Making it Green in Minneapolis - Saint Paul
“Making it Green” is an initiative of Mayor Rybak (Minneapolis) and Mayor Coleman (Saint Paul) with the Blue-Green Alliance, a national partnership of the Sierra Club and the United Steel Workers. The report summarizes the findings of the effort to position Minneapolis and Saint Paul as national leaders in promoting and developing green manufacturing technologies and services while creating family-supporting jobs. The document looks at the market growth and product opportunities in green manufacturing; reviews the strengths of Minneapolis and Saint Paul for recruiting and growing green manufacturers; highlights best practices from around the country; and makes specific recommendations to design and implement an aggressive strategy to increase green manufacturing in the two cities.
The report identifies three major areas for green manufacturing expansion in the two cities:
- Green building
- Transportation
- Renewable energy products.
The report identifies and describes a five-part approach to expanding Minneapolis-Saint Paul’s green manufacturing base:
- Initiating an aggressive, leadership-driven marketing plan
- Realigning the cities’ economic development tools to focus on these green industries of the future
- Creating and expanding receptive markets for these green manufacturers by sharpening procurement and public policies
- Creating a set of state policies and incentives to support the development of green jobs in Minneapolis-Saint Paul
- Leveraging existing efforts to forge the long-term partnerships necessary for success
This report is a strong example of one region’s efforts to expand its green manufacturing base. It provides excellent sources and frameworks for an assessment of local opportunities, insight into the broad partnerships necessary for this kind of effort, and a timely review of innovative best practices. It is a good model for local coalitions developing recommendations to create their own green economies, but may be more relevant for larger cities with more developed sustainability efforts in place.
