SEDP Announces New Awards in Partnership With Consumers Energy

December 20, 2019

Great Lakes Family of Companies owner Bryan Marks (right) accepts the SEDP Planet Award from SEDP President/CEO Justin Horvath.

The SEDP’s Quarterly Investor event, held December 12 with the Shiawassee Regional Chamber’s Connect at Four, featured the presentation of two new awards sponsored by Consumers Energy.

The People Award seeks to recognize clients, partners, or stakeholders who contribute to SEDP’s overall mission and values and was presented to Mark Hudson.

“Mark has been a champion of our efforts for more than 10 years. He has contributed generously of his time in serving on the Board of Directors, and in working with staff on new ideas to serve the community. In addition, Mark has spread the word of available resources at every opportunity,” said Justin Horvath, SEDP President and CEO.

The second award issued was the Planet Award recognizing a business that has made meaningful investment to renew or revitalize property in Shiawassee County. This award was presented to the Great Lakes Family of Companies, who acquired their 40-acre site in Vernon Township in 2014. At the time the site was littered with broken concrete both buried and above ground. The company has since removed and recycled the material, cleaning up the property with the support of the Shiawassee County Brownfield Authority, Shiawassee Board of Commissioners, Vernon Township, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, AKT Peerless Environmental Services, and State Representative Ben Frederick. The next phase is the development of new industrial buildings on the site, completing the reuse of a blighted property.

“We are very appreciative of the work the Great Lakes Family of Companies has done to reactivate the property in Vernon Township. Not only have the eliminated blight along a state highway but are now working to address our shortage of industrial building space in the community,” said Horvath.

The awards were presented in partnership with sponsor Consumers Energy. The Consumers Energy Foundation has been seeking to support three areas crucial to all of us in the Great Lakes State– our people, our planet and our prosperity. In addition to the People and Planet Awards, Consumers Energy representatives announced a Prosperity Grant of $150,000 to the Chamber Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Shiawassee Regional Chamber of Commerce, who will use the grant to take the first steps in renovating the middle school building next year, when students move to a new school.