Green Jobs : Development News

Eric Brew, a St. Paul resident, has long thought about creating an arts hub where writers, painters, thespians, and others could hang out and feed off of each other. 

The timing seemed right, so he recently set in motion an online kickstarter fund, to which anyone can contribute, to make it a reality. 

He's eying a 4,000-square-foot space in Northeast Minneapolis, the previous home of City Salvage, which moved next door, for a combination coffee shop, bookstore, and creative outlet he's calling Brew's Coffee & Books.

To make it a go, Brew needs to raise $32,000 in start-up expenses, including the first month's rent and deposit, business licenses, permits, coffee bar, bookshelves, and plumbing.

So far, the project has received $1,575 in startup funds, according to its website. The deadline for raising the money is May 4.  

Brew, who was inspired by the famous Shakespeare and Company Bookshop in Paris, wants to provide a similar feel, with a book-filled partition and plenty of nooks and crannies. "It's the complete opposite of what's there now," he says. "It has an empty floor plan." 

The vacant space has hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, and a stage. Brew is looking to incorporate writing studios and a lending library, along with books for sale on consignment and dramatic performances.

He envisions a place where people can teach or attend classes, perform, and participate in discussion groups and more. "The biggest thing is having an open space available to all kinds of artists, not specifically writers or actors, but everyone."

Brew's will emphasize sustainable practices: "We promise to be as green as we can be in two environmentally taxing industries, coffee and publishing," its website states.  

For starters, the caf� will serve specialty coffees that come from a local roaster who supports "direct trade" coffee beans that come straight from farmers through an area importer, while sustainable practices will be constantly refined, according to its website. Food will also come from local sources. 

The cafe will try to use as many secondhand items as possible, Brew says. To get the concept beyond the idea stage, he's working with a couple of collaborators while also networking with artists. He hopes to open the cafe in June.   

Source: Eric Brew, originator of Brew's Coffee & Books
Writer: Anna Pratt

When the $15 million Hiawatha public works facility at 26th Street and Hiawatha Avenue South in Minneapolis was in preliminary stages, the city decided to make it a model for LEED construction.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. 

The building, which opened its doors in June 2010, recently achieved that goal--becoming the state's first local government building to achieve LEED Platinum status, according to city staffer Paul Miller. 

It's the highest level of sustainable construction through the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification program. The Hiawatha facility is also the first public works building in the country to get such a high score for going green, according to RSP Architects, which worked on the project. 

The Hiawatha facility houses construction and maintenance operations dealing with paving, sewers, streets, bridges, and sidewalks and the engineering laboratory, according to Miller.

The site has two buildings, including the 1914-built Hiawatha facility, down from 18 original structures, according to Miller.

A handful of years ago the City Council singled out the Hiawatha project to go for LEED Gold status--to make a statement, he says. "We established that bar before we really even got into the design."  

The building ended up getting Platinum status, which is a step above Gold. Achieving it involved "a lot of good pre-planning and a good architect who shared the same goal," along with a LEED experienced contractor, he says. "Those things came together and we got a lot more points than we ever thought possible." 

Additionally, the LEED status came at no additional expense, while the building will now be 60 percent more efficient than it would've been otherwise, he says. "That's a huge savings in lifetime [building] costs for the city."   

Among the energy-efficient measures in place: the building's heating and cooling happens through a geothermal pump. Lighting controls, the stormwater management system, and a smaller building footprint also help. But a big part of the certification has to do with how much of the building's old materials were recycled, he says. 

Concrete rubble was crushed for use as gravel base, while timber was salvaged and reused for window and door framing. Much of the metal was repurposed, while the fencing surrounding the site comes from the metal decking of the old Lowry Avenue Bridge. "None of what was existing there before left the site," he says, adding, "Obviously the city is very proud of it."  

Source: Paul Miller, city of Minneapolis
Writer: Anna Pratt

Some longtime residents of the Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul hope to turn a 13-acre vacant lot into a garden and urban farm.

They're envisioning recreational spaces, nature trails, vegetable gardens, picnic areas, and more on the sloping piece of land that has long  served as a sledding hill for community members. 

Patricia Ohmans, a longtime Frogtown resident, says the idea came up a couple of years ago, informally, in a conversation among neighbors about improving the area.

She says that city and U.S. Census data reveals that Frogtown is the neighborhood with the least amount of green space in the city.

Considering that green space is "one of the social determinants of health," she says, "Our neighborhood has been given short shrift."

They're hoping to collaborate with the Wilder Foundation to acquire the property, which the longstanding nonprofit health and human services organization owns. 

Wilder has been forced to sell off some of its property in the economic downturn, she explains.  

Recently the garden advocates drafted a 43-page plan of action, outlining their next steps to make their dream a reality. 

"We're imploring the foundation to hold off on putting this parcel on the market," she says. "We're asking if it would consider a collaboration with neighbors for a funding package that would benefit the foundation and community." 

The idea has garnered plenty of public support, with nearly 200 people showing up for a December community meeting on the topic, according to Ohmans. They've also collected a number of letters of support from elected officials. 

