PAST
MEi Events
Providing a Path to Energy Efficiency
2009 Legislative Preview
Policy Forum
The Future of Biofuels in Minnesota
Carbon Management: A Competitive
Advantage for Your Business
Introduction to Carbon Cap-and-Trade: What
Could it Mean for Minnesota?
Economic Prosperity and a Clean Environment:
How do we achieve both?
Making the Case for Efficient
Energy Management
2008 Legislative Preview Policy Forum
Environmental Contaminants:
Assessing the Risk and Shaping Public Health Policy
Water Sustainability: Managing Competing Needs
for a Limited Resource
Carbon Sequestration:
Looking to the Land for Climate Change Solutions
Farming Our Fuel: Growing a Sustainable
Ethanol Industry
The current economic recession and the
large proportion of resources that businesses typically spend
on energy make energy efficiency an important cost saving strategy
for all businesses to pursue. While many businesses may be reluctant
to spend significant resources on energy efficiency retrofits
today, most businesses are planning to become more energy efficient
when the economy rebounds and every business could benefit from
no cost/low cost steps they can take to save money and energy
now. This event focused on describing pathways and identifying
resources any business or organization can use to achieve energy
efficiency.
Mark Friske, Director, Environmental
Health and Safety, Aveda
Doug Fullen, Director of Corporate Environmental Affairs, Medtronic
Bill Glahn, Deputy Commissioner and Director, Office of Energy
Security, Minnesota Department of Commerce
Jeff Haase, Demand Efficiency
Supervisor, Minnesota Department of Commerce
JoAnna Hicks, Director of
Development, Ryan Companies US
Chuck LeRoux, Director,
Safety, Security and Environmental Management, Andersen Corporation
Tom McDougall, President,
The Weidt Group
Bob Riesselman,
President of Midwest Region, Sebesta Blomberg (powerpoint)
Bob Riesselman,
President of Midwest Region, Sebesta Blomberg (movie)
Steve Zeller, Director,
Global Real Estate, Construction & Asset Management, Donaldson
Company
A bipartisan selection of legislators,
including a panel of the Legislature's leaders such as the Speaker
of the House, provided a valuable first look at 2009’s
top environmental issues and the economic landscape for the
upcoming session. A panel of finance committee leaders and policy
stakeholders discussed the challenge of implementing the newly
passed Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.
Leading experts discussed the expanding
biofuel industry and how it will affect Minnesota.
Christina Connelly,
MN Department of Agriculture (part 1)
Christina
Connelly, MN Department of Agriculture (part 2)
Mike Reese, West Central Research and Outreach Center
Mark
Lindquist, MN Department of Natural Resources
Jess
Richards, MN Pollution Control Agency
Rita Hardy, Flint
Hills Resources
David Thornton, MN
Pollution Control Agency
Bill Grant, Izzak Walton
League of America
Bill Lee, Chippewa Valley
Ethanol
Lowell Rasmussen,
University of Minnesota Morris
This program provided insight into
the realm of carbon management for Minnesota's business community,
and demonstrated how business leaders can utilize a greenhouse
gas inventory to get out ahead of the game and reap fiscal and
environmental benefits.
A team of local consultants representing Delta Consultants,
Wenck Associates, and CP Holdings, LLC defined what carbon management
means and assessed the advantages and various applications for
existing protocols for managing carbon emissions. This experienced
group of consultants also discussed some of the challenges and
opportunities presented by tackling the task of carbon footprinting
for your business. Additionally, the program featured case studies
from a diverse group of local organizations who have achieved
success through developing and implementing carbon management
strategies.
What Is
Carbon Management? Bill Brown, Wenck Associates, Tod Christenson,
Delta Consultants, Eric Jackson, CP Holdings
Carl Michaud,
Hennepin County
Heather
Tansey, 3M
Jim Turnure,
Xcel Energy
Todd
Wilkening, Ridgeview Medical Center
This forum provided an introduction
and overview of a carbon cap-and-trade system and the impacts
it could have in Minnesota. Tom Vilsack, the former governor
of Iowa and a national leader on renewable energy and initiatives
addressing climate change, gave the keynote address. Other presenters
included John Larsen from the World Resources Institute, and
members of the Minnesota Representatives to the Midwestern Governors
Association Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Advisory Group.
