Energy and Climate Protection
Environmental Education
Green Building and Development
Green Business and Environmental Management
Natural Resource Protection and Restoriation

The Global Warming 101 Initiative is the Will Steger Foundation’s project to raise public awareness about global warming by providing web-based updates of polar expeditions that educate the public about the effects of human actions upon the global climate, and empower individual choices and grassroots efforts that lead to institutional reform and technological innovation. The initiative, by providing a compelling narrative and credible eyewitness account of climate change in the far north, also seeks to mobilize the public and elected officials to advance state and federal policies that address solutions to global warming.

The Schaar's Bluff Gathering Center is an ultra-efficient, near zero-energy building designed for the Dakota County Parks Commission in Nininger Township, Minnesota. Designers, county parks officials, landscape architects, Native Americans, interpretive designers and ecologists worked collaboratively to create a 3,500 square foot nature center that connects ecology, landscape, history, culture and energy efficiency. The building utilizes technology that allows it to conserve energy by responding to changing weather conditions, and a wind turbine installed on the site provides 93% of the energy required to operate the building.

Transportation Choices 2020 was an initiative to fully fund a region-wide transit system undertaken by Transit for Livable Communities, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has long believed that a region-wide transit system could reduce the impact of global warming in Minnesota. The end result of this work was a groundbreaking, bipartisan victory for transit and Minnesota's environmental future in February 2008. Broad-based support from diverse constituencies ensured that the bill passed included a region-wide sales tax dedicated solely toward transit. This will generate approximately $117 million per year for transit needs across Minnesota.

BLUE THUMB: PLANTING FOR CLEAN WATER

The Blue Thumb Program, developed by the Rice Creek Watershed District, connects property owners with regionally specific resources and training to reduce stormwater pollution by encouraging the installation of native gardens, raingardens, and native plant shoreline stabilization projects. The program currently includes thirty partners from local government, non-profit and community organizations, as well as nursery and landscape professionals.

The Living Green Expo is a collaboration of government agencies, non-profit groups and businesses that promotes sustainability-oriented products and behaviors in Minnesota. The Living Green Expo is a free, annual event that provides information and products to help Minnesotans improve the environmental and social impacts of their day-to-day living. The Expo features over 200 exhibitors, along with workshops on a variety of sustainability and green living topics. At the 2007 Living Green Expo, over 22,000 people gathered information from 240 exhibitors and 65 individual workshops.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Central Region developed and offered natural resource-based planning workshops to cities, townships, and counties throughout the DNR's 23-county Central Region. Partners included the Metropolitan Council, CR Planning, Brauer and Associates, the Urban Land Institute, and local governments. The 22 workshops offered attracted almost 1000 participants, including local government staff, elected and appointed local officials, and the development community, and increased awareness of the value of using natural resources information in local land use plans and policies, and the benefits of collaborative decision-making.

GREEN BUILDING AND DEVELOPMENT FINALISTS

FAIRVIEW OFFICE PARK

Fairview Office Park in Baxter, MN is a demonstration commercial development that incorporated Low Impact Development (LID) and conservation design principals as an alternative to traditional construction practices and design. Using environmental benefits as a guiding priority, the project managers carefully documented the cost-benefit consequences of their decisions, recognizing that this information would have the greatest interest to other members of the business community. The project managers developed a website for three target audiences: the general public, the development community, and local government; sharing the guidance provided by the more than 32 agencies and organizations involved in the Fairview Office Park project.

Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) and LHB (an architecture, engineering, and design firm) collaborated on the design of a 100,000 square foot warehouse and 35,000 square foot office space. QBP's recent expansion was built according to the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. The new distribution center and office complex features innovative water saving technologies, high efficiency lighting and HVAC, and capitalizes on natural light. The building is outfitted with a 40-kilowatt solar panel array and uses a host of recycled or reused building materials.

Ripley Gardens is a mixed-income redevelopment project, which provided 52 rental units as well as 8 units of for-sale affordable housing. The project involved cleaning up an abandoned, historic site and transforming it into energy efficient and sustainable apartment homes and townhomes. Several sustainable development techniques were utilized during the redevelopment including stormwater mitigation, pedestrian friendly site design, energy efficient appliances, use of low VOC products, and best management practices to reduce construction waste. The development of Ripley Gardens was a partnership between Aeon, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, Harrison Neighborhood Association, and Minnesota Green Communities.

GREEN BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FINALISTS

Fibrominn Biomass Power Plant, which began commercial operations in mid-2007, is the first poultry litter-fueled power plant in the United States. Fibrominn is a 55-megawatt renewable energy power plant that is designed to annually procure and manage more than 500,000 tons of poultry litter and other biomass. The majority of the fuel is litter supplied by regional turkey growers. By providing a needed outlet for excess amounts of litter, the project reduces the nutrient burden on groundwater and waterways and reduces nuisance odors for local residents.

"It's in the Bag" is a Twin-Cities based plastic bag recycling program created by SUPERVALU in conjunction with Minnesota Waste Wise, Merrick, Inc, Trex Company, Lunds and Byerly’s, Kowalski’s, and Cub Foods. Consumers deposit clean, dry, empty plastic bags in specially designed "It's in the Bag" collection bins found at collection points throughout the metropolitan area. The material is collected and shipped to Trex Company where it is recycled into composite lumber used in the construction of decks and railings. Four million pounds of plastic bags and film have been recycled since October 2003. Currently 130 grocery stores, retail stores and businesses participate in the program across the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Tundra Companies Lead Replacement program is an initiative to reduce the non-recoverable lead in the environment by developing a viable, cost-effective lead replacement for the automotive, ammunition, and fishing markets. An additional goal was to have market leaders for each application using the alternative product by 2008. Tundra Companies has developed proprietary and patented processes for producing a non-toxic replacement for lead and have partnered with Fiocchi Ammunition, Pure Fishing, Gander Mountain, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and North American Tungsten to make the product commercially viable.

NATurAL RESOURCE PROTECTION AND RESTORATION FINALISTS

The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary is a 27-acre open space on the Mississippi floodplain just east of Saint Paul, Minnesota's downtown district. The land was abandoned in the 1970s, and became an unofficial dumping ground for construction debris, furniture and appliances. This abandoned polluted brownfield in a core-city neighborhood is now cleaned up and opened to the public as a nature sanctuary. The sanctuary includes 450 feet of a former stream corridor, three wetlands, and prairie and woodland habitats that were lost to railroad and industrial activities over the last 150 years, now restored by the Lower Phalen Creek Project and a host of other partners.

This initiative is an effort to change the composition of the waste stream and to reduce the amount of organic materials that are landfilled. Carver County, in partnership with Waste Management, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, R&W Farms, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and local residents developed an organics collection pilot program. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate that food waste and non-recyclable paper can be efficiently collected together through the existing yard waste collection system and managed effectively at a yard waste composting facility. It is estimated that 900 lbs to 3,000 lbs of organic materials have been diverted from the landfill each week through the program.

The Minnesota Forest Legacy Partnership works with landowners, loggers, recreationists and communities to preserve forests for timber, jobs, outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat. The Partnership uses conservation easements to prevent the development of environmentally or ecologically significant lands while securing in perpetuity public access, sustainable timber management, and ecological diversity. To date, the partnership has protected over 52,000 acres of ecologically important and commercially productive timberland.