Resources and networking the focus of Metro CERT's fifth annual spring event

Over 100 community members from around the Metro region gathered for Metro CERT’s fifth annual spring resource and networking event on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012! Click here to see the full agenda.

Kicking Things Off: City Councilmember Gary Schiff, who represents Ward 9, kicked off the event by welcoming attendees to his district. He outlined some of the broader steps the Minneapolis is taking towards sustainability, including benchmarking the city’s carbon footprint and measuring their progress based on a series of indicators.

Ecological Footprint of the Twin Cities: Professor Ignacio San Martin from the Center for Metropolitan Design at the University of Minnesota was the keynote speaker for the event. He shared his research on the Twin Cities ecological footprint, which looks at the impacts of consumption in the 7-county Metro area. Attendees were surprised to learn that the Twin Cities region has an above average ecological footprint, one of the largest in the country and even the world. The ecological footprint of Twin Cities residents is 12.02 global hectares per person—the measure of biocapacity by which the ecological footprint is calculated. To give some context, the World Wildlife Foundation determined in its Living Planet Report that the upper limit for living within the Earth’s biocapacity is 1.8 global hectares per person.

San Martin presents Professor San Martin explained that this is due in large part to the design of our metropolitan region, which in many cases both requires and caters to driving a single-occupancy vehicle. That paired with the fact that a great deal of food and other materials are imported to the area has resulted in a large carbon impact due to transportation. Electricity is also a major contributor to the Twin Cities’ ecological footprint, since over half of the electricity used in the state comes from coal-fired power plants.

San Martin also shared some of broad suggestions he had for improving the ecological footprint of the Twin Cities metro, including improving the livability of the urban cores to make it more connected and walkable. Trends in the last twenty years in the Twin Cities saw population increases primarily in the suburban areas. He emphasized the importance of density in urban design, since it is easier to manage waste and energy use when the population is concentrated in the urban center. Some of San Martin’s specific suggestions for improving livability in the Twin Cities included: improving access to the river and celebrating that resource as an urban amenity, building a green bridge to connect downtown Minneapolis with the residential neighborhoods to its south, and redesigning some major street intersections to allow for better pedestrian access and flow. Download Ignacio’s presentation >>

Diana and Julia present Metro CERT – A Year in Review: Metro CERT Director Diana McKeown and Organizer Julia Eagles then shared an overview of Metro CERT’s work over the past year, highlighting: the CERTs strategic planning process, the second year of seed grant funding for projects in the Metro region, the program’s progress on the GreenStep Cities program (11 new Metro cities signed on since 2011), efforts to secure funding for the next year, work with affiliates (that list is now up to 35 groups), promotion of the CERTified campaigns, and support to other community projects around the region. Download Diana and Julia’s presentation >>

Carl presents Energy-Savings for Food Service Industry: Carl Samuelson, Energy Efficiency Program Coordinator with Eureka Recycling gave a presentation on the Food Service Energy Leadership Program he manages. The program has worked with over 60 restaurants in the past year to help them identify low-cost energy saving opportunities. Samuelson shared a number of lessons learned from the food service businesses the program has worked with. He also did a brief question and answer session with Tracy Singleton of the Birchwood Café to get her perspective as a business owner on what motivates her to make sustainable decisions for her restaurant. Download Carl’s presentation >>

Paul presents Shakopee Environmental Learning Center: Rounding out the jam-packed agenda for the event was a “power team” of presenters from Shakopee—representing the High School, the Public Utility Company and the Municipal Utilities Association. Paul Nettesheim from Shakopee High School gave an overview of the Environmental Learning Center they are building at the school, which was also a Metro CERT seed grant recipient. The building, which began as a simple greenhouse project, has grown to be a state of the art classroom that will also serve as a demonstration site for energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Check out a recent news story on the center. John Crooks from Shakopee Public Utilities then shared their involvement with the project—donating the solar photovoltaic panels and small wind generator that the site will feature. He explained how it is a priority of the utility to support this kind of project in the community, especially as an opportunity to educate and support students in learning about energy systems. Finally, Bob Jagusch of the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association spoke about the broader smart homes and smart building pilot program that MMUA is leading in Shakopee, which the Environmental Learning Center will be a part of. Metro CERT has been an eager partner in these innovative energy projects in Shakopee, and is looking forward to their development. Download Paul’s presentation >>

Touring LEED-Certified Hiawatha Maintenance Facility: The City of Minneapolis was a co-sponsor of the event, and hosted the event at their Hiawatha Maintenance Facility. The building was completed in 2010, and received LEED Platinum certification for its green building design and practices. It therefore made the perfect location for this year’s Metro CERT event, as an example of green practices the City of Minneapolis is working to implement with all of its buildings and maintenance. Attendees also had the opportunity to tour the Hiawatha Maintenance Facility building which, as a hub of Public Works operations, isn’t usually open to public visitors. Greg Goeke, Director of Property Services at City of Minneapolis, led the tour of the building’s green features. The site now houses the Public Works offices, fleet and maintenance buildings, but served at the turn of the century as an infirmary for the Fire Department’s sick horses. In constructing the new building, they were able to recycle or reuse over 90% of the materials from demolition of the previous buildings. The current building uses natural day lighting, energy efficient design, a geothermal heating and cooling system, and heat loss recovery strategies to reduce its energy use. A number of water-saving features are also part of the site, such as rain gardens, pervious pavers and an underground water infiltration basin that keeps rainwater on the property. Having built the first LEED certified public works building in the country, the City of Minneapolis is now committed to benchmarking all new construction with the LEED design guidelines.

Attendees chatting Lots of Networking, Delicious Food, Zero Waste: Food was provided by the Birchwood Café for the networking portion of the event, in the form of sweet and savory bites accompanied by iced tea and lemonade. Eureka Recycling, the host site for the Metro CERT program, provided Zero Waste services for the event. As a result the event produced 6.5 pounds of compost, 0.19 pounds of recycling, and no garbage! Attendees—representing community groups, local governments, businesses, partner organizations, utility companies and state agencies—ate and mingled for the last hour of the event. They also had an opportunity to visit the various resource tables, including: Center for Energy and Environment, City of Minneapolis, Xcel Energy, MN Division of Energy Resources, Do It Green, MN Renewable Energy Society, and Alliance for Sustainability.

See more photos from the event in the slideshow below:

Several awesome organizations has resource tables at the event:

All presentations from the event:

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