. While shofar has been used for at least three thousand years, the author believes this is the first full-length book on the subject.
In addition to an in-depth discussion of shofar’s religious significance, the book explores the ram’s horn in the context of its history, anthropology, mythology, mysticism, psychology and cultural dimensions. The book, available online as a free download, is presented in three volumes and includes an “owner’s manual” for the shofar blower.
The International Code Council's newest effort is its International Green Construction Code. This new code will address communities' need to adopt model sustainable design regulations, in order to meet their sustainability goals and mandates. The intent of the code is that it "should provide a new regulatory framework built with leading recognized rating systems in mind, and that it should provide criteria to drive green building into everyday practice." In other words, it is to provide an enforceable set of requirements for sustainable commercial construction, available for cities and states to adopt into law.
The Code should be developed to apply to commercial buildings in a manner that is consistent and coordinated with the ICC Family of Codes and Standards.
The Code should be applicable to the construction of buildings, structures, and systems, including alterations and additions.
The Code should set a baseline of green requirements that build upon the ICC Family of Codes; further options beyond the baseline should also be included.
The Code should address: energy use efficiency; water use
efficiency; materials and resource use; indoor environment quality; the
building’s impact on environment; site design; sustainable building
owner/facility management education; and, existing buildings.
The ICC Board of Directors has convened a Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC), with the goal of creating a draft IGCC to be submitted for public comment in Spring 2010. Meetings began in July of this year and will continue until January or February 2010. The third meeting begins this Thursday, October 8, in Philadelphia. After a full cycle of code development, final action hearings will be held in Fall of 2011.
Now is the time to get involved with the development of this new code. Happily for building product manufacturers, the code development process is quite accessible. To participate in the current phase (excerpted from the Development Updates page):
Attendance at all meetings of the SBTC and its Working Groups is welcomed. Please consult our website for more information.
Interested parties participating in the Working Groups are afforded the opportunity to submit comments for Working Group consideration. In all cases, Working Group recommendations will be submitted to the full SBTC for final disposition.
To follow the code's development, keep an eye on the First Draft Development page, where you'll find the latest drafts with commentary from each working group, rosters and scopes for each working group, and meeting agendas.
What should you watch for? Think beyond LEED; while this code is informed by current green building guidelines and rating systems, it is not bound by them. Look for:
Your product's classification in the Material Selection section;
Service life requirements for projects and components of projects;
Life cycle analysis requirements;
Mandatory and elective compliance;
Envelope energy performance,
Moisture management;
Material emissions, not just for indoor air quality but for greenhouse gas emissions.
Chusid Associates is already helping clients to shape this document. We are available for you, as well.
New guidelines from the FTC may have a significant impact on building product marketing communications. Additional analysis will be posted in this blog in the weeks to come:
"The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.
"The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.
"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.
"The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
"Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides. While the 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers as well as advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement, the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.
"The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act."
Chusid Associates is North America's leading building product marketing and architectural technology consultant. If you have questions or would like to schedule your free introductory consultation, please contact us for more information.
Urban Florida: SSc5.2, MRc1.1, WEc2, EAc1, MRc5, and EQc8.1, to incentivize decreased reliance on fossil fuels, reuse of existing building stock, decreased reliance on insufficient municipal wastewater plants, and utilization of abundant local sunshine.
Rural Michigan: SSc1, SSc6.1, SSc6.2, SSc8, MRc5.2, and EAc2, to incentivize preservation of prime agricultural land, reduction of light trespass into neighboring natural habitats, and minimizing the amount and improving the quality of stormwater into the Great Lakes.
Posts
