Companies find short-term investment in green projects leads to long-term value
The industrial revolution has left a legacy of environmental harm, but the battle between profits and the environment isn’t absolute. Examples of corporate concern about sustainability and the environment abound.
According to a 2025 Morgan Stanley report, 88% of companies see sustainability projects as a long-term opportunity. Plus, 80% of companies with sustainability policies said they see a measurable return on their sustainable investments.
”Companies around the world report an alignment between corporate strategies and sustainability priorities as they seek to build resilient, future-ready businesses,” said Jessica Alsford, chief sustainability officer and chair of the Institute for Sustainable Investing at Morgan Stanley in the report.
Companies in the Region are among those with a green mindset.
- Ozinga is building a manufacturing facility in East Chicago that will produce 1 million tons of low-carbon cement annually and create 150 long-term jobs.
- NiSource earned a spot on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the 11th consecutive year, receiving high marks for its climate strategy and business ethics.
- FiberX in Merrillville uses corn stover to promote biofuels and other uses.
- EarthWise in Valparaiso uses a proprietary system to transform cow manure into organic nitrogen fertilizer.
- Erosion & Construction Solutions’ Siltworm product mitigates erosion and controls sediment while maintaining an environmentally friendly construction site.
Other companies like Hitachi Global Air Power are determined to find solutions to product waste.
”I believe we’re smart enough to figure this out,” Communication Manager Jennifer Ohlinger said.
”We’re in this sustainability revolution. It’s the 21st century. We learned from the industrial revolution and made this great progress.”
Nexus W2V
At Kingsbury Industrial Plant in LaPorte County, Nexus W2V is building a plant to turn food waste into synthetic natural gas, a sort of ecological alchemy.
CEO Roshan Vani said 35% of waste is organic, so plants like the one under construction in Kingsbury not only create important fuels but also extend the life of landfills by diverting organic waste.
”Landfill gas has been around a long time,” he said. ”We’re just kind of accelerating that (process).”
His company’s work is important, he said, because new landfills are not opening.
”We effectively anaerobically digest the organic waste to make a biomethane,” getting it to pipeline-quality specifications, Vani said.
Truckloads from hospitals, prisons, schools and other sources will bring food waste to the plant, where it will go through a screen to pluck out plastics and other inorganic materials that will be diverted to a landfill. Then the waste will go through the anaerobic digestion process until it emerges as synthetic natural gas to feed into a NIPSCO pipeline at the site.
The plant is expected to be completed this summer with the first gas into the pipeline in November.
”It’s always challenging in the board room” to solve environmental issues, Vani said, but Nexus doesn’t shy away.
Forever Analytical
Hunter MacMillan, cofounder and CEO of Forever Analytical in South Bend, was a graduate student under University of Notre Dame chemistry and physics professor Graham Peaslee, a global expert in PFAS, the ”forever chemical” plastics.
That experience prompted MacMillan to start a PFAS detection lab to get quicker results for customers.
Part of that speed comes from the ability to send the labs to the samples and not just the other way around.
Typically, a traditional lab will receive samples, require a water sample, drinking water or some other substance, to be shipped on ice for analysis in the lab.
There’s so much demand that it can take four to six weeks for results, MacMillan said. His company brings detection closer to the source, reducing the time to make critical decisions in the field.
Most measure a small subset of PFAS, he said, while his company’s thorough testing can get a larger picture than other methods.
Forever Analytical is developing field sensors to do measurements almost in real time, MacMillan said.
”Part of addressing the problem is being able to know there is a problem,” he said. ”We want to be the front door to help you make decisions.”
Increased public awareness will influence consumer purchasing decisions, MacMillan hopes.
PFAS are in many products. He pointed out, ”We’re talking about children’s products, cookware, firefighter gear” and more.
”We’re building out a consumer products database that’s going to be online so people can go out and search these products,” based on test results, he said. Clients need to agree before their products are included.
Legacy Environmental
At St.John-based Legacy Environmental, Carl and Lorrie Lisek are focused on environmental benefits. With their two sons, they also operate Drive Clean Indiana, which aims to reduce pollution through the use of cleaner fuels for vehicles.
Carl had worked on environmental cleanups throughout the United States, so they founded Legacy in 2003.
”Our conversation, literally, was how do we prevent those cleanups from happening,” Lorrie said. ”We were green before green was cool.”
”We worked with various state and federal programs available in Northwest Indiana” to eliminate waste and use greener products, Carl explained.
East Chicago, despite its reputation as an environmentally tainted city, became one of the first Hoosier communities to use biofuels for its fleet.
”This was all before a lot of the alternative fuel craze,” Carl said.
From the city, the Liseks moved to East Chicago schools, partnering with them for central fueling.
”It just kind of blossomed from there,” Carl said.
Ozinga’s transition to alternative fuels began with South Shore Clean Cities, transitioning its fleet of concrete trucks and other vehicles in several states to natural gas.
Drive Clean Indiana has helped several municipalities upgrade fleets, including Hobart, Portage, Michigan City, Gary, East Chicago and Munster.
”Last year, I would say, was probably our best year,” Carl said, with over $50 million in grants statewide for clean transportation.
Sustainability is important to the Liseks, but also to others. ”We as a Region are starting to think strategically and larger,” he said, with proposals for a Chicago Bears stadium as examples of thinking big.
”Sustainability will continue. There’s a grassroots effort for many people who want to do the right thing. They want better air quality. They want better water,” Carl said.
”For a company, it has to make sense for the bottom line as well,” Lorrie said.
Hitachi Global Air Power
Hitachi Global Air Power is, as its name implies, a global company. Director of Sustainability Katrina Saucier said being a large company makes a difference.
