Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

The city of Brighton has been given statewide recognition by earning a Bronze Seal of Achievement from the Michigan Municipal League in the 2023 Michigan Green Communities Challenge.

The winners in the challenge were announced earlier this month. The winning communities are being recognized for, quote, “creating and protecting clean, safe and healthy environments for Michiganders.” That’s according to the Michigaan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s Julie Staveland, the assistant division director for EGLE’s Materials Management Division.

Brighton earned the Bronze award after entering the challenge for the first time. This year’s participants included 43 cities, 11 townships, seven counties and two villages. Together, they represent 4.1 Michiganders, or 40% of the state’s 10 million population.

Brighton City Manager Gretchen Gomolka, in informing council about the award at Tuesday night’s meeting, said that Brighton was “only a couple of points shy of Silver status.” Gomolka said her office will be working with city staff this year to improve to a Silver seal and will be “eventually working toward Gold status."

The communities were awarded Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum Seals of Achievement, representing their leadership in areas such as energy efficiency, climate adaptation and resilience, recycling and other categories. Brighton is one of seven cities to receive Bronze seals. Others included Bay City, St. Joseph, Kalamazo County, Monroe County, Clawson and Mackinaw City.

The Village of Milford in western Oakland County was one of 20 communities earning a Silver seal, while the city of Ann Arbor received a Gold seal.

Gomolka also told council that Brighton is one of 14 communities in competition for the Community Excellence Award from the Michigan Municipal League for its $6 million Streetscape project. Gomolka said the Excellence award is the largest annual award by the MML. Municipalities are evaluated on such criteria as how the project impacts the infrastructure, public health, sustainability, and other factors. The top projects in the state will be announced in July.

Michigan Green Communities (MGC) is a free program open to all local governments in the state. MGC provides networking, benchmarking and technical assistance to guide communities in their work to improve their sustainability efforts and adapt to our changing climate. The program also helps communities to protect infrastructure and to improve the quality of life for those living in their communities. The goal of this work is to create a more environmentally and economically sustainable future for Michigan.