About this Event
We invite community stakeholders, members, sponsors, and friends to join us on December 10, 2026 at the Ballroom at Mckay Tower in Grand Rapids, Michigan for our 2026 Leadership Awards Gala. We’re planning an evening filled with fun, gratitude, and celebration.
Leadership Awards
The MiGBC Leadership Awards promote outstanding green building initiatives by recognizing projects, organizations, and people who have made extraordinary contributions to achieving healthy, energy-efficient green buildings in the state of Michigan. After dinner we will award Michigan people, organizations, and projects who have made extraordinary contributions to healthy, high-performing green buildings. Attendees will hear from the awardees as they share their perspectives on the design, construction, and operation of the most outstanding buildings and projects of the year.
Speakers:
Sandra Lupien - Innovative Building Strategies Mass Timber / Director, MassTimber@MSU at Michigan State University: Sandra Lupien leads MassTimber@MSU, advancing sustainable mass timber construction and manufacture in Michigan, the Great Lakes Region, and beyond. Through this program, based at Michigan State University, Sandra collaborates with interdisciplinary faculty members, industry partners, policymakers, NGOS, tradespersons, and others on a diverse array of programs and initiatives that are resulting in significant mass timber momentum. Sandra hosts and co-produces with Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Michigan Mass Timber Update, an annual convening of mass timber stakeholders from a variety of sectors across the state. She is a frequent mass timber speaker at conferences and in media coverage across the U.S. and internationally.
Jacob Stid - Agrivoltaics / Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University: Jake Stid is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Michigan State University whose work focuses on building a more sustainable and resilient renewable energy landscape. His research combines geospatial analysis, remotely sensed imagery, and field-based science to better understand how solar and wind energy can be thoughtfully sited, designed, and managed alongside agricultural and natural systems. At MSU, he is also involved in interdisciplinary research on agrisolar and restorative energy landscapes, working with partners across Michigan to explore how renewable energy development can support agriculture, ecosystems, and surrounding communities. Beyond his research, Jake mentors graduate and undergraduate students, serves as a scientific advisor on collaborative projects spanning renewable energy, agriculture, and environmental monitoring, contributes to grant development, and regularly shares his work with academic, industry, and community audiences.
Kristen Cetin - Industrial Decarbonization / PhD, P.E., LEED AP Director, Michigan State University Industrial Training and Assessment Center, Red Cedar Distinguished Professor, Associate Chair for Faculty/Academic Staff Development: Dr. Kristen Cetin is a Red Cedar Distinguished Professor, and Associate Chair of Faculty and Academic Staff Development in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Michigan State University. She is also the Director of the MSU Industrial Training and Assessment Center (ITAC), and Field Manager of the Expansion ITAC program. She leads a research group dedicated to advancing smart infrastructure system research and education. Her research group's work focuses on the investigation of the performance of buildings, building systems, and other infrastructure and the development of solutions to improve the performance, efficiency, and demand contributions of the built environment. This includes projects that combine the fields of building science and building technology with the use of data, data analytics, modeling, IoT, AI, and smart grid connected technologies, with the goal of building, operating and maintaining buildings, infrastructure, and overall communities that are smarter, more efficient, and that reduce their peak demands.
Your Sponsorship Makes a Difference
As a MiGBC partner, you lead the charge in high-performance building and carbon reduction, fueling key programs like Grand Rapids 2030 District, and Lansing 2030 District. Michigan Battle of the Buildings, and the E.H.Zero project. Our sponsors receive great perks, like marketing shoutouts, recognition in our newsletter, and tickets to our Annual Party and Leadership Awards Ceremony.
2026 Sponsorship includes tickets to the Annual Party & Leadership Awards Ceremony on December 10, 2026. We can’t wait to see you there! Learn more about Sponsorshp opportunites here: Sponsorship page.
Become a Member
To thank you for your dedication to our mission, current and new members of the Michigan Green Building Collaborative will receive special pricing to attend this event. Learn more about becoming an individual or corporate member here.
Dress: Business/Cocktail/Holiday
Event venue & nearby stays
The Ballroom at McKay, 146 Monroe Center Street Northwest, Grand Rapids, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.