Rebuilding Green on Lake Street in Minneapolis

As most things in 2020, the Metro Clean Energy Resource Team (CERT) at the Great Plains Institute made our 13th Annual Resource and Networking Event virtual, minus the networking part. We rescheduled the event from April 30 to October 1, hoping we would be able to meet in person by the fall. Of course, that was not in the cards. We shifted the topic of the event from electrification to rebuilding efforts in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody on May 25.

The Metro CERT event centered on the story of a business caught in the middle of shockwaves of destruction following Floyd’s killing—after months of challenges due to COVID-19—and a broader look at the role of clean energy in rebuilding and supporting businesses along Lake Street and beyond. We also highlighted two Metro CERT-funded seed grants with a focus on the Black community in North Minneapolis.

Camp SEE Architecture, led by Alicia Belton, Principal Architect and Founder at Urban Design Perspectives, is a summer STE(A)M camp for young women of color, specifically middle school girls. The focus of the camp this year was “Climate Change” with an expanded definition to incorporate the current socio-economic conditions within our community toward accelerating climate justice. The campaigns could either reflect environmental stewardship or other broader community action for sustainable change. Due to COVID-19, the camp shifted to a weekly distance learning model with staff providing “Creative Energy Kits” that focused on designing for sustainability. In one of the sessions the campers enjoyed building a solar playhouse. Alicia and her colleagues will combine images and curriculum to do a video exhibit that will include some personal videos as well as finished projects.

We heard from Kristel Porter, Executive Director at MN Renewable NOW, an organization that familiarizes and educates the Twin Cities community about renewable energy by establishing relationships and building bridges around Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the world with a focus on the North and South Minneapolis Green Zones. They originally received Metro CERT Seed Grant funding for their Leadership Conference, which had to be postponed due to COVID-19. The conference was planned as a leadership training for high school juniors and seniors to understand the urgency to implement renewable energy into the energy grid, how renewable energy works, and ways they can participate in renewable energy now and advocate for renewable energy for their communities. Serendipitously, they were also working on a groundbreaking effort called Solstar to install 24 solar arrays on roofs in North. Kristel Porter described the inspiring project, as well as their Power North effort, and the commitment to hiring all Black staff and contractors living in North Minneapolis for the project.