DETROIT (WXYZ) — Michigan has some of the greatest natural resources in the country, and those working to protect them met Tuesday for an annual conference.

The fourth annual MI Healthy Climate Conference happened at Huntington Place in Detroit. I had a chance to see some of the innovative ways they are working to protect our environment.

Watch Glenda Lewis’ video report below:

4th annual MI Healthy Climate Conference held in Detroit

“One thing that brings Michiganders together is understanding the beauty and the importance of the environment around us,” said Jeff Johnston with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

In attendance for the event were 700 speakers and about 50 speakers who are passionate about preserving what’s most precious to the state of Michigan.

“We’re right here on the beautiful Detroit Riverfront, part of the Great Lakes system. We’ve got 3,200 miles of coastline in Michigan on the Great Lakes, 11,000 rivers. I’ve got all these amazing numbers that talk about just how important our relationship with the natural world is,” Johnston said. “To engage in climate action, to mitigate the problems of greenhouse gases and fossil fuels that endanger that environment, endanger our livelihoods and our lives is just some of the most important work we can be doing.”

The conference focuses on green funding and a strong future.

“I worked on a youth magazine to engage young people in conservation,” said Jenny Kalejs, a MI Health Climate fellow in the Upper Peninsula. “So, we do land stewardship protection of ecologically sensitive lands, organizing community partners, so we can better collaborate.”

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Michael Goldman Brown Jr. is an MI Health Climate fellow in Detroit.

“I’m sited at Transportation Riders United right here in Detroit, and I’m working on expanding and advocating for better transit here in Detroit but also the entire state of Michigan,” MI Health Climate fellow Michael Goldman Brown Jr. said.

We caught up with a couple of the more than two dozen people working as fellows with a number of nonprofit organizations and green-focused businesses and municipalities to help create an air of change.

“About a third of pollution comes from transportation, from cars and trucks and planes and everybody getting where they need to go,” said Megan Ownens, the director and Transportation Riders United. “So that’s why we at Transportation United are part of this. We want to make sure people have options other than their car.”

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Executive director of Community 2 Me Network Shawna Forbes Henry wants to protect Detroit’s footprint.

“Detroit is an area that is heavily impacted by various climate changes and emergencies, so we are here to ensure that our residents have the training that they need, have the economic resources that they need and the have the ability to feed that pipeline for employment,” Henry said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke to all the conference attendees by video, announcing a $1.8 million grant competition for industrial decarbonization, where applicants will come up with cost effective ways to reduce greenhouse emissions.

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DETROIT – What started as a seemingly routine home repair quickly unraveled into something far more troubling for one Detroit family.

A man appeared to be posing as a contractor — arriving in construction gear and accompanied by two teens — showed up April 7 at a west side Detroit home, offering to do brick work for about $300. But according to the homeowner’s daughter, the situation started to seem fishy — and expensive — fast.

Tameka Kelly said the trio told her 76-year-old mother they were with “State Line Construction” and began working almost immediately.

“I just felt used and taken advantage of,” Kelly said, looking back at the situation.

“They kept working — kept putting cement down, I said, ‘you might want to tell them to stop.’ He said, ‘well right now it’s $1129.’ I said, ‘my mother‘s not paying you $1000,’” Kelly said.

At one point, the man even offered to repair the bottom of the home’s wheelchair ramp — something Kelly said her sister, who lives with her mother, relies on daily. But she refused because something just didn’t sit right.

“I gave him the $300,” Kelly said, hoping they would just leave. “I thought, well, he knows where my mom lives. I don’t want him coming back trying to do something to my mom‘s house or something to our vehicles.”

Kelly later tried to confront the man, who identified himself as Brian Lopez, and called the number on the invoice.

“When I called he was like, ‘no no no brickwork no brickwork’ I said, ‘yes you did. You were just here. I said I don’t forget a voice,’” she said.

But the biggest red flag came when she looked closer at the address listed on the invoice.

The address — 70 West Maple in Troy — turned out to be a McDonald’s.

“I really got upset when I found out that address was to a McDonald’s,” Kelly said.

Initially, Kelly said when she tried to file a report with Detroit police, she said they told her the situation was a civil matter and she could not file one. She then filed a complaint with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.

Now, Detroit police tell Local 4 they will be taking Kelly’s fraud report, and once that is completed, an investigation will follow.

State Line initially told Local 4 they were not familiar with a Brian Lopez, then an attorney for State Line construction told Local 4 that, after checking the company’s records, there is no Brian Lopez that works for the company. As a matter of fact, the attorney said, State Line Construction does not do cement or residential construction. He said they focus on electrical work.

Attempts by Local 4 to reach the man going by the name Brian Lopez with the number given were unsuccessful.

Kelly said she felt compelled to speak up to prevent others from falling victim.

“I’m really upset about it, and I don’t want it to happen to anybody else,” she said.