Linden Hills Power & Light (LHP&L), is a neighborhood-based organization aiming to shrink our local carbon footprint through education, community engagement and action.  We promote sustainable energy, waste reduction and energy conservation.

We are currently focused on two main priorities:

1. COMPOSTING/ ORGANICS RECYCLING : We want to ensure the curbside organics collection pilot is a great success, with the aim that it continues in Linden Hills and is expanded to other neighborhoods in the city of Minneapolis. Currently 50% of eligible residents are participating and finding it much easier than they ever imagined. Click here for more details.  BUSINESSES AND APARTMENTS: For those in apartments, email info@lhpowerandlight.org for a form you can give your apartment manager or owner. Businesses can also save money and do their part for the environment by recycling organic material - join Clancey's, Great Harvest, the Linden Hills Co-op, Bayers Hardware, Zumbro Cafe, Linden Hills Florist, Cafe 28, Tilia, Linden Hills Dentistry, WIld Rumpus, Tea2 Architects, Rehkamp Larson, Extrados and more, in this environmental stewardship initiative. Call us 612-925-4249

POWER & LIGHT WINS 3 AWARDS! FULL STORY CLICK HERE! 

2. ENERGY EFFICIENCY: We work with several expert groups on energy efficiency initiatives in the neighborhood. After all, what's the point of purchasing/developing renewable energy if it's just going to be wasted through uninsulated houses, inefficient furnaces, etc. Sign up for the incredible One Stop Community Energy Services. $400 worth of products and services for just $30! Not to mention years and years of energy savings! Includes unlimited CFLs, a programmable thermostat, pipe wrapping, a blower door test to identify leaks and much more! 

There are several other forms of assistance available to increase your home's energy efficiency. A single person earning less than $21,184 or a family of four earning less than $40,736 qualifies for substantial retrofit efforts. Click here for details based on the size of your family and income levels. Eligible families receive on average $6,500 worth of weatherization. Don't qualify for these? Click here for some pointers on cheap, easy ways to weatherize your home. 

We also retain our interest in ANAEROBIC DIGESTION: Anaerobic digestion is a technology were organic material is broken down by bacteria, creating natural gas. It deals with 2 urban problems - the need to deal with the waste we create, plus the need for renewable, sustainable energy.  More info here.

Special events. Click here.

CURBSIDE COMPOSTING -It's so easy. 

Linden Hills and ECCO residents of single family, duplexes and fourplexes are now able to recycle their organics through a pilot Source Separated Organics (SSO) curbside collection program conducted by the City of Minneapolis.  You don't need a backyard composter, all you need to have is a willingness to try something new. Over 1280 of your neighbors will attest - it's so easy! The city drops off a wheeled green cart, you simply keep your organic material -food scraps and soiled paper  - separate from your plastic and recycling and simply wheel that material to the curb on your regular garbage pick up day. If you can take out the trash you can curbside compost!

You can join the Green Tub Club by reviewing the letter the city sent  here. 
Or,  Sign up for the pilot quickly by clicking here.     

Join Our Email List Email:

Why Compost?

 "The only effective method to prevent methane emissions from landfills is to stop biodegradable materials from entering landfills. The good news is that landfill alternatives such as composting are readily available and cost‑effective. Compost has the added benefit of adding organic matter to soil, sequestering carbon, improving plant growth and reducing water use ‑ all important to stabilizing the climate. Composting is thus vital to restoring the climate and our soils and should be front and center in a national strategy to protect the climate in the short term." 
-BioCycle magazine, August 2008

Significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. This is comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency. Indeed, preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting are essential to put us on the path to climate stability.
www.stoptrashingtheclimate.org

You can find a comprehensive, A-Z list of what is and isn't compostable here. For more details and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the compost program  click here.

Want to Reduce Waste Even More? 

Recycle your plastics, Brita filters, and natural wine corks
A program to collect  'tub plastics' (such as yogurt, cottage cheese, hummus containers) is now underway at Whole Foods Markets.  The Preserve company's "Gimme 5" program has a collection bin for #5 plastics at both metro Whole Foods Markets.  Preserve collects these plastics (as well as Brita filters) to recycle into household products. You can also bring your wine corks to Whole Foods for recycling through Cork ReHarvest. Check with Home Depot also, they may collect yogurt tubs for growing seedlings. NEW! East Side Co-op is now collecting plastics number 3 and 7. So that means they collect ALL plastics 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.

What IS compostable? What's Not?
For more information and FAQ about the Organics collection, click here.

WHAT DO WE NEED?

We need your help in ensuring the SSO Collection is a success! Become a compost  captain and encourage your friends and neighbors to participate. Click here to learn more.

Click here to see a short 2 1/2 minute video about LHP&L.

How can I get involved?

We welcome your ideas, comments and feedback. We are a neighborhood group, comprised of neighbors just like you. We are incredibly blessed to have brilliant people living in our community and many have already come forward to offer their talents - in market research, legal knowledge, graphic design, etc. If you have a skill you believe would be useful to us, give us a call! We could certainly use help with fundraising, grant-writing, business-plan creation or evaluation, 2-hour volunteer shifts at the Linden Hills Festival in May, joining a committee, or just joining our mailing list and spreading the word with your neighbors. Don't forget the green cart drill team! Anyone who would enjoy synchronized marching with a garbage cart is welcome!

Feel free to use the buttons in the boxes on the left of this web page -particularly the ones that say "? question" and "discuss". This website is designed to harness the collective intelligence that we know is out there, whether you're in our neighborhood or beyond. (In order to ask a question or discuss, you may have to create a login initially. It only takes a few seconds and we totally appreciate you doing it!) Click here for more info on getting involved.

We need your support!

This project cannot go forward without commitment from our neighborhood. And while financial support is nice, more important to us is your philosophical support – that you believe as we do, that Linden Hills is exactly the community that can make a replicable impact. To contribute time, ideas, suggestions, resources, or funding, contact LHP&L:

Linden Hills Power & Light
2720 W 43rd St, Suite 101,
Minneapolis MN 55410
Ph (612) 925-4249
Email: info@lhpowerandlight.org

This video shows our carts being delivered!

What if you believed that community involvement could change the world?

Linden Hills Power & Light (LHP&L) is an informal group of citizens who got together in 2006 to brainstorm how to reduce energy wastage in our community - Linden Hills.  More recently, a board of directors and advisory board have been assigned to actively target waste reduction and energy conservation tasks. We aim to make Linden Hills a replicable example to the rest of the city – by engaging our neighbors and moving them to action. Changing the habits of 4,000 households is not something a small group of people can do, but with the support of our community – intelligent, thoughtful, committed people – we know it can be done. In fact it's already being done in Europe - watch this short video about Sweden!