While recently recognized for its sustainability efforts, Moorhead is not alone in the metro for taking action to become a more environmentally sustainable city.
While it was recently recognized for its sustainability efforts, the city of Moorhead is following its city plan, not seeking recognition, while pursuing efforts to make the city more environmentally friendly, says assistant city planner Ethan Johnk.
The city of Moorhead announced in June that it has maintained its status as a Step 5 city in the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program, a five-step program that recognizes cities for making advancements in sustainability. The city started participating in the statewide program in 2017.
“A lot of this stuff was already being implemented by Moorhead, so it worked pretty well because we could kind of just hop in and take what we were doing, put it into this program and be recognized for what we were doing,” Johnk said.
Cities make it to Step 1 of the program by passing a resolution to join the program. Cities advance to Steps 2 and 3 by implementing a certain number of environmental best practices. Steps 4 and 5 are reached by reporting on and showing improvement on sustainability metrics.
This year, metrics that improved in the city included the energy efficiency of city buildings, replacement of street light bulbs with LED bulbs and reducing the amount of solid waste generated per resident per day. Across the city, 100% of housing is located within one mile of a bicycle route and 100% of traffic lights are LED.
“A lot of what we’re doing is coming out of the ‘Sustainability and Resiliency’ section of our comprehensive plan,” Johnk said.
The comprehensive plan, titled “Onward Moorhead,” was approved by the Moorhead City Council in March 2022.
Moorhead is not alone in its actions to become a more efficient, sustainable city. Other metro cities also have some sustainability efforts in the works.
Fargo: A history of sustainability
In Fargo, sustainability efforts date back to the early 1990s, said Bruce Grubb, former city administrator. Grubb continues to work part time for the city and sits on the city’s Sustainability and Resiliency Committee. Grubb named projects to sell methane gas and wastewater as major environmental sustainability efforts undertaken by the city.
In 2002, Fargo started selling methane gas collected from the Fargo landfill to Cargill to use as an alternative fuel to natural gas. In 2007, the city formed a partnership with Tharaldson Ethanol to use treated wastewater for ethanol production.
Each year, the methane gas program brings in about $750,000 and the wastewater program brings in around $1 million, Grubb said.
“Annually, that gives us the opportunity to be able, without going to taxpayers, to be able to cover some of these other programs that are part of the overall system,” Grubb said.
Recently, the city of Fargo has made advancements in making its streetlights and facilities more energy efficient.
The city of Fargo has gradually been replacing old street light bulbs with LED light bulbs, but the project will be accelerated because bulb replacement is one of five projects included in the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality’s Priority Climate Action Plan. Those projects are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state.
Projects in the facilities department have to strike a balance between sustainability and cost, said Bekki Majerus, director of facilities management. She also sits on the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee.
“My goal is to take a look at any project we do, see what we can do to incorporate sustainability or sustainable practices and also be cost efficient, because obviously money doesn’t grow on trees,” Majerus said.
One project that checked both boxes was a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system replacement when renovating Fargo’s public works administration building. Installing a new, energy efficient system cut the building’s energy costs in half overnight, Majerus said.
The city has applied for a $176,940 grant voucher through the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, Majerus said. The city plans to use the funding to replace the rooftop air conditioning unit at the municipal court building, installing window tint to second and third floor windows at city hall to reduce heat gain in the building and buying a computerized maintenance management system to help repair costs and maintenance.
The Sustainability and Resiliency Committee, which recommends actions to the Fargo City Commission, has drawn criticism from local environmentalists, who feel the committee has taken little action since it was founded in 2020.
John Strand, who chairs the committee, said part of the focus of the committee is to find grant funding for sustainability projects. He said the acceleration of the LED streetlight conversion is a direct result of the committee.
“I would say that’s the most tangible,” Strand said. “That came after we kind of got hit by people saying, ‘Well, what are you doing?’”
Dilworth: A smaller city
Like Moorhead, Dilworth also participates in the GreenStep program. It joined in February 2019 and advanced to Step 2 in 2020. The city annually looks at possible sustainability improvements, but is limited by its small staff, said Peyton Mastera, city administrator.
“We don’t have designated staff that focus on this, so it has to be part of our own internal visioning and strategic planning from an internal side of things,” Mastera said.
The city did participate in the Great Plains Institute’s EV Smart program in 2023-24, which recognizes cities for advancing electric vehicle readiness. The city did not meet requirements for certification this time, but Mastera said the city may reapply for the program.
“That gave us an opportunity to start evaluating some of our ordinances, engage with some of our partners, like Xcel Energy and others, about how we can become an EV-certified smart city and what we can do to improve in that realm,” Mastera said.
West Fargo: No sustainability plan, but taking action
The city of West Fargo did not have staff available for an interview, but in an email to The Forum, city of West Fargo communication manager Rachel Richter Lordemann told The Forum that the city does not have a designated sustainability plan. It is working toward implementing sustainability efforts in several project areas.
Those efforts include replacing high-pressure sodium street light bulbs with LED bulbs and adding six electric vehicles to the city fleet over the next two years. The city has planted more than 1,200 trees since 2021, and has expanded bike and pedestrian paths, Richter Lordemann said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ingrid Harbo
Quelle/Source: Inforum, 19.07.2024
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