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Amway Corp.’s broad-based business didn’t always pay attention to sustainability issues, but that is starting to change as going green is increasingly seen as having a strong business case behind it.

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WEST MICHIGAN — Sustainability is increasingly being defined not just by “green” — which can have a number of convoluted meanings — but by companies crunching large matrices of waste and energy use data and coming to meaningful solutions.

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WEST MICHIGAN — Sustainability is increasingly being defined not just by “green” — which can have a number of convoluted meanings — but by companies crunching large matrices of waste and energy use data and coming to meaningful solutions.

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We recently polled several area green building experts to identify the industry trends and issues they see affecting West Michigan and the world in the near future. Here, in no particular order, are our findings:

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WEST MICHIGAN — Many businesses seem to be running a popularity contest as to who can be the most sustainable.

There’s no shortage of “green” claims in the marketplace. But regardless of all the social posturing involved in sustainability, there is no arguing with the improvements being sustainable can have on a company’s bottom line.

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NOVI — Now that the advanced battery industry has set down roots in West Michigan, many in government, the automotive industry and alternative energy storage have begun to wonder when — and if — the customers will make those investments worthwhile.

If the fact that The Battery Show — the advanced battery industry’s annual global trade show — moved its conference and expo to Michigan for 2011 and 2012 is any indication, then the state is moving toward the center of the advanced energy storage industry.

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KENTWOOD — To gain efficiencies in his family-owned business, Paul Schweitzer accepted the irony that a company that relies on printing for 70 percent of its revenues had to invest in paperless electronic technology.

In essence, he realized to be successful, there can be no sacred cows.

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Some 30 years ago, Martin Dugan left a role in higher education with a desire to enter corporate America yet not compromise on his passion for environmentalism. He expressed this fervor in many ways, including as a participant in the first Earth Day in 1970. He landed at Herman Miller’s research division in Ann Arbor at a time when the company was beginning to reexamine its products and processes through the lens of sustainable business practices.

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MUSKEGON — Chris Gardenour’s future looked bright the three years he had a good-paying job at Lift-Tech International. He could afford anything he needed. He bought a house. He got engaged to be married.

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KALAMAZOO — In the 1980s, a situation was evolving in downtown Kalamazoo. As industry moved out of the city’s center, its absence gave way to blighted buildings, drugs and crime.