The City of Falcon Heights is small but boasts two very large entities, The Minnesota State Fair and the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota (which would be more accurately named the Falcon Heights Campus). Falcon Heights is also “big” when it comes to thinking sustainably. In 2005, the city began exploring organized garbage collection through the Solid Waste Commission, and when that effort was rejected they took it as an opportunity to form a broader Environment Commission in 2006. The commission provided a forum in which to examine broader environmental issues, and includes seven volunteers and the Mayor, Peter Lindstrom, whom himself has a solar array at his home.
The city has made strides in a number of areas: lighting retrofits at City Hall incorporating motion detectors in lesser-used parts of the building, refurbished a city parking lot with permeable pavement and installing a rain garden to divert nearly all of their storm water from the sewer system. They also held rain barrel workshops and provided 75 barrels at a reduced cost for residents. While each of these accomplishments is significant in their own right, together with a number of other actions, earned Falcon Heights recognition as a Step Two GreenStep City in June 2011, the highest award in the first year of the program. City Councilwoman Beth Mercer-Taylor notes that GreenStep Cities “is the crowning jewel because it wraps everything together” as a set of specific actions and best practices for the city to implement.
Falcon Heights continues to strive to become a greener, more sustainable city. Some of the other opportunities they are considering include a solar installation at City Hall, encouraging local businesses to get energy audits of their buildings and creating ordinances for renewable energy projects to remove barriers and reflect community interests in city code.
