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Green Partners provides updates about environmental education resources, tools, programs, grants and events to our environmental education partners.
Hennepin County has the following free environmental education resources available to partners.
Hennepin County Environmental Education & Outreach Team
Angie Timmons
Alisa Reckinger
Angie Ziobro
Christina Schmitt
Jessica Arika
Mary Karius
Patience Caso
Please forward this email to interested individuals and encourage them to sign up.
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 Ever wonder how recycling and composting works, or what strategies can be used to educate others about recycling and waste reduction? Learn about waste prevention, recycling and composting from industry experts and field trips to local recycling facilities during the six-week Master Recycler/Composter course. Sending staff or volunteers through the course can be a great way to build expertise within your organization if you’re looking to improve your recycling program or increase education about waste issues.
Once training is complete, participants commit to volunteer 30 hours inspiring others in their communities to reduce waste, recycle more and compost. Volunteer activities include staffing booths at events and designing and implementing waste reduction and recycling projects.
The spring course starts March 8 and will be held Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8:30 p.m. through April 12. Classes will be held at the Center for Changing Lives, 2400 Park Ave S in Minneapolis. Learn more and register.
For more information, contact Carolyn Collopy at carolyn.collopy@hennepin.us or 612-596-0993.
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We have a wide variety of environmental education resources available to help our partners educate residents about actions they can take to protect the environment. We’ve recently added some updated resources.
New and updated factsheets, brochures and handouts
The following factsheets and handouts can be ordered through our online environmental literature order form.
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Green Disposal Guide magnet: Use to promote the Green Disposal Guide, a new online resource that offers a range of disposal options, from recycling to donation to disposal, while also providing tips on shopping smarter, living greener and creating less waste.
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Battery recycling brochure: Updated to include three easy step to recycling batteries and a listing of the Hennepin County battery recycling locations.
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Hold the Mail brochure: Updated listing of steps people can take to reduce the amount of unwanted mail they receive.
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How to Compost flyer: Updated flyer with step-by-step instructions for starting backyard composting.
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How to Get Rid of It Guide: Provides a general overview of reducing waste, recycling, organics recycling and disposing of yard waste and hazardous waste. Available in English, Hmong, Spanish and Somali.
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Medicine program flyers: Updated to include new drop boxes located in Maple Grove and Osseo. There are now seven medicine drop boxes located throughout the county.
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Organics recycling guide: Guide to what can and cannot be recycled in curbside organics recycling programs. Tips for setting up organics recycling in the home are also included.
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Recycling guides in numerous languages: Our guide to what can and cannot be recycled at home is now available in Cambodian/Khmer, Hmong, Lao, Somali, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese.
Updated and new learning trunks
 Learning trunks and activities can be checked out by educators for use in environmental education lessons. Reserve any of the following learning trunks by contacting Angela Ziobro at 612-348-9850 or angela.ziobro@hennepin.us.
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Packaging waste reduction learning trunk: The packaging waste reduction learning trunk will help educators illustrate how purchasing products with less packaging reduces waste and saves money. The kits includes examples of low and high waste purchasing options and reusable options for lunches, coffee, and applesauce.
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Water quality game: The water quality game helps educators explain the importance of daily choices on water quality. This fun game gets participants moving and employs problem solving and innovative thinking in the learning process. The learning trunk includes all game supplies and an engagement guide to facilitate activity.
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Every Drop water demonstration kit: The Every Drop water demonstration kit will help educators explain the importance and relative scarcity of accessible fresh water on Earth. The learning trunk includes all supplies and an engagement guide to facilitate activity
Newsletter articles, social media post and images
Information to share through your communication channels is available on a variety of topics. New articles and images have recently been added about recycling, reducing waste, organics recycling, composting, disposing of hazardous waste, and protecting land and water. See all of the articles and images available.
