By Deborah Lynn Blumberg

Like communities across the world, Minnesota is vulnerable to the damaging — and increasing — effects of climate change. Over the past few decades, especially, the state has grown noticeably warmer and it’s likely to continue. Current projections from the Minnesota Department of Health show temperatures likely to increase at a rate of 5 degrees Fahrenheit per century.

The City of Duluth is already seeing the impacts. In 2012, heavy rains led to unprecedented flooding and severe damage. Four years later, a windstorm uprooted trees and caused power outages for thousands. And in 2018, 60-mile per hour winds prompted a storm surge that destroyed public infrastructure, requiring some $18.4 million to rebuild.

Residents and city officials understand that ever-changing weather patterns will lead to more extreme weather. The city has to be prepared. And in recent years, Duluth has made major climate commitments.

The city originally pledged to reduce emissions 80% by 2050 and undertook a huge infrastructure project that laid the foundation for future sustainable efforts. It moved from a coal-only fired steam system downtown to a hot water closed loop system. But residents and city officials wanted even more action to help stave off the worst effects of climate change.

Two years ago, the Duluth Climate and Energy Network — a network of local organizations that aims to move Duluth toward equitable, deep decarbonization — met with city officials, residents, and nonprofits to ask them to take extra action to help the planet. In April 2021, the Duluth City Council issued a Climate Emergency Declaration, recognizing that the effects of climate change are already being felt.

The declaration required the city to create a climate change plan within a year and act on its contents. “That created urgency,” said Duluth Sustainability Officer Mindy Granley. “We started thinking about what things our departments can do to make a difference in climate mitigation and how they can take action.”

The result was Duluth’s Climate Action Work Plan. The city won the League of Minnesota Cities 2022 Sustainable City Award for its initiative.

Putting the pieces together

At the time, Granley, who is a water resource scientist, was well positioned to work on the plan. When Granley joined Duluth earlier in 2021 in the new role of the city’s sustainability officer, she set up a cross-departmental City Sustainability Advisory Team (C-SAT) to workshop sustainability ideas and brainstorm solutions.

“It was really important to have people from different departments talk to each other and think about what climate means for our city,” she said. “If we’re going to integrate climate into everything we do, we have to build relationships and eliminate city silos.”

This then 16-member team led the charge in creating the Climate Action Work Plan. Granley and team started off by securing resources through the Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program. The program covered the approximately $15,000 cost of Duluth hiring consultants — Great Plains Institute and Common Spark Consulting — to help write a climate plan, plus a subsequent regional workshop where Duluth presented its progress thus far.

The city started putting the pieces of the plan together in May 2021. The C-SAT met monthly to determine sustainability goals. It integrated components of the Duluth Citizen’s Climate Action Plan (DCCAP) and the Imagine Duluth 2035 Plan into the Climate Action Work Plan in an effort to prioritize citizens’ voices and accelerate ongoing projects. DCCAP was created in 2020 from interviews with over 20 Duluth-based individuals knowledgeable about food and agriculture, transportation, buildings, and energy production, as well as members of the Duluth Climate and Energy Network.

The following January, the C-SAT put the finishing touches on the plan. In February, Granley presented it to the City Council where it was unanimously adopted. Officials and residents alike see it as a key milestone that will help the city strategically move forward with sustainability initiatives and meet climate goals.

“Like many of us who are leaders, I’ve learned that what you fund and prioritize gets done,” said Duluth Mayor Emily Larson. “This plan tells the community where we’re going and lets our funders know their investment is part of a tangible, specific, and measurable whole. It’s the culmination of years of focused work and intention.”

A tangible plan

The Climate Action Work Plan outlines specific and timely actions city departments can take within the next one to five years to lower their carbon footprint.

For example, one action carried out as part of the plan has been creating and adopting internal energy efficiency policies for city buildings and fleets. Granley and team wrote a new vehicle replacement policy in partnership with the fleets department.

