Northwest Case Studies
In a changing community, advances in sustainability are often the result of key individuals who provide the passion, motivation, inspiration, and guidance to a particular project. Such was the case on the University of Minnesota Crookston campus when two students decided that a new dormitory should have a greener footprint—this is their story.
Dan Evans and Jason Edens can be considered sparks—as the well-known cliché goes, “you can’t start a fire without a spark.” Together they have ignited enthusiasm for increased solar energy throughout the community. Their ideas of utilizing solar energy have spread to the Tribal Council at Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO), the faculty and students at...
The vegetable dehydration plant, Minnesota Dehydrated Vegetables (MVD), has secured services of an engineering firm to design an anaerobic digester pond to treat the process water from the plant prior to discharge to the city lagoon system. The construction began in the summer of 2003. MVD processes potatoes and carrots from the region, and supplies...
On November 2nd, 2006 the Northeast Regional CERT team toured what was described by one of the pioneers of the blower door test as “the tightest building in the U.S.” The Waldsee Biohaus Environmental Living Center outside of Bemidji is truly a marvel of green building design.
A strong sense of community is important for members of the White Earth Indian Reservation, especially among the elders. Last year, John Shimek, Alternative Energy Organizer for the White Earth Land Recovery Project, saw a need for a reduction in energy use for members of the White Earth Reservation, not only to reduce energy costs, but also to...
Bemidji State University received $8.3 million in funding from the state legislature in 2006 to renovate their science building, Sattgast Hall. Funding from CERTs provided financial resources for evaluating the existing ventilations system and for creating a proposal for evnergy and money-saving improvements.
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