"We think there's a higher good to be served and we think," she says. "It's a very respected old institution in St. Paul and it has done a lot of good over the years. Their slogan is 'Here for Good,' and we hope they mean it." 


Source: Patricia Ohmans, Frogtown Gardens activist
Writer: Anna Pratt

Minneapolis will soon be a "beta" tester for a federal Energy Score program, along with nine other U.S. cities.

The energy-saving program, which Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu presented last week, is comparable to the well-known Energy STAR label for appliances, program materials state.

In Minneapolis, the program begins with an educational workshop that gives homeowners the chance to sign up for a home visit from a two-person team of experts, according to Carl Nelson, the program and policy manager of the local nonprofit Center for Energy and Environment, which administers a related Community Energy Services program in Minneapolis.

For $30, the experts will check out a home's energy use and offer tips for improving efficiency. A blower door test, for instance, can show how much air is escaping through open spaces, Nelson explains.

Another benefit of the walk-through is "It'll give [homeowners] perspective on how they're doing in terms of other homes per square foot," he says.  

Beyond that initial inspection, homeowners will get periodic progress reports that are based on their energy bills. By installing recommended items such as fluorescent light bulbs, programmable thermostats and low-flow showerheads, or tackling retrofit projects, people can improve their marks and save money.

"Staff can help figure out how to finance it as well," he says, referencing various rebates and credits that are out there. "People can come to us and say 'what can we get?' and we can hook them up," he says.

Nelson hopes the program, which will be rolled out neighborhood by neighborhood starting with about 300 homes, will transform the market for energy-efficient upgrades.

"There's a lot of potential for something like this," he says, adding, "We want to try to make it as easy as possible for people to save energy in ways that are cost-effective."   

Source: Carl Nelson, program and policy manager for the Center for Energy and Environment
Writer: Anna Pratt

The rooftop of the Minneapolis Convention Center is on its way to housing the largest solar photovoltaic system in the Upper Midwest--despite a series of low domes where solar panels won't be installed.

Work is underway on the flat portions of the convention center roof that will carry 2,613 panels. Last month the city issued a progress report as the effort was about a sixth of the way to completion.

One-sixth is also the proportion of the rooftop area that can support the solar installation, including flat and other areas over non-rentable space, according to information provided by Project Manager Brian Millberg and Chris Larson, facility director at the convention center.

Had the convention center been designed to gather solar energy in the first place, the roof would likely generate more power than the facility could use--raising issues about how to handle the surplus. As built, the system will generate 750,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year, all used on site. That would be enough power for 85 homes, and it means 529 fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere--the same amount as 60,587 gallons of gas would produce.

Newer facilities can go green more easily by building that way in the first place, but federal and other funds mean Minneapolis won't need to provide capital for the project. "The solar array is not meant to be a cost-saving project but a cost-neutral project that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels," said Jeff Johnson, the center's executive director. 

What's next for solar in the Twin Cities? State funding will pay for solar installations  along the Central Corridor light-rail route, including Fire Stations No. 1 and 19 in Minneapolis, according to Gayle Prest, the city's sustainability manager. "It's a great opportunity to showcase [solar]," she said.

Sources: Brian Millberg and Gayle Prest, City of Minneapolis; Chris Larson and Jeff Johnson, Minneapolis Convention Center
Writer: Chris Steller

In the midst of last week's wave of heat and humidity, all 58,000 square feet of space inside the City of Minneapolis' new Hiawatha Public Works Facility were comfortably chilled--but not with conventional air conditioning. Instead it was thanks to a geothermal system that brings the Earth's coolness (or warmth, in winter) up from underground.

That's only one of the features making the $9.5 million facility the city's greenest yet--and likely the fifth building in Minnesota to achieve LEED platinum status for environmental sustainability. (With LEED gold status already in hand, the city has an application for platinum status pending for the facility.)

The Hiawatha site in south Minneapolis has been home to the city's Public Works Department for more than a century. The 18 buildings once scattered across almost 10 acres are now consolidated into a single facility that houses department offices and the city's construction-vehicle maintenance shop. Indeed, the new building incorporates a brick structure that originally served as an infirmary for horses that pulled fire trucks and construction equipment, according to Senior Project Manager Paul Miller.

Miller takes most pride in the fact that even the 17 buildings that the city demolished got re-used, to the extent that the project actually gained LEED points during construction. Most projects lose points as waste material is hauled off, but "virtually 100 percent of what was there never left the site," he says. "That's the coolest thing."

The re-use wasn't limited to crushed gravel made from demolished structures. Miller says Knutson Construction and RSP Architects kept finding new uses for old building materials from the site--or even from off-site. The facilty's perimeter fencing served, in its past life, as the the steel-grid decking on the Lowry Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River, which is now being rebuilt.

Source: Paul Miller, City of Minneapolis
Writer: Chris Steller

Green roofs have special appeal on buildings in northern climates. They can insulate against extreme temperatures, conserving warmth in the winter and reflecting the sun's hot rays in the summer, in addition to limiting water runoff.