New articles from Rethink Recycling
Rethink Recycling provides newsletter articles, blog posts and social media posts on monthly environmental topics for partners to share through their communication channels. The following new articles are available:
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Get to Know the Know What to Throw Guide (February): You can recycle more than you think! RethinkRecycling.com has new resources to make you a more successful recycler, including updated material pages and the newly revised Know What to Throw Guide.
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Spring Fix it Season is Here (March): As you start spring cleaning, look for those things that may just need a little fix or mending. Local fix-it clinics or online resources can help get those items back into working order and keep them out of your garbage.
See all of the articles available.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is accepting applications for a variety of projects through their Environmental Assistance Grants program. The state will be awarding about $1 million total in grants. Applications are due by 2 p.m. on April 13. Proposals are being solicited for the following projects that focus on community education and outreach:
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Outreach and education for climate adaption and community resilience: Projects would provide education and outreach to individuals and communities on adapting to the changing climate and preparing for extreme weather. Projects could also build community resilience by implementing a free community sharing service, such as a seed library, cooking/canning space, swap center, etc. Find details in the open grants category under focus area 1.3.
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Green Chemistry and design curriculum: Projects would support the development of green chemistry and design curricula at secondary and post-secondary institutions. Find details in the open grants category under focus area 3.1.
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Community outreach on choosing safer products: Projects would develop and conduct creative, effective information and behavior change programs on safer cleaning and reducing hazardous products in the home targeted to people in transition, including new home owners/apartment renters, new or soon-to-be parents, newlyweds, or recent immigrants. Find details in the open grants category under focus area 5.2.
 We recently awarded grants totaling $150,000 through the Green Partners environmental education program to 15 organizations to implement projects that will empower residents to take action to protect the environment. Projects will engage more than 40,000 residents in recycling, composting, reducing waste, properly disposing of hazardous waste and protecting air and water quality. Projects will engage residents throughout the county, and many of the projects will engage underserved, harder-to-reach and youth audiences.
In this funding round, we awarded up to $15,000 in the Branch group to returning organizations to build on successful projects and up to $8,000 in the Root group to organizations new to the Green Partners program. Learn about the projects awarded.
For more information, contact Patience Caso at patience.caso@hennepin.us or 612-348-9352.
Green Partners Networking meeting: learn about watershed games
- Date: Thursday, March 17, 2016
- Time: 3 to 5 p.m. (optional networking from 5 to 5:30 p.m.)
- Location: Sumner Library, 611 Van White Memorial Blvd, Minneapolis in the Nellie Stone Johnson Meeting Room
Join us to learn how you can bring the NEMO watershed games to your community. The watershed game is an interactive tool that helps participants understand the connection between land use and water quality. Participants learn how a variety of land uses impact water and natural resources, increase their knowledge of best management practices, and learn how their choices can protect water quality. The game can be used to engage participants in applying plans, practices, and policies that help achieve water quality goals for streams, lakes, and rivers. Different versions of the game are available for adult and youth audiences.
Networking meetings are open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. RSVP to Patience Caso at patience.caso@hennepin.us or 612-348-9352.
Fix-It Clinics
Fix-It Clinics provide an opportunity for residents to get free, guided assistance from handy volunteers on disassembling, troubleshooting and repairing small household appliances, clothing, electronics, mobile devices and more.
Upcoming Fix-It Clinics are scheduled for the following dates and locations:
- Saturday, March 12 from noon to 4 p.m. at Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners in Plymouth
- Saturday, April 23 from noon to 4 p.m. at Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rec Center in south Minneapolis
- Saturday, May 14 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Gramercy Park Cooperative in Richfield
An updated flyer is available to promote the Fix-It Clinics.
For more information, contact Nancy Lo at nancy.lo@hennepin.us or 612-348-9195.
The following projects are being funded through the Green Partners Environmental Education Program. These groups have been busy engaging their audiences in taking action to protect the environment. For more information about Green Partners grants, contact Patience Caso at patience.caso@hennepin.us or 612-348-9352.
