The $70 million expansion of automotive supplier Lear Corporation’s corporate headquarters and technical center on Telegraph Road in Southfield, Mich., is a brownfield redevelopment that has sparked the revitalization of a busy industrial corridor and greatly enhanced its appearance. And it showcases Michigan as the state that pioneered brownfield incentives early in the 1990s by guaranteeing exemption from legal liability to developers of previously contaminated properties.

An added bonus was a recent award presented by the American Institute of Architects’ Michigan chapter in April 2007, singling out the new facility for excellence in design. Their project description highlights Lear “as a company that develops and exercises environmentally friendly manufacturing practices.”

In 2005, the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) designated the company a Michigan Clean Corporate Citizen for demonstrating strong environmental stewardship throughout its operations. Goals set and achieved include:

• Recycled over 50 percent of total plant wastes in 2004 with a commitment to increase the recycling percentage by 5 percent annually;
• Reduced electricity use in 2004 by 14 percent, natural gas by 12 percent and water by 13 percent;
• Recycled employee batteries, cell phones, printer cartridges, and electronic equipment;
• Reduced overall energy consumption by 5 percent year over year;
• Mentored others by offering a free Environmental Management System Tool Kit to over 450 suppliers, encouraging and assisting them in obtaining ISO 14001 certification.

Clean Corporate Citizens are those businesses having in place a DEQ-approved comprehensive and facility-specific environmental management system. Targets and objectives include continual environmental improvement, pollution prevention efforts focusing on reduce-reuse-recycle, and consistent compliance with applicable environmental regulations.

One of the world’s largest suppliers of complete automotive seat systems, electrical distribution systems and various electronic products, Lear has been at its present location immediately north of Detroit since 1969. The expanded campus has 500,000 square feet of office and testing lab space, and encompasses a wide expanse of green space containing more than 400 newly planted trees.

A problem concerning storm water runoff to the Rouge River watershed was addressed through the installation of below-grade retention and infiltration galleries, together with an innovative Rain Garden system to filter and clean storm water.

The costly and complex undertaking required environmental cleanup on 11 acres of newly assembled land, including demolition of manufacturing shops for which the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) approved $4.8 million in brownfield incentives and more than $7.2 million in state and local brownfield tax capture.

Lear was a founding member of the Suppliers Partnership (SP) for the Environment, an innovative partnership between automobile original equipment manufacturers, their suppliers and the U.S. EPA.

James C. Epolito is president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., in Lansing, Mich.