One Neighborhood Eyes Community-Scale Anaerobic Digester
We here at SustainLane are willing to wager that when you moved into your new apartment last year, no one showed up on your doorstep with a platter of macaroons, and a warm welcome to the neighborhood. Are we right?
If only you lived in Minneapolis.
We’re not sure if any of the residents in the city’s Linden Hills neighborhood can bake a decent macaroon, but one thing’s certain: within days of your arrival, they’ll know your name, and they’ll know what kind of light bulb you use.
This is because the City of Lakes is home to some of the strongest neighborhood organizations in the country. Neighbors reach out to and get to know neighbors.
It’s this Midwestern affability that energizes Linden Hill residents and spurred them to take action against climate change. The neighborhood is now participating in a pilot curbside organic waste recycling program and looking into the feasibility of an urban community-scale anaerobic digester—possibly the first of its kind in the country.
“We started to get excited and thought, ‘Why doesn’t anyone else do this? They do this in Europe and in Australia,’” says Felicity Britton, executive director of the non-profit Linden Hills Power and Light (LHPL). “’Why isn’t America doing this?’”
It all started about two years ago, when Linden Hills’ children’s bookstore owner, Tom Braun, reached out to his acquaintances. He invited local polar explorer and climate-change activist, Will Steger, over to his house along with some neighbors. Concerned about global warming, Steger wanted the group to brainstorm ways that their neighborhood could reduce its carbon footprint.
Out of that meeting was born the, “Bike To School With Will Steger” event. Parents’ cars were left in garages, and over 150 kids biked to their elementary schools.
Impressed city officials here wanted to promote this kind of grassroots action as part of the city’s sustainability initiative.
So in 2007, Minneapolis became the first city in the nation to offer Climate Change Grants to neighborhood associations and other groups. The Linden Hills community, of course, jumped at the opportunity.
With the grant money, neighbors organized a door-to-door campaign, passing out 1,800 energy efficient light bulbs while getting bulb-recipients to sign on to Minnesota’s Energy Challenge.
The success of Bike Day and the bulb-handout inspired the group of neighbors to step it up a notch. When one resident suggested the neighborhood produce its own energy, everyone jumped on board.
That was the spark that created “Linden Hills Power and Light,” whose goal is to power homes and schools with energy produced through anaerobic digestion of the community’s own organic waste.
In anaerobic digestion, microorganisms break down biodegradable material. The resulting methane and carbon dioxide is a biogas that can be used to create energy.
“This is an idea that tackles two issues,” says Britton. “It prevents garbage from going to a landfill, and it creates renewable energy.”
LHPL secured $75,000 in grants from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Commerce to study the proposal.
In the meantime, the neighborhood is participating in a pilot program to collect organic waste. The refuse, which includes food scraps and non-recyclable paper like tissues and pizza boxes, is sent to a commercial composter.
When LHPL asked for “compost captain” volunteers, responsible for educating their neighbors about the new composting program, more than sixty people showed up…despite the sub-zero temperatures outside. The group ended up with 129 compost captains – more than one per neighborhood block.
Britton thinks she and her fellow Linden Hill residents are all enthused by the same thing.
“Just the possibility that our neighborhood can be an example to others and that people can be inspired by a little group of non-professionals and non-technical people,” says Britton. “That with neighborhood support, anything is possible.”
Related Links:
1) http://www.lhpowerandlight.org/
2) http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/sustainability/ClimateChangeGrants2008_InnovGrants.asp
Photo Caption: In Minneapolis’ Linden Hills neighborhood, Joe Sayles and daughter, Erica Gross, offer CFL lightbulbs to their neighbor, Bob Arnoldy. (Photo by Felicity Britton).
