Credit: Amy Sacka

Muddling through the news isn’t always easy — but for many Michiganders and Detroiters, Planet Detroit is the one-stop-shop for concise, trustworthy environmental news. 

Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Nina Ignaczak created Planet Detroit, a partner of Detour Detroit, in 2019 as a weekly email. Each Planet Detroit newsletter zeroes in on the key environmental issues, progress and developments happening right in your neighborhood.

Sign up now to get the essential weekly dispatch in your inbox every Friday:

Ignaczak was inspired to create Planet Detroit as a result of her own commitment to community engagement around local environmental issues. Prior to her career in journalism, she worked in urban planning in local government and nonprofit sectors in Metro Detroit. Her recent journalism has been published by HuffPost, Detroit Free Press, Crain’s Detroit Business, Business Insider, Belt Magazine, Curbed, Model D and Detour Detroit. 

“Reporting on the environment often lacks a substantial connection to how issues affect the local community, particularly marginalized communities,” Ignaczak said. “Planet Detroit asks those questions. What will the impact of developments be on Detroit residents? Where and how is money spent to clean up the environment being spent? And how can Detroiters connect with their local environment and get involved?”

Planet Detroit delves into topics you won’t find anywhere else — like how planting more trees could help save residents from flooding and heat stroke, as well as Detroiters’ complicated concerns about planting initiatives. Another recent piece and accompanying webinar explored how two women leaders in the urban farming sector teamed up to create the Detroit Black Urban Land Fund — and how this fund is opening doors for local growers to actually purchase their own land.

Ignaczak and her growing team of reporters make it easy for readers to get involved and stay informed. The Planet Detroit newsletter and the PlanetDetroit.org website are filled with explanatory, solutions-based and investigative reporting you won’t find anywhere else.

And, rest assured that the editorial team knows their stuff. All Planet Detroit journalists have a keen understanding of key issues and stay in touch with local activists, nonprofits and business leaders. Each and every day, their mission is to bring you independent reporting, a rundown of local environmental news, events, volunteer opportunities and environment-focused job-postings.

Ignaczak and her team chronicle changing environmental policies, climate change mitigation and impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic and response and, most importantly, explaining what all of this really means to you and your community.