In this week’s Fellow Spotlight, we are checking in with Anna Balzer. She fills us in on what she enjoys most about living in the city, and her host company, PM Environmental!

Anna, tell us about your move to Detroit?

I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, which I often refer to in jest as “Metro Detroit,” but in all honesty, I had never spent time in Detroit before the interview trip for Challenge Detroit. I had, of course, heard all about the history and was convinced that I wasn’t going to be permitted to park my Toyota anywhere within the city limits, but there’s definitely a story here that wasn’t being told, even in Toledo. Detroit is an unbelievably exciting place to be right now and the opportunities here seem to grow exponentially. I just want to tell everyone about it!

What do you enjoy most about living, working, playing, giving, and leading in Detroit?

I am incredibly fortunate to work out of a really unique co-working space in Midtown called the Green Garage. The building is a renovated and reimagined Model T showroom that now hosts upwards of 40 businesses in residence ranging from landscape design to guitar pedal manufacturing. It’s supposed to be the place I work, but the Green Garage has also been a great place to meet people, share events, connect with the community, and learn about sustainability in business. We even have a yoga class and walking group that meet once a week! My company has a national footprint, so while I may be working on a project in the middle of Alabama, it’s been great to be able to stay connected to what’s happening in Detroit.

Tell us about your host company, and what you do?

PM Environmental is an environmental consulting and engineering firm that primarily focuses on risk management and compliance and I work as a researcher in our Due Diligence department. I know that sounds very abstract, but basically I do research to help determine whether or not it is likely that a property has been exposed to any environmental contaminants. Companies use this research to assess the risk associated with the purchase of or loan on a property and also to better understand the steps necessary for environmental remediation. It’s especially exciting to get to work on projects in Metro Detroit because we have access to records dating back to the late 1800’s on many of the commercial properties in the area. It’s remarkable to see how the city has changed over the last century.

What is a unique project you are working on at PM Environmental?

Right now I am working on submitting an application for a remediation/redevelopment award for CREW: Commercial Real Estate Women, Detroit. We are submitting a project my company worked on in metro-Detroit where we helped to remediate a highly contaminated Brownfield site and turn it into a state of the art movie theatre using Brownfield grants to fund the environmental work. It is such an inspiration to see successful reuse of a contaminated site that not only benefits the environment, but is also a great asset to the local community.

What is your favorite part of the Challenges?

We use the Design Thinking method for our Challenges and one of my favorite parts of this process is the “empathy” portion. In order to create solutions that truly meet the needs of the user for each nonprofit, we spend time during every Challenge doing a deep dive on our partner nonprofit organization and the community/communities that they serve. This is absolutely my favorite part of the Challenges. It is such a unique opportunity to understand and get feedback from people in the community. In every Challenge, there is something we learn in the empathy exercise that critically shapes not only the outcome of our deliverables, but our view of Detroit in general.

Tell us about some of things you are passionate about making an impact in Detroit?

I have been passionate about sustainability for a long time. I studied environmental studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder, which is arguably one of the most sustainable cities in the U.S. I toured the country for 9 weeks for a geology and natural environment summer course and even left the country for 4 months to study sustainable systems in Costa Rica. But I’ve never learned as much about how to create sustainable communities than I have here in Detroit. Why? Because it’s happening here, right now. Sure, Detroit has a lot of hurdles to get past when it comes to planning for its future, but it also has some really unique opportunities to become a leader in a lot of areas, including sustainable development. I’m just so excited to be here and to be a part of it all.

 Check out Anna’s personal blog here, and her spotlight video.