Electric or hybrid vehicles are prioritized. Employees must justify a nonelectric purchase and show there’s no sustainable option. To replace all vehicles with more sustainable options will take time, she said, but the new policy is a start.

“It could take 10-20 years to reset the entire fleet,” Granley said, “but you have to set the flag in the ground now so you can make changes over time. It’s helping staff to rethink what we purchase.”

Actions in the Climate Action Work Plan are based on nine strategies from the Climate Emergency Declaration the city deemed critical to addressing climate change. These strategies are woven into each part of the work plan, and include lowering buildings’ energy consumption and reducing disparities in public health.

Phase I builds a foundation for how Duluth can reduce emissions. Its six parts include actions the city can take to reduce municipal emissions and strategies to eliminate institutional barriers. Specific required resources — additional staff or new infrastructure — accompany each action. This phase also includes a list of shovel-ready and shovel-worthy projects. The appendix discusses potential funding pathways.

Phase II is focused on accelerating climate action. It calls out the need for climate-integrated infrastructure, community-wide decarbonization, and support for community-centered projects. Both phases require collaboration across city departments and community sectors along with businesses and industry.

Since the city adopted the Climate Action Work Plan, it also joined the Race to Zero, a global campaign committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions no later than 2050.

Making a difference

Accomplishments and successes since the plan’s adoption are numerous. It helped Duluth earn Step 5 recognition — the highest level — in Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s GreenstepCities, a framework that measures sustainability efforts.

Duluth officials have worked tirelessly to secure project funding, and brought in more than $33 million toward sustainability-related projects and planning.

“Because of the plan, we’re able to really chase money and then tell a great story about impact,” said Larson. Securing money to cover the costs of project planning is key, she adds.

One recent grant will help map out the future of solar power in Duluth, first by driving a community-wide conversation about where solar-plus storage should be deployed.

“There may be community needs we’re not thinking of,” said Granley, such as a solar-powered location that integrates batteries in order to support community members during a grid outage, to charge phones or provide ice or food.

The grant will also help Duluth build a solar planning toolkit to share with other Midwest cold-climate communities. Larson said an aspirational goal is to find a more climate resilient way to pump the city’s water rather than relying on fossil fuels.

Aware that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, with cars as a main culprit, James Gittemeier, Duluth’s senior transportation planner, is focused on action items associated with alternative options for how people move around the city. He’s helping eliminate barriers to people using public transit, biking, and walking.

“We’re looking at all our street projects through this multimodal lens,” he says, “and building infrastructure for people of all ages and abilities.”

For example, universities in Duluth have long made it easier for students to use public transportation by making their student ID their Duluth Transit Authority access card. The city is exploring the possibility of doing the same for local high school students.

Gittemeier was also instrumental in securing a $25 million RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant from the federal government. Duluth will use the funds to make a 1.6-mile corridor along West Superior Street — a commercial area of burgeoning small businesses — more walkable and bikeable by rebuilding the road and replacing utilities.

Another idea in the works is to do away with a city policy requiring developers to include a minimum number of parking spots as part of developments. Instead, if a developer could decide, they may choose to put in fewer parking spots and put money toward outdoor spaces or infrastructure to support biking and walking.

“As we go after grants and look to change city policies, the climate action plan shows we’re committed and serious about climate action,” Gittemeier said. “It gives us direction because you can’t do everything. We know where to start and what to focus on. That’s huge.”

One challenge the city has faced along the way is not a new one: adequate resources to get the work done. “It’s about having the dollars and the people,” Granley said. Part of the work has been strategically shifting tasks and duties when needed and where possible. It’s also been critical to adopt a “do while planning” mindset.

“You have to deploy, implement, and plan all at the same time,” says Granley. “You can’t delay. The earlier you can set your policy, the better.”

Granley urges cities that may not be as far ahead on climate action to take steps today. A climate action plan is a good first step. “It’s about righting the ship,” she says. “Make the choice, start to invest, and transition over time. It’s playing the long game. But you’ve got to get started right now.”

Deborah Lynn Blumberg is a freelance writer.