University of Minnesota, Duluth
EN-9: Community Partnerships

UMD is a member of the City of Duluth's Urban Sustainability Accelerator cohort for 2014-2015, through collaboration with the City of Duluth, Evergreen Energy, and the local energy non-profit Ecolibrium3. working with experts from Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulane School of Urban Studies & Planning. The Project is focused around community energy planning, along with outreach and community engagement around energy efficiency and the Georgetown Energy Prize Competition. The group recently kick-started community energy-planning, along with staff from the Rocky Mountain Institute.

UMD participates in the MN Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (RSDP). The RSDP connects greater Minnesota communities to the University of MN to help solve problems and take advantage of new opportunities. As a part of University of Minnesota Extension, RSDP brings together local talent and resources with University of Minnesota knowledge and seed funding to drive sustainability in four areas: agriculture and food systems, tourism and resilient communities, natural resources, and clean energy. The UMD Sustainable Development Research Opportunity Program (SDROP) is an undergraduate program where students can be a part of sustainable development projects in the Northeast Minnesota community. (SDROP students have assisted St. Louis County with a sustainability plan, helped analyze and plan LED street lighting priorities for City of Duluth, and many other community-focused projects) UMD Sea Grant helps coastal communities with economic, social, and environmental issues by developing tools to help communicate and manage impacts of existing and potential future development on water and environmental quality. Sea Grant acts as an outreach mechanism for issues on local water quality, invasive species, and even riptide safety.

Victus Farm is a project that is between UMD's Center for Sustainable Community Development and the City of SIlver Bay, MN. Victus Farm was established in 2012, and has an ongoing goal of developing a system that will allow communities to create jobs producing their own healthy good and clean energy. UMD helped raise funds and established the farm, which focuses on developing intergrated fish, plant, and algal production system that will allowcommunities to create jobs producing their own healthy food and clean energy. The Farm provides greens and produce to local businesses and grocery stores along the northern Lake Superior shore, and faculty member Mike Mageau is leading research on scaling this effort to a smaller, more affordable model, in order to promote additional local businesses.