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Tessa Parks is a young beginning farmer of color working to transform the landscape in Southern Minnesota. Along with her husband-also a beginning farmer-she owns and operates W.T. Farms, raising Holstein steers from calf to butcher and running a custom haying service. On-farm, Tessa uses livestock to build soil health through regenerative practices like winter bale grazing, but she is also an ...

The Food Group’s Solar Farmland Access - Emerging Farmers project seeks to increase land access for emerging, BIPOC, and immigrant farmers by utilizing spaces under and around solar farms. Initiated in 2023 with support from the Mortenson Family Foundation, it aims to create and implement best practices, as well as replicable guidance, for electric utilities, solar developers, and specialty cro...

Building soil health is key to facilitating resiliency across working lands in the face of a changing climate. However, soil health practices typically require specialized, expensive equipment that many producers do not own. There are no public forms of funding for soil health equipment available in Minnesota, and the private sector options are restricted to financed products and loans. Recogni...

Mary Lagarde, a member of the White Earth Nation, has served as the Executive Director of the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) since 2012. She oversees a broad range of programs in family services, youth services, culture and language, fitness and nutrition, elder support, workforce development, and native arts, and recently led the organization through a top-to-bottom renovation. MAIC...

The Forest Assisted Migration Project (FAMP) is a multi-regional research and community engagement project underway to re-establish a resilient northern forest and bolster the regional economy. The project is meeting this vision through 1) development and implementation of a robust network for seed collection of tree species and populations that are predicted to thrive in the future, 2) formati...

Great River Greening’s program-Cooling Minnesota Communities-is a massive tree planting initiative rooted in community-led collaboration, guided by community input, supported by a $10 million, five-year grant from the USDA’s Forest Service, and led by the skilled and experienced Great River Greening (Greening) staff. Officially launching in 2024, this partnership stretches from southern Minneso...

The Sustainable Growth Coalition, administered by Environmental Initiative, hosted a virtual sustainable procurement learning lab on Thursday, May 30, 2024. The session featured a panel discussion with Jon Smieja from GreenBiz and Olivia Fritz from TrueNorth Collective where the pair reviewed the state of sustainable procurement, best practices, the current policy landscape, and more. To learn ...

In 2023, the Source Water Protection Collaborative hired artist Su Legatt to engage residents of Little Falls, Minnesota on issues surrounding local drinking water. Her project, titled "Creating With & For Water," included a series of nine public workshops about art, storytelling, and water protection. Little Falls was chosen out of three rural communities to pilot this artist residency. The wo...

A recent study revealed that embodied carbon emissions from buildings account for roughly 11% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Reducing these complex sourcing and supply chain emissions is an important strategy to address climate change. Richard Graves, Associate Professor, Architecture; Research Director, Center for Sustainable Building Research, College of Design - University of Minneso...

Curious about what a sustainable landscaping project can look like on your corporate or office campus? Watch this short presentation from Barr Engineering Company ecologist and landscape architect, Fred Rozumalski. The Sustainable Growth Coalition meets quarterly to network, learn, and harness their expertise to advance the next frontier of corporate sustainability - the circular economy. For m...

Lake Street Solar recently partnered with Lundstrum Performing Arts to install solar arrays on top of their building in North Minneapolis. The electricity produced helps offset the dance school’s electricity costs and reliance on fossil fuels. After a few years, ownership of the solar array will transfer from Lake Street Solar to Lundstrum so they can use free, renewable energy for years to come.

Jamez Staples has lived in North Minneapolis most of his life, he grew up there and graduated from North High School. He knows the area’s history and continues to see firsthand the effects of racial disparities and environmental impacts in his community. Ten years ago, he decided to do something about it. He formed Renewable Energy Partners as a solar energy developer in 2013 after passage of M...

Sharing our Roots is a food and agriculture nonprofit and regenerative farm helping to build a more resilient agriculture system that heals lands, nourishes communities, and supports emerging farmers. For seven years, the southeast Minnesota farm has been a safe space to challenge the inequities of our country’s food and agriculture system and model a new way of commons-based farming. The farm ...

Climate Smart Agriculture for Minnesota supports climate resiliency in agriculture by developing and deploying tools to help farmers adopt climate smart practices and participate in carbon markets. It is a partnership between the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Farmers Union, and Farmers’ Legal Action Group, with funding from the McKnight Foundation.

2023 Awards: Environmental Innovation, Environmental Justice and Nature Immersion Program

Insights & Impact Forum: Transformative wealth building in BIPOC neighborhoods

The Ripple of Cars

The Ripple of Cars - Give to the Max Day 2022

Engaging communities in circular solutions

Climate, conservation, and regeneration: Partnerships to grow agricultural solutions

Insights and Impact Forum: Clean air for all? The unequal burden of air pollution

2022 Environmental Initiative Awards event

2022 Awards: Environmental Innovation, Apartment Recycling Specialist Program

2022 Awards Compilation

2022 Awards: Critical Collaborator, Verna Kragnes

2022 Awards: Large-Scale Sustainability Impacts, Reducing Medical Waste

2022 Awards: Local Sustainability Impacts, Brook Gardens: Clean Water Livability

2022 Awards: Rural Vitality, Redhead Mountain Bike Park

2022 Awards: Energy & Climate, Saving Energy in Manufactured Home Parks