The historic Ard Godfrey House, built in 1848, is the oldest stick frame home in the Twin Cities. The house, now owned by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, is named after a man who helped build the first dam and sawmills for waterpower at Saint Anthony Falls along the Mississippi River.

The house has undergone several refurbishing projects over the years, including a few structural moves before finding its current home in Chute Square on the corner of University Ave and Central Ave SE in Minneapolis. Recently, Hennepin County helped with replacing sections of damaged exterior siding around the building.

The project provided opportunities for job skills training, relied on unique community partnerships to preserve the home’s historic character, and prioritized the use of salvaged building materials.

Project highlights

Cities play an important role in the solid waste management system, collecting over 100,000 tons of recyclable materials from 353,000 households in 2020. City programs also collected just over 8,000 tons of organics. The funding policy continues county support for city programs.

The policy prioritizes support for organics recycling programs and focuses on reducing disparities and increasing access by allocating funding to multifamily recycling programs and organics recycling drop-off programs.

Staff used the county’s Racial Equity Impact Tool (REIT) to ensure changes to the funding policy aligned with county disparity reduction goals. The application of this tool revealed that residents of single-family homes benefit from the funding distribution, while residents of multifamily properties do not benefit as much from the funding or have as much access to services.

The feedback and analysis led to two major changes: more up-front funding to help grow organics recycling programs and more resources allocated to support waste reduction and recycling programs in multifamily settings.

For more information, contact Ben Knudson at ben.knudson@hennepin.us.

Hennepin County recently awarded $47,200 to three cities to open a total of seven new organics recycling drop-off sites. The drop-off sites funded by these grants will increase access to organics recycling for all residents, especially those living in multifamily properties without access to city service and those in cities that don’t offer service. Drop offs also help raise awareness about the benefits of organics recycling and build interest in additional programs.

About 30% of our trash is food scraps and other organic material, making organics recycling our biggest opportunity to reduce our trash, make progress toward our zero waste goals, and take action on climate change.

Applications are being accepted for the next cohort of Minnesota Water Stewards. Minnesota Water Stewards is a volunteer program designed to equip community members with the knowledge and skills needed to improve water health at the grassroots level.

Stewards participate in an online training course from January to April, and then develop a capstone project that improves the health of local water while involving and educating the community. Hennepin County sponsors and mentors a cohort each year.

Interested participants must attend an information session and submit an application. Information sessions will be held Tuesday, November 9 at 5 p.m. and Tuesday, November 16 at noon.

Reducing energy use and increasing energy efficiency in buildings are key strategies to achieving the county’s goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Staff in Facility Services, which maintains and operates nearly 6.5 million square feet of county building space, have been focused on saving energy for decades, and those efforts have had a big impact over time.

In 2019 alone, Hennepin County saved nearly 17 million kilowatt hours of electricity. This is enough energy to charge an electric vehicle 340,000 times and drive it 22 times around the world!

Implementing changes to have the greatest energy savings have been so positive for staff that Facilities Services holds recognition event called the Hennergy Awards every year. 

So, what actions give Hennepin County the most bang for the buck in both energy and cost savings?

• Converting to LED lighting
• Installing more efficient equipment and building controls
• Turning off equipment and lighting when not needed

Learn more about how these changes have yielded big savings on the Climate Action website.

Throughout the Stop Food Waste Challenge, Hennepin County is partnering with Cooking Matters to offer workshops focused on improving skills in the kitchen and learning food waste prevention strategies.

Anyone is welcome to attend the workshops. All workshops will be held online, and you must RSVP to receive a link to join the workshop. RSVP for all workshops here.

But that’s also good news. We have the power to significantly reduce the amount of food that goes to waste, put more money in our pockets, and have a positive impact on climate change by making changes in our kitchens and when we go shopping.

But where do you get started? Many people working to reduce food waste have found that simply tracking what food goes to waste and why has the greatest impact on preventing food waste in the future. Knowledge is power!

How to track your food waste

Use the food waste tracking worksheet (DOCX) to explore food waste in your household.

Recently, participants in the Stop Food Waste Challenge spent a week tracking their food waste, and found that vegetables, fruit, bread and other baked goods, and leftovers were the most common types of food wasted.

Track the food you throw away for a week or two. To get a complete understanding of food waste in your household, we also recommend assessing what food you have in your fridge, freezer, and pantry that you are unlikely to eat.

The worksheet not only has you track what you tossed, but also asks you to reflect on why the items went to waste and what you could do differently to avoid wasting it in the future.

Make sure to think carefully about the reason your food went to waste.

For example, it’s probably not just that the food spoiled. Did it spoil because you purchased too much of it? Did it get lost and forgotten in your fridge? Or did you buy some fruit or vegetables for healthy snacks but never found yourself reaching for them?

Losing track of food in the fridge or freezer and not cooking food in time were the most common reasons for food waste for the Stop Food Waste Challenge participants.

The more you dig into the root cause of why the food was wasted, the better you’ll be able to come up with effective solutions.