Catalyst Partners GSI: Practicing, Not Preaching

Catalyst Partners has a motto: “Practicing, not Preaching.” A visitor to the consulting firm’s physical headquarters on Second Street NW in Grand Rapids, in the lower Grand River watershed, would see ample evidence of that philosophy. 

The building (for which Catalyst Partners is committed to achieving net-positive energy use well before 2030) was designed 11 years ago using low-impact development strategies with the goal of reducing impact as much as possible to local vegetation and species. Over the last decade or so, Catalyst Partners has constructed and maintained a rain garden and bioswale that allows water runoff to act as a natural irrigation and infiltration system. The native vegetation is almost entirely local, and, in fact, almost half of it was rescued from Garfield Park Cemetery in Grand Rapids by Plaster Creek Stewards who removed viable and valuable native plants before they would have been destroyed by development.

And while the vegetation may seem overgrown to the casual observer, a closer look reveals that it serves to both mitigate stormwater runoff and create a habitat for native wildlife. In addition, by returning the area surrounding the building to its natural landscape, Catalyst Partners hopes to educate its community on environmentally responsible stormwater practices as it also increases the natural biodiversity of the area. 

“In this industrial area of the city we want to be an oasis of green space and biodiversity,” said Eric Doyle, Director of Business Development with Catalyst Partners.

Already the use of native vegetation has brought everything from monarch butterflies to finches to praying mantises to the location and, Doyle says, the native vegetation, which is accustomed to the local soil and weather, is also a cost-efficient option, as the species are more durable and require less maintenance.

Rain garden and bioswale allows water runoff to act as a natural irrigation and infiltration system to mitigate stormwater runoff and create a habitat for native wildlife.

The landscape includes four sections representative of historic West Michigan ecosystems: tall grass, dry prairie, woodland, and wetland. Together those four sections form a whole that, with the help of sand, gravel and permeable brick pavement, holds the soil together, catches surface runoff, filters contaminants and more. Above ground level, a green roof soaks up rain, and when full, drains into the back of the building where it waters an assortment of wetland native plants, creating a closed-looped system. 

Prior to planting the rain garden and bioswale, Catalyst Partners would deal with significant flooding after a heavy rain, including stormwater runoff that would discharge into the Grand River. That scenario is no more. In fact, Catalyst Partners estimates that it has mitigated a total of 4,662 gallons of such discharge, preventing it from flowing into a river that ultimately has its endpoint in Lake Michigan! Indeed, the goal is to retain 100 percent of on-site stormwater runoff. 

For Catalyst Partners, a team of 15 staff members and 12 consultants, its practicing not preaching approach has paid off in steady growth and a raft of accolades. From its core of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) project administration, Catalyst has grown to be a national and global presence that helps owners optimize building and product execution. It now provides certification assistance for projects under LEED, WELL, Living Building Challenge, Enterprise Green Communities, and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). The company also has reviewed 25 percent of LEED projects globally and is committed to designing buildings that optimize energy, water and materials — saving customers money as well as creating places where all species can flourish.

Before beginning the stormwater project, Catalyst Partners had to go through a process of remediating its land. The Second Street NW location was labeled a brownfield site because of prior contamination, and after conducting a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment, Catalyst Partners removed and properly disposed of 280 yards of contaminated soil. The near $600,000 project included about $5,000 native plant landscapes design, partially covered by supplemental grants from the State of Michigan. 

Caring for the plants is a combination of internal efforts and community partners, and stormwater management has become an important part of the company’s commitment to community education, including a partnership with Plaster Creek Stewards on their “Green Team” which sends groups of high school students to visit the site once or twice a year to help maintain the landscape, tour the building, and learn about the building’s green strategies. The company also does an every-other-year prescribed burn to decrease the number of invasive vegetative species and stimulate the soil so native vegetation can grow more efficiently. 

Plaster Creek Stewards’ “Green Team” High School students maintain the rain garden and bioswale a few times a year.

And while there are costs associated with implementing and maintaining these native landscapes, Catalyst Partners Eric Doyle said simply that the benefit of reduced storm water runoff and the avoidance of traditional landscape maintenance costs, plus the benefit of meeting the company’s environmental standards while creating wildlife habitats and aesthetic value, all add up to a positive for the company and allow it to, in a very visible way, practice not preach.

Catalyst Partners is a multi-dimensional consortium of knowledge leaders committed to high performance restorative protocols for buildings, interiors and products. The company specializes in high performance, restorative design, construction, operations, and the LEED® certification process. They act as the “catalyst” that helps clients establish their measurements and goals.