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Congratulations to the winners
of the 2004 Environmental Initiative Awards
Environmental Education
Energy
Private Sector Environmental
Management
Public Sector Environmental
Management Excellence
Land Use
Environmental Education
Nominated by the Solid Waste Management Coordinating
Board
Community POWER is an innovative and successful partnership
between the Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board
(SWMCB) and local community groups, providing grants,
technical support, speakers and networking opportunities
while engaging citizens in waste and toxicity reduction
activities. Community POWER taps the power of nonprofits
to reach new audiences with waste and toxicity reduction
activities, working with them to align waste reduction
with their core missions. Most of the community groups
have no background in environmental issues, yet welcome
the opportunity to partner with county government to
reach common goals. Since 2001, SWMCB has partnered
with 29 community organizations. More than 3,100 people
have engaged in waste or toxicity reduction activities,
and another 150,000 people were reached with waste reduction
messages. Partnering organizations include churches,
arts organizations, block nurse programs, neighborhood
associations, youth groups, immigrant organizations
and social service agencies.
Energy
Nominated by the Science Museum of Minnesota
Completed in June 2003, Science House will serve as
a public laboratory, classroom and special event space
for the Science Museum of Minnesota's outdoor science
park, The Big Backyard (opening June 2004). It will
be a model energy building on permanent public display
in the midst of a one-of-a-kind environmental education
landscape. The goal is for Science House to be a zero-emissions
building; that is to generate from renewable onsite
sources all of its energy needs on an annual basis through
its 8.8 kilowatt photovoltaic-integrated standing seam
metal roof. Science House feeds current back to the
museum when it is generating more electricity than it
is using, and draws from the museum when it is consuming
more electricity than it is generating. The building's
heating cooling, and hot water needs are supplied by
a ground-source heat pump that uses the Earth's thermal
energy to heat and cool the building. Energy-efficient
Andersen windows and doors and Icynene insulation are
combined with 2" by 6" Forest Stewardship
Council-certified lumber construction, passive solar
heating and careful lighting design. Science House was
made possible by a very large array of collaborators
interested in demonstrating the state of the art in
environmental building performance.
Private
Sector Environmental Management
Nominated by North American Wetland Engineering
North American Wetland Engineering (NAWE) was the first
firm in Minnesota to propose and successfully obtain
a permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
(MPCA) for a conservation community cluster development
wastewater system at the Fields of St. Croix in Lake
Elmo. Before the term "Decentralized Wastewater
Management" was even developed, NAWE's vision of
small community wastewater systems using environmental
friendly technology was being implemented in unsewered
areas across the state. The development of wastewater
technology at NAWE has created nothing short of a revolution
in residential development outside the sewered areas
of communities. Cluster development is a "smart
growth" concept that places homes in clusters creating
neighborhoods that can be efficiently served by electricity,
gas, telephone, sewer, water and other utilities. It
allows for preservation of environmental sensitive areas
as open space. It establishes an orderly development
that does not chop up large tracts of land in cookie
cutter large acreage lots. All of this is as a result
of NAWE's ability to satisfactorily address the wastewater
needs of these communities.
Public
Sector Environmental Management Excellence
Nominated by the Hennepin County Department of Environmental
Services
The Environmental Response Fund (ERF) grant program
is a Hennepin County initiative that provides funds
to municipalities, non-profits and private developers
in support of efforts to assess or remediate contaminated
sites through resources created by a mortgage registry
and deed tax. Hennepin County has awarded over $4.5
million in grants to 56 projects in the five ERF rounds
since its inception. Hennepin County, through the ERF,
has formed partnerships with municipalities, non-profit
organizations, for-profit companies and other grant
programs to find funding solutions for projects that
would otherwise be unable to proceed. Unlike state and
regional contamination cleanup grant programs, which
rank projects on the basis of tax-base increase and
job creation, the ERF focuses on eliminating funding
gaps and on providing funding for worthy projects that
are unlikely to be considered a priority by the other
grant programs. The ERF has succeeded in leveraging
additional private and public investment for the investigation
and cleanup of contaminated properties and in stimulating
the assessment and cleanup of small "orphan"
sites and other contaminated properties stalled due
to funding shortfalls.
Land
Use
Nominated by Dakota County
The Dakota County Farmland and Natural Area Program
was initiated in response to growing citizen concerns
about rapid urbanization and associated issues. State-of
the-art GIS technology was used to identify and analyze
high quality agricultural land and natural areas. Through
an extensive public participation process, collaboration
with non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental
coordination, the county developed a prioritization
and implementation plan to permanently protect 5,000
to 10,000 acres of contiguous blocks of agricultural
land, natural areas and greenway corridors, while also
enhancing water quality. The county board adopted the
countywide plan in January 2002. A citizens group then
developed and implemented an advocacy campaign to provide
funding for this initiative. In November 2002, voters
approved a $20 million bond referendum. In June 2003,
the county board established a citizens advisory committee
and approved guidelines for implementing the Farmland
and Natural Area Program. A comprehensive outreach effort
resulted in 29 farmland and 22 natural area applications.
The board has now approved twelve farmland easement
projects totaling 2672 acres and seven natural area
projects totaling 641 acres.
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