On March 1st, 41 people gathered at the League of Minnesota Cities to learn more about the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program. Attendees participated in small group discussions about specific best practice actions and got a primer on using the B3 Benchmarking energy management system. There were representatives from fifteen different cities and one county at the event, nine of which are already designated as Minnesota GreenStep Cities.
Peter Lindstrom, Mayor of Falcon Heights, welcomed attendees with his city’s story of success. Falcon Heights was a one of five pilot cities in the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program, and is now one of seven cities in the state to have reached Step Two. Falcon Heights is dedicated to being a sustainable city, as is demonstrated by their participation in the program but also the carbon footprint analysis they are completing for the entire city. Mayor Lindstrom applauded the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program for providing a path for cities that want to be more sustainable, through guidance and recognition.
Mayor Lindstrom gave a specific example of the streetscaping project his city completed along Larpenteur Avenue, a busy roadway that runs through the University of Minnesota campus. By adding trees, native planting and decorative concrete, the city not only achieved a complete streets best practice within Minnesota GreenStep Cities—they also addressed safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists.
Minnesota GreenStep Cities Coordinator Philipp Muessig from the MN Pollution Control Agency gave an overview of the program. “It is designed as a challenge, assistance and recognition program for Minnesota cities,” explained Muessig, “that defines specific actions, not a plan, since many cities already have sustainability plans and lots of other plans.” There are 854 cities in Minnesota, many of which are small cities, so this program provides guidance and best practices to support cities that might not have the capacity to define these steps on their own.
Minnesota GreenStep Cities can provide assistance to cities in a variety of ways: by helping to inventory your city’s progress on best practices and actions, providing a reporting tool for participating Minnesota GreenStep Cities, offering a staff advisor for each of the 28 best practices, and connecting cities with contacts from other cities who have taken specific steps. The program provides recognition for cities based on their implementation of a certain number of best practices—and calibrated to their city’s size and proximity to major metropolitan areas.
Workshop attendees then broke into small groups for deeper discussions around the best practices with category specialists. The Minnesota GreenStep Cities program is intended to provide a learning network among cities, to allow them to talk with one another and compare challenge, barriers and successes. By bringing city representatives together for the workshop, organizers wanted cities to have an opportunity to ask specific questions about best practices and hear what other cities were doing. The process of storytelling, and sharing examples of effective models between cities, helps to build momentum around the program and move cities towards larger actions.
The program concluded with a presentation on using B3 Benchmarking (B3). MN GreenCorps member Sarah Steinman, who is serving with the Clean Energy Resource Teams, gave an overview of the importance of benchmarking to help manage your energy usage, improve the efficiency of buildings, and to monitor energy improvements in those buildings. Sarah particularly highlighted some of the new features in B3, including a peer comparison to other similar public buildings in MN, based on actual comparison with buildings in the database. B3 now also provides an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager rating for buildings, and the ability to input data from ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (for those entities that may be using the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager benchmarking tool) into B3. A building can receive ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager certification with a rating of 75 or better. Sarah Steinman can provide technical assistance to cities who are interested in benchmarking their buildings in B3. Contact her at [email protected] for more information.
Laura Horner, MN GreenCorps member with Dakota County, shared a case study on the use of B3 for the Dakota County-Wescott Library renovation in Eagan. The benchmarking database was used to track energy savings achieved from the project, and to help demonstrate to the county the benefit of investing in energy improvements.
There are currently 40 cities signed up for the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program across the state. Visit the Minnesota GreenStep Cities website for more information. The first step to becoming a Minnesota GreenStep City is to pass a City Council resolution and appoint a person to be the lead to work on Minnesota GreenStep Cities. The Minnesota GreenStep Cities website provides a sample resolution that cities can use for this step. From there a city can begin work on implementing best practices, which is both the hardest and most rewarding part of the program. Each June, the League of Minnesota Cities recognizes the work of Minnesota GreenStep Cities across the state at their annual conference.
The workshop was organized by CERTs, the Urban Land Institute of Minnesota and the Great Plains Institute, in partnership with the Minnesota GreenStep Cities Steering Committee.
Download documents from the event:
- Sarah Steinman’s B3 presentation
- B3 Benchmarking factsheet
Check out photos from the event below:
Links to more resources:
- Minnesota GreenStep Cities program
- B3 Benchmarking energy management system
- Retiree Environmental Technical Assistance Program
- ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager
