Growing Cooler: How Land Use Can Help Minnesota Reach Its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

Location: Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
Contact Info: Steve Peterson: 651-259-1922, smpeterson@faherty-hood.com

Description: In Minnesota, the discussion is over: Climate change is real and it’s time to do something about it. In 2007, the legislature and governor took action and passed Minnesota’s greenhouse gas reduction goals that call for an 80 percent reduction in CO2 by 2050. To accomplish this goal, reductions in CO2 must come from all areas of production. The largest contributor to CO2 in Minnesota is transportation. So what does that have to do with land use? Click here for more info.

Find out at this free conference at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Dr. Reid Ewing, co-author of Growing Cooler, will discuss the relationship between land use development, transportation and climate change. Dr. Ewing will then moderate a panel of Minnesota experts focusing on three recent Minnesota-specific studies on the role land use can play in climate change and environmental protection. Panel participants include Dr. Julian Marshall, co-author of the Center of Transportation Studies’ “A Smaller Carbon Footprint”; William Schroeer, Transportation and Land Use technical working group lead on the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group; and John Shardlow, co-project lead of the Institute on the Environment’s Minnesota Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan. In addition, Michael Lander, a developer of many successful compact mixed-use developments, will discuss how the market is creating greater demand for these developments. Mr. Lander will also address the obstacles developers face in creating compact development and how local and state offcials can help reduce these barriers.