9.2. SR 05-16-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City of Elk az — River Request for Action To Item Number Mayor and City Council 9.2 Agenda Section Meeting Date Prepared by Work Session May 16, 2016 Kristin Mroz, Environmental Technician Item Description Reviewed by Climate -Smart Municipalities Cal Portner, City Administrator Reviewed by Action Requested Review Climate -Smart Municipalities partnership acceptance and discuss delegates. Background/Discussion This year, the city had the opportunity to apply for the Climate Smart Municipalities partnership. The international exchange program is part of the German government's Transatlantik-Programm and partners five Minnesota cities with five award-winning German cities to work collaboratively on climate -smart energy projects. The Transatlantik-Programm is part of the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program), a US -sponsored program designed to rebuild the economies of 17 European countries after World War II. The Minnesota partnership received a 3 year grant to fund this particular program. Elk River, along with the cities of Duluth, Rochester, Morris, and Warren, were selected from eight applicants. The German partners from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia have not yet been selected but each city will pair up with a similar German counterpart for a three-year correspondence. The program aims to apply university research to solve energy-related environmental challenges on the ground. The project includes partners such as the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and Natural Resources Research Institute, Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature Protection and Consumer Institute in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the Great Plains Institute, Ever -Green Energy, and the Minnesota Credit Union Network. Two representatives from each Minnesota city will travel to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from July 3-10, 2016, to tour energy facilities and work with their partner community to develop strategies for meeting the state goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 30% below 2005 levels by 2025, while boosting the local economy. The delegation from Minnesota will have 20-25 members including officials from EQB (Will Seuffert), MPCA (Commissioner Linc Stine [tbc]); private sector partners Ever - Green Energy (Ken Smith), MN Credit Union Network (Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union CFO Brian Volkmann); nonprofit Great Plains Institute (Abby Finis); University of Minnesota representatives (Natural Resources Research Center: Rolf Weberg. Institute on the Environment: Lewis Gilbert, Sabine Engel). The German communities will send representatives to Minnesota in September of 2016. P a w E R E U 6 Y NaA f RE]