In an international corporation, ”you think about things in a much bigger way because you’re not just in such a micro bubble,” she said. ”From a sustainability perspective, that’s great,” examining how decisions impact customers, distributors, customers, community and the environment.
”It’s great to be part of an organization that walks the talk,” added Senior Communications Manager Jennifer Ohlinger.
With a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, Hitachi is deliberate about sustainability.
”We don’t have to choose between sustainability and making money,” Saucier said.
Instead, it’s about making sure solutions and how they’re offered to the market contribute positively to society.
”It’s playing out in basically every business function possible,” Saucier said.
In March, for the first time ever, Hitachi began exhibiting portable air compressors that run on electric rather than diesel.
”This is an entire product line that we have developed using sustainability,” she said.
Diesel has its uses where electricity is inaccessible, but customers now have the option to choose a cleaner fuel source.
Remanufacturing is a big part of Hitachi’s business model.
”(Our compressors) not only have a first life, but they also have a second and a third life,” Saucier said, performing at the same level as the first month they’re plugged in.
In La Porte County, Hitachi has begun a native plant project. Using native plants means less mowing, allowing the maintenance team to focus on other needs. Because of native plants’ deep roots, lawns stay healthy without requiring as much water as traditional lawns.
The LaPorte County Soil and Water Conservation District offered a grant for the project.
Other Hitachi sustainability initiatives are as simple as arranging fewer garbage truck visits to make sure the dumpsters are as full as possible before they’re emptied.
Arkos Design
As a principal and landscape architect at Mishawaka-based Arkos Design, Darla Aldred is concerned about how to use natural features to best effect at building sites. Biophilic design is a passion for Aldred. It integrates natural features that some believe help mental health.
”We as a firm definitely try to integrate sustainable materials and sustainable systems as much as possible,” she said.
Making this happen for clients involves showing financial sustainability, not just the impact on the environment, Aldred said. ”How can we do design that helps people connect to nature” and help ourselves in the process?
Aldred’s realm is the outdoors. ”There are ways to help move forward more environmentally friendly things without huge costs to the client.”
That includes parking lot design, how it flows and functions for people in cars.
”There are ways to design a parking lot to help stormwater management that isn’t costlier to the client,” she said. ”It’s more thoughtful design.”
Draining to a center median can be more useful than a detention pond.
”It is working through a nature system to help filter all those pollutants from the parking,” Aldred said. ”Those bioswales are full of hopefully, if we’re able to do so, native plant materials.” They improve soils and attract pollinators, birds, all wildlife, flora and fauna.
”We love it for the clients willing to consider it,” she said.
But that takes some education for clients.
”They don’t want to have what they see as weed-filled areas and things like that.”
From the very first meeting with clients, Arkos Design talks about goals from a sustainable standpoint.
”I think most clients are receptive to doing those types of things,” Aldred said.
Arkos introduces these ideas and provides a level of cost impact as the design process goes forward. Aldred gave an example of a carpet that is LEED-certified.
”The cost is no different than if you chose the one that didn’t have all of that.”
For more complex things like stormwater management, calculating the cost might be trickier. Preparing land for bioswales can cost more up front, but long-term maintenance is reduced.
”Landscape architecture is a great way if you really want to focus in on environmental sustainability,” Aldred said. ”It’s an integrated part of our design here.”
The Notre Dame campus is one example. The sustainable lawn’s turf is ”stronger, tougher than bluegrass” and more environmentally friendly.
Arkos Design’s buildings incorporate sustainability in many ways. Alumni Hall at Notre Dame has a green roof. ”It’s a small roof, but for Notre Dame, it was a fun little project to do.”
Light-colored roofs absorb less heat and can reflect light onto the bottom of bifacial solar panels mounting on the roof. Colors can help brighten spaces, and louvers on windows can control the amount of sunlight that comes in. Rain gardens can help manage stormwater better.
The list of options goes on and on.
Blue Adaptation
Jamie Dietrich, founder of Bremen-based Blue Adaptation, is swimming in sustainability. Dietrich designs and sells environmentally friendly swimwear with ocean-inspired designs.
Though she lives far from the ocean, she’s never been freshwater diving. The ocean draws her to it.
A Hawaii vacation allowed her to swim in something besides a pool. ”I always call it the other half of heaven because it’s just so beautiful,” Dietrich said.
”I always had a design-oriented mind,” she said. That brought Blue Adaptation to reality.
The fashion industry isn’t known for sustainability. Fast fashion and overconsumption are the norm.
”You see a print for a season, like fall, and you see it disappear,” Dietrich said. ”It ends in a third-party retailer or worse.”
Her swimwear is made in small batches with dye sublimation that doesn’t harm the environment. The factory in Europe she contracts with uses what is in effect 50-inch printer paper to print her designs, put them on fabric and use a heat process to permanently transfer the design to fabric. The paper is recycled when it’s done.
”My customer base is generally scuba divers,” especially females.
”Once you’re in the water and you have that connection with the ocean, you want to protect it,” Dietrich said. ”Once you get down there, you want this to last. You want your grandchildren to see where these coral reefs are.” ▪
Read more stories from the current issue of Northwest Indiana Business Magazine.
Count way to success
Big on housing
Nozzle worth noting
Answering the call
Essential adviser
Economic power of play
Lots of buyers out there
Trending careers in trades
2026 award winners
Professional advancement
In this issue
Alysa Liu’s gold-medal performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics might seem unattainable, but her attitude offers a valuable lesson in finding joy in our work. Business leaders in the Region…
