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Martin Dugan
Retired VP of facility management, Herman Miller
Community sustainability activist
Location: Hope College campus
story/Photo: Joe Boomgaard
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.
By 1987, he relocated to West Michigan and focused on the company’s facilities. Soon thereafter, Dugan was instrumental in bringing renowned architect Bill McDonough on board to design the company’s GreenHouse factory, which would become a model for how sustainable buildings could have an impact for companies worldwide.
“The building did what Bill McDonough talked about, and it became a world example of what to do when you build a building,” Dugan said. “Customers would come to look at furniture in Zeeland, and we’d take them to the GreenHouse to show them our corporate philosophy. It became a visible example and it sparked the idea for what became the U.S. Green Building Council.”
Building on the sustainable movement, Dugan took the message to his alma mater, Oberlin College, by getting McDonough to design a signature building for the environmental studies program. He also took the message to his colleagues in the corporate real estate industry by focusing industry group discussions on environmentally sensitive real estate.
Although he retired for health reasons six years ago, he’s still active in helping his community of Holland pursue sustainable energy solutions. He helped form Windmill on Every Steeple Team (WEST) to help shape the local energy discussion to include more renewable options and to get the local utility to take a long-term view of energy.
His goal is to get more people involved and vocal about their vision for making Holland a more sustainable place, especially considering all the green technology companies setting up shop nearby and the city’s founding role – via Herman Miller – in what would become an international mind shift toward a new way to do business.
“We want to get the city to be much more environmentally sensitive,” he said.
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