From its beginnings, Linden Hills Power & Light has been a local effort with origins in a few informal gatherings attended by a few concerned neighbors. And as we’ve grown, our core objective continues to be to engage and mobilize more and more members of our community, no matter what their ages, skills, or prior levels of community participation.
LHP&L is a 501c3 nonprofit. We rely on donations from families in the community to create our programs and support our initiatives. You can support us by becoming a member or making a tax-deductible contribution. Click here to donate. Donations offset the cost of our one part-time staff member to oversee programs such as the following. Less than 15% of funds are spent on administration (insurance, bookkeeping, accountants, Council of Non-Profits membership, website, email program, etc) more than 85% goes directly to program expenses. We are not raising funds to build an anaerobic digester, we’re raising funds to keep the organization running to bring you these great opportunities.
Plans
- Community Shredding Event – get all the old tax returns and other paperwork out of the attic and shredded and recycled.
- Recycled Fabric Bag Co-op – Volunteers sew reusable fabric bags to replace plastic and paper bags. Bags are distributed free of charge to local merchants.
- Continue and Expand the Green Cart, Curbside Composting Program
- Winter Coat Exchange – instead of buying new coats for your kids – come to the Noble Warming Event -and swap your outgrown sizes for new sizes.
- Leverage Hennepin County’s Apartment Recycling efforts.
Accomplishments
- LINDEN HILLS COMPOST PILOT: LHP&L spearheaded the Linden Hills compost pilot in conjunction with the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County – over 50% of eligible homes (over 1,260 households!) in Linden Hills are now composting their organic material, diverting on average 5 tons a week!
- REUSE ROUNDUP: LHP&L held the third annual ReUse RoundUp in Linden Hills helping homeowners declutter and get useful items in the hands of people who could use them. Over 25,000 pounds of material found new homes and were kept out of landfills or the incinerator.
- ONE-STOP ENERGY SERVICES: LHP&L partnered with CEE to promote One Stop Community Energy Services. Over 232 households participated with 73 going on to either get insulation work completed or a new heating system, reducing carbon emission by over 175,000 lbs.
- SCHOOLS: LHP&L supported Minneapolis Public Schools in introducing organics recycling to 21 schools. All our neighborhood schools, including Southwest High, Lake Harriet Upper & Lower, and Carondelet Upper & Lower are now composting.
- NEW LEGISLATION PASSED: LHP&L worked with State Representative Frank Hornstein and Senator Scott Dibble to change legislative language and move the composting of source-separated organics material up the waste hierarchy.
- TRANSIT GRANT – LHP&L encouraged residents to take the bus. 661 riders took the bus for a total of 3,762 rides during the first 2 months of the grant period. In the following five months 5,883 riders took 9,645 rides. Metro Transit used the model developed with LHP&L as the template for all their subsequent neighborhood initiatives. They even won a statewide prize for the direct mail piece we created together.
- ECO BLEND AWARD: in 2012 we launched the ECoBLEND Award – designed to reward and encourage green initiatives in home building and remodeling.
- ZERO WASTE EVENTS: LHP&L works with various organizations such as neighborhoods, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, YWCA, Team Ortho, and the Uptown Art Fair to reduce waste at their events.
- WORKING WITH OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS: Worked with Morningside Neighborhood Group to encourage their compost pilot, provided assistance to the East Calhoun neighborhood to start their curbside collection.
- SCHOOL WASTE SORT: Sorted 6000 lbs of school waste to determine percentages of recyclables and compost in school waste.
- CFL DISTRIBUTION: Distributed 1800 free CFLs to the neighborhood to educate residents on how easy it is to take small steps that have a big impact on climate change.
- GREEN CARPET FILM FEST: Hosted a great community-building event where Minneapolis residents submitted 2-minute movies about reducing energy and food waste and screened them at a film festival