But most of what's known about designing modern green roofs comes from Germany, Toronto, and Chicago--places not as, let's say, rich in climatological variety as the Twin Cities.

With the wrong plants for this climate, well-intentioned and otherwise well-designed green roofs fail. So University of Minnesota horticulture professor John Erwin and graduate student Jonathan Hensley set out two and a half years ago to study which plants were best to plant on top of buildings.

They tested 88 plants on the roof of Williamson Hall, a university building that is mostly underground. But it wasn't ease of access that led them to choose a test site with a roof at ground level, says Erwin. The plants actually have a tougher time of it there, where the air is warmer and moves less.

Their focus was on "extensive" green roofs--those where plants grow in shallow tray systems that are light enough to retrofit. It's a matter of supply and demand: "Most roofs are already built," Erwin says. ("Intensive" green roofs use deeper soil that can need the support of structures such as underground parking ramps.)

The findings: forty-four plants, half of those tested, will work in Minnesota. Hensley's thesis containing the list will be made public this fall. That will help building owners inspired by examples at Target Center, Minneapolis City Hall, and Mystic Lake Casino have more success with green roofs of their own.

Source: John Erwin, University of Minnesota
Writer: Chris Steller

Actually operating the Midwest's largest commercial rooftop farm may yet prove to be the biggest challenge for Sky High Harvest, LLC. But in the meantime, founder Dayna Burtness has discovered that finding the right location is a challenge in itself.

"It's not like there's a directory of flat roofs," Burtness says.

Burtness is seeking to turn her four years of organic gardening experience into a for-profit business, raising high-end, interesting vegetables such as heirloom tomatoes, kale, greens and root crops.

But instead of growing food in the country, as she did while a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Burtness wants to grow it in the city, close to the market where it will be consumed. And since Minneapolis lacks expanses of available vacant land for farming, she's looking up for a building that could support a farm. Prerequisites include an EPDM surface, at least 10,000 square feet of virgin roof surface, and two access routes up.

That last one is a toughie -- but necessary to meet the fire code if farmers are to be toiling and tilling on top of a building. So Burtness has been scanning Google Earth's aerial images of Minneapolis, looking for the telltale shadows from twin pilot houses indicating two sets of stairs, on a nice, flat roof at least a half-acre in size.

Burtness is in consultation with rooftop farmers in New York City and Chicago and says she feels it's now or never for commercial rooftop farming to take hold here, in part because of the city's current "Homegrown Minneapolis" program.

Source: Dayna Burtness, Sky High Harvest
Writer: Chris Steller

You can think of the Energy Innovation Corridor as a second set of tracks running parallel to the Central Corridor light-rail transit line and taking the Twin Cities to an important destination.

The Energy Innovation Corridor is not an actual transit line but a group effort by businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations to promote energy efficiencies along the Central Corridor, from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis.

The Central Corridor line itself is "doing about 60 percent of what needs to be done," says Brian McMahon, executive director of University UNITED, a coalition of business people along University Avenue, which will carry the light-rail trains for most of their route.

Light-rail transit already achieves many environmental goals by getting people out of cars and encouraging more efficient high-density development. But as the Central Corridor project gained steam several years ago, University UNITED convened environmental groups to discuss how to ensure that anticipated transit-oriented development along the route went the rest of the way toward sustainability.

Among the concepts getting a push by the Energy Innovation Corridor are green building, better stormwater management, and solar and thermal energy generation. Retrofitting existing buildings and taking advantage of more energy-efficient land use along the Central Corridor are also priorities.

McMahon wants to make the Central Corridor a model for a holistic approach to transforming an urban environment. "Virtually everything the world is trying to do, we could show along University Avenue," he says.

Source: Brian McMahon, University UNITED
Writer: Chris Steller

RiverCentre and the Xcel Energy Center share a campus and a problem. It's a problem familiar to hosts the world over � cleaning up after the party.

Last year the two city-owned, privately-managed facilities were recycling just 15 percent of the stuff that guests left behind after events. And they must pay combined state and local taxes of 75 percent on what gets hauled away as waste.

Enter the husband-and-wife team of Patrick and Christina Reeves, who moved from Washington State to help the X and RiverCentre tackle their trash problem. The Reeves' small business, Progressive Associates, Inc., gets big buildings on track to operate more sustainably. (Another nearby client is the Science Museum of Minnesota.)

Touting the pursuit of achievable and measurable goals as the way to go, the Reeves set to work assessing the facilities' situations and systems. Twin aims emerged: recycle 50 percent of the waste annually, and reduce waste by 50 percent.

They're already close. In the first quarter of 2010, the recycling rate hit 45 percent, with an all-time high in February of 53 percent. "April looks like it's going to be the best month yet," Patrick Reeves says.

So far, he figures the recycling campaign has diverted 900,000 pounds of trash from the waste stream, and it's saving $17,000 on monthly bills from trash haulers.

While the two 50-percent goals could be reached within the first three years of the effort, the sustainability work is really just getting started. Next up: carbon-footprint reduction.

Source: Patrick Reeves, Progressive Associates, Inc.
Writer: Chris Steller