Economic Development

Our first job was inventing a way to light the streets of downtown Jackson. The lighting did more than illuminate Main Street, it fostered a night life bustling with business. Lots of business. We’ve been working with communities ever since, making connections and leveraging opportunities to build neighborhoods and grow economic prosperity. Together we’re developing vibrant, sustainable communities. 

Our work with Pure Michigan Business Connect is a great example. Through this new initiative, we’re fueling Michigan’s growth by investing $5 billion in local businesses over the next five years. We’re also giving local leaders the tools they need to maximize community assets. We provide scholarships to city officials and staff to make it possible for more communities to benefit.

We’ve centered much of our community development efforts on the smaller communities we serve. These small towns and rural areas make up a large part of our service area and often need the most help. Over the years, we’ve proven that the same simple and cost-effective strategies that work in these communities work in larger urban areas as well. They are absolutely scalable. Our public affairs team, staffed by area managers strategically located throughout our service areas, work side-by-side with local leaders to implement economic growth plans.

Supply Chain Sustainability Policy Statement

Consumers Energy is committed to ensuring that there is awareness of social and ethical issues as well as the risks and opportunities relevant to sustainability and environmental responsibility across its supply base. We will validate these practices by surveying and monitoring our suppliers’ standards and policies as they relate to doing business with our company. Consideration of sustainable practices, products and services is an integral part of the procurement process and is considered in bid evaluation and selection of vendor. The Company validates supplier sustainability including ISO, Energy Star and LEED certification, EPA actions and OSHA violations through its Supplier Performance Evaluation Program, third party data tracking and external supplier surveying. These metrics are tracked, monitored and reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure suppliers wishing to do business with Consumers Energy meet or exceed the expectations set forth by the Company.

As Michigan’s largest energy provider, we work with diverse suppliers to deliver energy to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

We have recently joined the Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance. The Alliance will work to improve environmental performance in electric utility industry supply chains, including the development of voluntary consensus standards for evaluating the following: the environmental attributes of key materials and services provided to the electric utility industry; the environmental performance of suppliers to the electric utility industry; and the environmental performance of an electric utility industry company’s supply chain operations.