Minneapolis Making It Green Report 2008

Phase I:

Initial Findings on Three Green Manufacturing Sectors &Local Economic Development OpportunitiesReport to the Mayors’ Initiative on Green Manufacturing

Co-Chaired by:R. T. Rybak, Mayor of MinneapolisChristopher B. Coleman, Mayor of Saint PaulDavid Foster, Executive Director of the BlueGreen AlliancePrepared by:

in Minneapolis Saint Paul

Executive Summary

...................................................1

I.

Green Manufacturing Marketand Product Opportunities........................................3

II.

Building on a Solid Green Foundation....................12

III.

Review of Best Practices inGreen Economic Development...............................16

IV.

Detailed Strategy Recommendations.....................21

Appendices:

A.Mayors AgreementB.ResourcesC.Green Companies in Minneapolis Saint Paul AreaD.List of ParticipantsE.Location Quotient Analysis for BuildingProducts Sectors

MAKING ITGREEN

in Minneapolis Saint Paul

The Mayors’ Initiative on Green ManufacturingApril 20081

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“Making it Green” is an initiative of Mayor R.T. Rybak in Minneapolis andMayor Christopher B. Coleman inSaint Paul with the Blue-Green Alliance, a national partnership of theSierra Club and the United SteelWorkers, based in the belief thatinvestments in solving critical environ-mental challenges, such as globalwarming, represent strategic eco-nomic opportunities for the future. Itsmission is to recommend policiesand actions to position Minneapolisand Saint Paul as national leaders inpromoting and developing greenmanufacturing technologies andproducts while creating family sup-porting jobs. There is growth andopportunity in green manufacturing,especially in building products,renewable energy and transportation—

green enterprise is an estimat-ed $229 billion market sector

.

1

The Natural Marketing Institute proj-ects that sales of green products of all kinds is “on track to jump (from$200) to $420 billion in just threeyears and then jump to $845 billionby 2015.”

2

This report provides base-line information about these marketsin Minneapolis and Saint Paul, bestpractices of other cities and a set of recommendations to guide the twocities. It calls for Minneapolis andSaint Paul to roll out a strategy tomake increasing jobs, products andprofits in green manufacturing acore element of their economicdevelopment plans. This strategy was crafted by a crosssection of community leaders whodevoted time and expertise to identi-fying green markets and developingrecommendations for the Mayors,other elected leaders and their staffs.From June to December, more than70 representatives of green industry,labor, state and local government,environmental organizations andeducational institutions engaged in aprocess to jointly move toward“Making it Green” in Minneapolis andSaint Paul. This is a starting point —Phase I — in a multi-phased processof identifying the green productsmarketplace, our existing strengthsto support its growth and ways tomarket our strengths and build up onthem in the future. The following highlights our findings:

●

There is and will continue to besubstantial

growth of marketsfor green products

— estimatesrange from 17-23% per year forbuilding products to 40% peryear for renewable energyproduction to 100% percent in3 years for green products of all types.

●

Minneapolis and Saint Paul have

significant strengths in manu-facturing and green productopportunities

. Phase I of theMayors’ Initiative looked at threegreen manufacturing sectorswith high potential for near termgrowth and job creation — greenbuildings, renewable energy andtransportation industries. Weidentified a substantial base of manufacturers with productapplications for 29 subsectors of these growing green industries.Further analysis of these prod-ucts and manufacturers, aswell as other green sectors, isneeded to target expansion andrecruitment to makers of theseproducts and align existingpublic and private resources tosupport them.

●

Minneapolis and Saint Paul arealready

recognized leaders ingreen initiatives

– this providesan edge in recruiting companiesthat are seeking sites in aprogressive green community,and gives clear market signalsthat their products will havecustomers here.

1 Management Information Services, Inc. Jobs Creation in the Environmental Industry in the U.S. and Nine States: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, April 2006. 2 Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, Press release May 24, 2007.