When the City of Red Wing established its Sustainability Commission in January 2009, the members of Red Wing 2020’s Eco Subcommittee probably had no idea how well the city’s new commission would fit in with their goals.

The Eco Subcommittee, or the “Green Team” as the members of the group call themselves, is one of four subcommittees that make up Red Wing 2020 – a group of city residents selected by the mayor and charged with developing a forward thinking vision to help Red Wing move into the next decade and beyond.

Sustainability is one of several key components of the Eco Subcommittee’s goals. Another includes championing a new environmental center located west of Baypoint Park. This is part of a Red Wing city master plan to make better use of a natural setting along the river, which is currently used for other purposes. Other goals include working on an idea called Complete Streets, which makes the entire city better connected, and another has to do with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which lays the groundwork for low environmental impact, highly efficient buildings.

While these goals established by the “Green Team” Subcommittee help preserve and improve the environment in Red Wing, getting them accomplished poses a significant challenge for the entire community.

Sustainability

The City of Red Wing’s Sustainability Commission is taking its first steps to help improve the environment in Red Wing. Some probably hear the word sustainability and wonder exactly what that means, but in simplest terms it means preserving the environment while providing for current and future needs. It is a bit like a perpetual motion machine, a fictional machine that uses only its own energy to keep it going.

The City’s plans include four key ideas: providing a healthy safe environment; preserving natural resources; wise use of energy; and reducing pollution. The Eco Subcommittee suddenly found itself in the position of having one goal within reach: to provide guidance, leadership and support of the overall goals of the Sustainability Commission.

Brian Peterson, Planning Director for the City of Red Wing, has a two-part role in the entire sustainability process. First he is a staff member of the City’s
Sustainability Commission. Second, he is the cochairperson of the Eco Subcommittee for Red Wing 2020, along with Roseanne Grosso.

“Red Wing 2020 is a leadership organization,” Peterson says. “We want to be in a position to support the Sustainability Commission and take their message to the community.” On the other hand the Eco Subcommittee’s perspective is a bit more challenging with the City’s new Sustainability Commission.

The Eco Subcommittee, while trying to be supportive of the City’s efforts, finds it a challenge to set solid goals of their own when the City is already formally establishing their own. “We’re starting to get an idea where (the City) is headed. We want to make sure we are really in tune with the whole community process,” he says.

However, the Eco Subcommittee is not just waiting for the city to do all the work. Peterson and his subcommittee are looking for specific opportunities
within the City’s plans, which the Red Wing 2020 subcommittee can help facilitate. “We thought we could latch onto some specific ideas and help with
those,” Peterson says. In addition, the “Green Team” is offering suggestions and list of groups in the community who could help the City best achieve its
sustainability goals.

Some of those specifics include efforts to help reduce energy use by 10% over five years; promoting education of and conversion to energy efficient lighting and alternative energy sources; eliminating the use of herbicides on government property; and publicizing and educating the community about the effects of storm water run off to the Mississippi River.
 

Environmental Center

The second goal established by the Subcommittee involves taking a closer look at the City’s master plan for the area west of Baypoint Park. The long-term
goal is to establish an Environmental Center along the riverfront. This area borders nearly 3,000 acres owned by the Red Wing Wildlife League and could serve as a multipurpose nature area and learning facility.

This land is currently used by public works and also houses some dredging equipment. This poses another challenge to the Subcommittee since the current “tenants” would have to be relocated – adding to the cost of redeveloping this tract of land.

The purposes of reusing that space are several. First it could possibly serve as the future home for the Environmental Learning Center (ELC) currently housed at the Anderson Center. The ELC, which has been a part of Red Wing’s local education culture since it was established in the 1970s, provides education for local school students. It currently makes significant use of the Wildlife League’s property for educational experiences in nature.

The area being considered could serve as a better bike trailhead for the Cannon Valley Trail in Red Wing. Also, the long-term vision is to create paths and
walking areas where people could explore nature and wildlife. This would be a fascinating place for people to explore nature along the banks of our nation’s most famous river.

While there are ideas for this project, the next step, which the Eco Subcommittee wants to undertake is to bring this to the forefront of community discussion and planning. “The real question is how do we implement this?” Peterson says. “It’s a broad concept plan and we need to develop specifics.”

LEED Time

The third goal of the Eco Subcommittee is to support the efforts of and take a leadership position in establishing local environmental policy initiatives. The policy initiatives are varied and include things like general energy conservation to reduce greenhouse gases in the City. This goal also includes ideas like more efficient streetlights, a focus on LEED certification for new buildings and the idea of Complete Streets.

Complete Streets is a concept that makes everything we do on a daily basis be better connected from a transportation perspective. Complete Streets means
that in addition to travel by car, there would be a better street system to encourage walking, biking or using public transportation. Dedicated lanes for bikes and designated walkways for pedestrians are part of this concept.

“Everything is connected so you don’t have to hop in your car every time you go somewhere,” Peterson says. About two-thirds of all short trips people use their cars for are less than a mile in distance. The concept of Complete Streets would make it more realistic for people to walk or ride bikes for more of these short trips. One portion of this concept is already being implemented in Red Wing. About 20 new bike racks are being installed throughout the downtown area to encourage people to leave their cars at home more often and reduce pollution.

Naturally the other benefit is the healthier lifestyle this promotes. This aspect of the Complete Streets is something the Red Wing YMCA is helping bring to community’s attention through a program called Pioneering Healthy Communities. This program focuses on the nationwide crisis of obesity in adults and especially in children. “We want to encourage policy where we can promote more active living,” Peterson says. Complete Streets would be one of those policies.

The LEED concept is already being implemented in cities like Chicago. LEED certification is a system that encourages efficient buildings, especially in the area of new construction. Under LEED certification, new construction guidelines mean buildings might generate some of their own electricity and or they would follow higher standards when it comes to insulation. They would also incorporate more efficient lighting.

Some communities have established LEED based building codes already and more are making efforts to implement it. While the initial costs might be higher, the benefits to the environment would outweigh the added cost over the long-term. For larger buildings, like government facilities or schools, there could even be incentives built in to promote LEED certified buildings.

Like the other subcommittees, which are a part of Red Wing 2020, the Eco Subcommittee needs more “Green Team” members. The idea is to engage local citizens to serve as stewards or leaders to help bring these goals to reality.

There is going to be a lot going on with these ideas and many others throughout Red Wing in the coming years. Part of the challenge will be to coordinate all the activities related to the Eco Subcommittee along with the other three Subcommittees of the 2020 group. One of the biggest challenges is communication. “There are a lot of communities that have leadership organizations, but we need more emphasis on communicating with the public,” Peterson says.

Like the City’s Sustainability Commission, the Eco Subcommittee is just getting started. The groundwork has been laid and the goals spelled out. The next  step, recruiting stewards to champion the various goals means the hard work is about to begin.

Realizing the goal of Complete Streets and breaking ground and laying the foundation for a new Environmental Center along the Mississippi would be two incredibly valuable assets about which Red Wing could be proud.

To get more involved in the Red Wing 20/20 process and the Eco Subcommittee, contact Brian Peterson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it