News

Recently, the Minnesota Energy Challenge, in partnership with Eureka Recycling and the City of Minneapolis, added recycling and composting actions to the actions people can take on the challenge.

If you’re as interested in seeing our schools cutting energy costs and their total carbon footprint as Senator Clinton and the United States Green Building Council are then there’s no doubt you’ll want to get involved with their upcoming series of webinars aimed to help schools across the country get a better idea of just how valuable some simple investments in green infrastructure can be.

The University of Minnesota recently received one of five Champions of Sustainability in Communities Awards given by the Sustainable Endowments Institute for the first time this year. The Champions Award recognizes schools with community partnerships that demonstrate the impact of collaboration in achieving sustainability goals.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Southwest Regional Development Commission recently received a National Association of Development Organization (NADO) 2008 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award for their Wind Development, Roads, Bridges, and Land Use Initiative.

On October 15th, 2008 from 1:30–3:30pm the Office of Energy Security hosted a webinar on the kickoff of Phase II of the DRG Study.

With energy costs on the rise and low-income families feeling the greatest pressure, the Otter Tail-Wadena Community Action Council and the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance are teaming up to weatherize homes and install solar heat systems, with a little help from the Central Clean Energy Resource Team.

Cross-posted from Center for American Progress

In The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, acclaimed activist and environmental leader Van Jones tackles the challenges of oil dependence, a sagging economy, and global warming itself, transforming these looming threats into enormous financial opportunities.

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA, October 6, 2008. Solar is the big winner after the US Congress passed the tax credits extensions for renewable energy generation on Friday 3 October as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

On Saturday, September 27th a fired up crowd gathered at the Minneapolis Urban League to help create a new clean, green, inclusive economy.

Recently, Minnesota Environmental Initiative hosted a forum on carbon cap-and-trade. The keynote speaker, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, spoke from personal experience in support of a carbon cap-and-trade policy at the federal level.

100 Schools, 3 years…How much energy can we save?   With the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon program you can save your school money and reduce your carbon footprint! The program is focused on helping schools reduce carbon in two ways:       1. Supporting carbon-cutting student-led projects       2.

You betcha, Powershift will soon be making a visit to the great state of Minnesota. The home of nice people, hotdish, Garrison Keillor, the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party, community wind, the highest voter participation rates in the country, and the Mall of America now has its very own Powershift!

Minnesota Powershift 2008 is much more than a conference.

On August 19th the Southeast Clean Energy Resource Team toured two green landmarks in the Twin Cities: The Green Institute’s Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center Building in Minneapolis and District Energy in St. Paul.

QUESTION Are any programs available to fund transmission interconnection studies and wind studies for C-BED projects? ANSWER Yes, the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Office of Energy Security has a Rural Wind Energy Development Revolving Loan Fund.

In April 2008, the Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) received over 90 submissions for this year’s Request for Proposals to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. This represents nearly a twofold increase in the amount of proposals submitted for spring of 2008, and attests to the tremendous wealth of clean energy projects happening in communities across the state.

Many land owners across the state have been approached recently with offers for wind energy land leases, leading the Northwest, Southeast, and West Central Regional Clean Energy Resource Teams to hold meetings in June where they discussed the ins and outs of land leases for wind development.

The Mahtomedi Area Green Intiative, MAGI, is a group of citizens who came together in December 2006 to initiate and carry out activities to reduce carbon-emitting energy use, pursue and acquire renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and encourage an enduring community commitment to sustainability.

Brooten, MN – Jerry and Linda Jennissen of Brooten hosted a field day today on their 200 acre, 160 cow dairy farm, featuring a methane digester project that recently became operational.

On Monday, June 16, 2008 from 1-3pm The Minnesota Department of Commerce gave a web seminar on the Phase 1 results of their Minnesota Dispersed Renewable Generation (DRG) Study. The purpose of the webinar was to inform the public of the first phase results, key findings, and conclusions.

CREBs in Brief   The Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) program is administered by the Internal Revenue Service and provides bond authorization for public entities on a competitive basis for renewable electricity projects. The benefit of the CREB program is that public entities receive the bonds at “zero” percent interest.

Dan Thiede live-blogs this session at the Minnesota Green Communities third annual statewide GREEN BY DESIGN Conference. View all conference presentations here.

Presenter: Pat Huelman, University of Minnesota Cold Climate Housing Program

Pat tells us how—if we can sharpen our pencil of building science, and better engineer—we can get better building performance while spending less money.

Dan Thiede live-blogs this session at the Minnesota Green Communities third annual statewide GREEN BY DESIGN Conference R.T.

Dan Thiede live-blogs this session at the Minnesota Green Communities third annual statewide GREEN BY DESIGN Conference. View all conference presentations here.

Facilitator: Dane Smith, Growth & Justice, former Star Tribune writer
Panelists: Ellen Anderson, Senator, State of Minnesota | Edward A.

Dan Thiede live-blogs this session at the Minnesota Green Communities third annual statewide GREEN BY DESIGN Conference. View all conference presentations here.