Detroit was one of the largest cities in the country without any form of curbside recycling. Until the start of Wednesday’s test recycling program.

Once again we shattered the old myth, you can teach an old building new tricks. Seven Detroit facilities received such certification this week. The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center highlights the fact almost perfectly. Inefficiencies were everywhere: single-pane windows, a poorly insulated building and a less than efficient hot deck/cold deck HVAC system. To make the building more environmentally friendly property managers replaced failing steam coil on air handling units and retrofitted a 135-ton chiller to run on river water rather than city condenser water.