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NEW ULM-- New Ulm has taken a new step towards being eco-friendly.
Energy Services Representative Derek Nelson delivered the news to the Public Utilities Commission that New Ulm had completed step two of the five step GreenStep Cities program. The program is meant to help cities become more sustainable and have a better quality of life for their citizens.
GreenStep Cities is a voluntary program New Ulm entered into in April 2021. To qualify for step two, the city needed to apply 8 best practices in the areas of buildings and lighting, land use, transportation, environmental management, and resilient economic and community development.
Notable actions toward these practices include the New Ulm High School's greenhouse, the Community Garden, Rec on the Go program, and Pollinator Park. Nelson explained what the next steps will entail.
"Once you get to step three, and step four, and step five, it gets a little more intense," he said. "You need to start benchmarking actions and finding out how they are affecting the community. For example, safe roads for schools is something the city's claimed as an action we’ve done in the past. What that's gonna entail and how it pertains to GreenStep Cities and it's carbon emissions reduction is to figure out how many students use safe roads for biking and walking, how much its cut down on bus transportation, things like that."
Committee member Mary Ellen Schanus made the motion to approve the GreenStep Cities report and Shannon Hillesheim seconded. City Manager Chris Dalton then took a moment to acknowledge the work the Energy Awareness Commission has done with this program.
"This has been a really big step for them," he said. "It’s given the Energy Awareness Commission a focus they potentially were lacking after their initial inception. And with Minnesota passing the 2040 rules this is steps we're already taking to get there. This will put us ahead of other cities who hadn’t even started, good job."
The Commission passed the approval unanimously.