John
Larsen, World Resources Institute, Part 1
John
Larsen, World Resources Institute, Part 2
Interview
with Governor Tom Vilsack on Minnesota Public Radio
In the past, growing the economy
and protecting the environment often have been regarded as separate
or even conflicting goals. However, ensuring success for future
generations of Minnesotans means that we must promote economic
growth while also protecting critical natural resources. This
forum on June 13, 2008, featured leaders from diverse perspectives
including state and local government, the environmental and
business communities, discussing how Minnesota might maintain
a vital economy and protect clean water, air, and open spaces.
Michael Grochala,
City of Lino Lakes
Tom Luce, Ameregis and
UMN Institute on Race and Poverty
Tom Stinson, Minnesota
State Economist and UMN Dept. of Applied Economics
Deb Swackhamer,
UMN Division of Environmental Health Sciences, Interim Director
Institute on the Environment
John Wells, Minnesota
Dept. of Administration, Environmental Quality Board
This session, held in May 2008,
focused on energy efficiency strategies for mid to large-sized
businesses and the benefits businesses can realize by improving
energy efficiency. Speakers reviewed current legislative requirements
and potential regulatory changes, provided an energy service
company’s perspective on reducing energy consumption,
and gave first-hand accounts of rising to the challenge and
reaping the rewards of designing efficient energy management
systems.
Gary Connett,
Great River Energy
Steve Flagg,
Quality Bicycle Products
Doug
Fullen and John Rohlf, Medtronic
Steve
Schultz, 3M
Ted Stearns,
Thrivent Financial
David
Thornton, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
The Legislative Preview Policy
Forum provides a valuable first look at the top environmental
priorities for the upcoming legislative session, and gives audience
members the opportunity to raise concerns or pose questions
to legislative decision-makers. The
2008 Legislative Preview Forum featured three panels of bipartisan
legislators: legislative leadership, transportation and transit,
and energy and climate change. Key committee members spoke about
anticipated action on issues and major environmental issues
under consideration in these areas.
Minnesota
recently passed new legislation to address environmental contamination
by arsenic, mercury, and perfluorochemicals and the potential
for risks to human health. Many of us are unsure what this legislation
will mean to Minnesotans and how it will affect our businesses,
our policies, and our health. The forum focused on gaining a
deeper understanding of Minnesota’s new biomonitoring
and tracking legislation and the risk assessment of environmental
contaminants. The forum also explored the complexities of risk-based
decision-making and the impact this has on public health policy.
John Adgate, Ph. D., University of Minnesota School of Public
Health
Richard
Becker, Ph.D., American Chemistry Council
Tannie
Eshenaur, M.P.H., Minnesota Department of Health
Jean
Johnson, Ph.D., Minnesota Department of Health
John
Linc Stine, Minnesota Department of Health
Michael Sandusky,
M.S., Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
David Wallinga,
M.D., Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
On June 20, 2007, this policy forum investigated
the growing tension between the increasing demand for water
and the constraints of limited ground and surface water resources.
The forum focused on current knowledge about Minnesota’s
ground and surface water resources and identified areas where
information is lacking. Factors such as population growth, agriculture,
and large manufacturing, were explored as well as how those
factors create a collision course between multiple needs for
water and an increasingly limited supply of Minnesota’s
trademark natural resource.
Jim Anderson, University of Minnesota
Chris Elvrum, Metropolitan
Council
Mark
Mason, Natural Resources Group
Laurel Reeves, Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources
Dale Setterholm,
Minnesota Geological Survey
On April 20, 2007 the Minnesota Environmental
Initiative convened a policy forum exploring the emerging focus
on carbon sequestration and climate change. This groundbreaking
forum featured experts and practitioners in agriculture, forestry,
conservation and environmental policy discussing the latest
developments in carbon sequestration, including the benefits,
opportunities, risks and trade-offs, and the outlook for sequestration
credits in carbon markets.
November 15, 2006, MEI brought together
a diverse group of regional leaders from the ethanol industry,
government, environmental organizations, agricultural groups,
and academia to explore key questions and issues about the ethanol
industry in Minnesota.
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