CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FINALISTS
AND WINNERS OF THE 2008 ENVironMENTAL INITIATIVE AWARDS
A panel of independent judges selected the finalists and
winners from more than 60 projects nominated in five categories.
Thank you to our judges and congratulations to all of
the finalists!
Energy
and Climate Protection
Environmental Education
Green Building and Development
Green Business and Environmental
Management
Natural Resource Protection
and Restoration
Partnership of the Year
ENERGY AND CLIMATE PROTECTION
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.
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.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
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 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 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
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
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
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.
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.
Partnership of the Year Winner:
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.
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