Do It Green! Minnesota creates guide to hosting clothing swaps
 In an effort to promote reuse and provide free clothing to community members, Do It Green! Minnesota has successfully hosted clothing swaps for the past few years. Using that experience, they created a guide for hosting swaps called Swapping Made Easy. A clothing swap they hosted in February had more than 100 participants who brought more than 1,200 pounds of clothing for swapping. More than 600 pounds of clothing was exchanged by participants, and the remaining was donated to a local charity. Stay tuned for details about their next swap, which will be held during the summer.
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Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light engages youth and congregation members in climate change solutions
 Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light’s Youth Be the Spark program empowers youth to take leadership roles in their faith communities on finding solutions to climate change. The project is off to a great start in its second year in the Green Partners program having completed programming with 48 youth so far. Additional Youth Be the Spark program days will be held in late February and May. The newly formed Youth Leadership Team has engaged more than 400 members of faith communities in climate education and calls to action. And in response to climate talks in Paris, the group launched a campaign to help participants calculate their carbon footprint, pledge to reduce it 50 percent by 2030, and create an action plan to achieve their goals.
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Student leaders prepare to launch action projects with Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy
 Youth leaders from 12 metro area schools are participating in the steering committee for YEA! MN, a program of Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy. Committee members include students from four Hennepin County high schools: Minneapolis South, DeLaSalle, Minnetonka, and Edina.
Committee members participate in leadership and training opportunities and work with staff to coordinate and facilitate YEA! MN programs. In the fall, steering committee members received training in climate literacy, equity, environmental justice, and leadership development. In early 2016, they will work with their school earth clubs to launch youth-led action projects at their schools and in their communities related to reducing waste, recycling, composting, and conserving water.
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Robbinsdale Early Childhood Family Education engages families in environmental activities
 Robbinsdale Early Childhood Family Education is working to foster environmental awareness and action within all of their parent and childhood programs. This includes having families make their own green cleaners, offering programming inside and outside the classroom on recycling and reducing waste, and having parents decorate reusable bags with their children. Each environmental project includes conversations among parents about the challenges they experience in taking environmental actions and the benefits of taking action with children. Parents and teachers also bring their own reusable cups to class, preventing the use of hundreds of Styrofoam and compostable cups. They continue to track the number of cups saved through their Saved Cup Tally posters.
They are hosting a Children’s Earth Day Event and Kids Stuff Garage Sale that is open to the public on Saturday, April 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the New Hope Learning Center, 8301 47th Avenue North in New Hope.
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Eden Prairie Early Childhood Family Education integrates environmental learning throughout their programs
 The “Going Green in Eden Prairie” initiative by Eden Prairie Early Childhood Family Education focuses on engaging parents in different environmental activities as their children age. They engage parents of babies and two year olds on toxicity and green cleaners, parents of one year olds on waste reduction and recycling, parents of three year olds on water conservation and parents of four and five year olds on energy conservation.
They’ve integrated a variety of activities throughout their programs. Creative projects include creating wrapping paper out of old grocery bags and art and math projects out of materials like used egg cartons. Hennepin County attend their Winter Blast event in January to engage parents and children in reducing, reusing and recycling. Preschool students will tour the recycling process at the school with the janitorial staff in April. In addition to their food-to-hogs composting program, worm composting will be reintroduced in four classrooms. They will also be holding a backyard compost basics workshops with a Hennepin County Master Gardener and a spring clean-up for Earth Day to improve an overgrown pollinator garden.
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University of Minnesota coordinates network of student leaders implementing action projects on their campuses
 The University of Minnesota is engaging students from higher education institutions throughout the county in an Environmental Student Leader Action Network and empowering them to lead environmental action projects on their own campuses. To learn about opportunities and get inspired by student-lead projects from across the country, students attended the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference in Minneapolis in October 2015. The undergraduate student leaders are now working collaboratively with their peers from other institutions to design and implement waste reduction, recycling, climate change and outdoor education projects for students and faculty on their own campuses. The participating schools are Augsburg College, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), North Hennepin Community College (NHCC) and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (U of M).
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