Minneapolis Climate Action takes equitable approach to combating climate change

As reliance on clean energy grows, and the industry continues its exponential expansion amid worsening climate conditions, two groups are making sure underserved communities aren’t left behind.

Minneapolis Climate Action (MCA), along with Renewable Energy Partners, allied to help establish the Regional Apprenticeship Training Center, located in the heart of a north Minneapolis neighborhood. By providing clean energy workforce training and a space to do it in that’s along one of the busiest bus routes in the state on Plymouth Avenue, the groups aim to equitably facilitate the community’s transition to renewable energy.

“It’s meant to be an establishment to enable people in the neighborhood, people that are from disenfranchised communities, to come in and be trained in clean energy industries – industries that we have been left out of, historically,” said Akisha Everett, MCA’s executive director. 

MCA is new to north Minneapolis but has existed since 2007 as part of a group called Linden Hills Power of Light, a community group that organized action around recycling and carbon reduction. Now, MCA is led by Everett, who came over from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment during a pilot program to install battery modules to make the solar power at the training center self-sustainable.

Everett, a Black woman and north Minneapolis resident, said working with Renewable Energy Partners and its founder, Jamez Staples, felt impactful, prompting her to leave her position at the University and join the effort happening in her neighborhood.

“I knew I needed to be back here to help with this energy transition for this demographic of people (and) to help open some doors and be a person who looks like my community,” she said. “If people don’t have the information, they  never tap into the training or education needed to pursue this career pathway.”

Everett said MCA is taking a two-pronged approach to promoting usage of clean energy and making it more accessible to underserved communities. 

The first arm is through the installation of community solar gardens that MCA and Renewable Energy Partners have helped establish – one at the EMERGE recycling center in southeast Minneapolis and another at Minneapolis North Community High School. The solar gardens prioritize low and moderate income groups, helping them to become subscribers to renewable energy while getting discounted prices on their energy bills, which Everett called a win-win as climate change worsens. 

“People can feel like they are doing their part as we’re trying to come around this curve of energy transition, and we’re coming around this curve whether we want to or not,” she said. “We can see it just based on the sporadic weather conditions – hurricanes, flooding, and all this stuff.”

The second part of this approach is through clean energy workforce development. Among the training offered to community members free of charge are a 12-week solar installation course, a building science course that teaches how to make homes more energy efficient, an HVAC lab and an introduction to energy efficient construction methods. The building also features a K-12 STEM activities program that teaches kids about robotics, drone operation and 3D printing, among other activities.

Shubha Harris, equitable energy policy consultant for Fresh Energy, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that aims to accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy, said the accessibility of the training center to north Minneapolis residents is important to facilitating their transition to clean energy.

“A lot of that work needs to be done locally, because we have to upgrade apartment buildings and single family homes in every community,” Harris said. “Having workers that can do that work in their own communities benefits those workers and benefits the community simultaneously.”

In recent years, the Minnesota Legislature has ramped up efforts to limit carbon emissions and speed up the state’s transition to clean energy. A historic energy budget package passed in 2023 includes a new law requiring residents across the state to only use carbon-free electricity sources by 2040, along with nearly $250 million that funded the creation of more clean energy jobs, reduction of energy costs and further efforts to mitigate climate change. 

As governments and companies continue to invest trillions into renewable energy, Harris said the industry represents the greatest economic opportunity in decades. And since the industry is still relatively new, it also presents an opportunity to avoid exacerbating disparities that exist in established industries through investment in underserved communities, she said. 

“We have the opportunity to maybe close the gap a little if we can funnel the money more equitably and more broadly, so that the funding doesn’t go to the people that are already established and already successful in this workforce,” she said. “The clean energy transition is gaining steam, and ensuring that diverse communities and businesses from people from diverse backgrounds can benefit from the money that’s coming from federal and state governments will help to ensure those businesses benefit and their communities benefit.”

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