Project for Pride in Living

We’ve all become familiar with the call to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Green is the new standard in just about every field; at PPL, the “3Rs” are applied in construction, business lines and daily operations.

It isn’t an entirely new approach for PPL. The agency has roots in rehabbing homes and creating sustainable mixed-use, mixed-income communities. A 21-year-old job-training business sells used home and office products. Yet, the conscious effort to be a better steward of the environment gains a stronger foothold every day, as it has with so many businesses.

Several recycling contracts now keep the trainees at PPL Industries busy. A redevelopment plan for a four-block cluster in north Minneapolis, titled The Hawthorne Eco-Village, aims to create a model for healthier, stable, and livable communities. New PPL buildings routinely incorporate sustainable elements. And a team of staff has been pulled together to examine more ways PPL can save energy, resources, and money.

PPL’s Green Activities

The centerpiece of a successful capital campaign PPL launched in 2001 was the consolidation of five service sites into one central location. The New PPL Service Center is housed in a turn-of-the-century building at the corner of 11th and Franklin Avenues in Minneapolis.

In remodeling it in 2004, PPL made an effort to use “green” building materials wherever possible. Construction was low-impact, salvaging the unused building itself and incorporating products that use recycled materials, such as the rubber floor, carpet, ceiling tiles, and bathroom partitions. The roof is of the highest-rated energy star material, with long-lasting, high reflectivity that will save both energy and associated costs for many years to come.

Sustainable communities provide affordable hosuing

The effort to incorporate green standards at PPL got a boost through The Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship, which granted PPL the services of an emerging architect from 2008 through 2011. The Fellowship is designed to promote the value of quality design and green building in affordable housing and encourages architects to become lifelong leaders in public service and community development.

Rose Fellow Abbie Loosen is focusing on an number of initiatives with sustainability as a goal

Foremost is the “Hawthorne EcoVillage,”: housing/development/large-scale-community-impact/hawthorn-eco-village a multi-phase neighborhood redevelopment located within a four-block area of north Minneapolis hit hard by foreclosures and home abandonment.

The EcoVillage project calls for redesigning a four-block site using sustainable strategies – creating more green space, pedestrian access, and the eventual construction of 30 to 40 new, affordable rental units that follow LEED-ND guidelines. The project starts with the rehab of six single-family houses that are in danger of sitting vacant too long (an environmental hazard on its own). Abbie is working with the Neighborhood Energy Connection to rate them based on the EPA Energy Star system.

Abbie is also pursuing an opportunity for a “green charrette” in the development of Touchstone Supportive Housing, which will serve adults living with serious and persistent mental illness. As the developer, PPL is emphasizing the healing aspects in design by providing a high level of indoor air quality and good lighting.

The charrette would involve a day of intensive work with the project team and a few outside experts devoted to developing sustainability priorities.

A Green Team of staff from across the agency has been created to examine ways PPL can save energy, resources and money. This effort is led by our internal Commitment and Connection to Mission team, enabling staff to take a powerful role in promoting the health of the organization.

PPL SHOP: Jobs and Good Stuff Cheap

For 21 years, the PPL SHOP has epitomized all 3R’s of reduce, reuse, and recycle. The job-training business opened with the support of Honeywell and General Mills with a plan to sell Surplus Home and Office Products (hence the name SHOP) to the general public.

PPL SHOP’s primary mission is to employ and train harder-to-employ adults by providing them with a rigorous work experience that focuses on conflict resolution, a positive attitude, dependability and personal responsibility. While Honeywell and General Mills continue to provide donations, surplus products have come from hundreds of other companies such as Medtronic, Family Handyman, and Thrivent Financial, to name a few. For many do-it-yourselfers, nonprofits, schools and small businesses, PPL SHOP is the first place they look for bargains on good used office furniture and equipment. SHOP also sells new items such as home décor, books, artwork, kitchenware plus more.

For more information and hours, call 612.789.3322 or go online at www.pplshop.org

Waste Not

On average, every American throws out 4.5 pounds of rubbish daily. The afterlife of that garbage is a story more and more of us want to understand and change.

Even as businesses are warehousing recyclables and waiting for the market to pick back up, no one is giving up on the idea that our landfills are environmental time bombs and not a solution to our need for viable waste streams.

For 21 years Hennepin County and a few private companies have contracted with PPL Industries to collect, tear down and recycle numerous materials. They continue to maintain these contracts, which include handling mattresses, batteries, computers, plastic bottles, cans, glass, corrugated cardboard, and paper through teardown, sorting and collecting.

A 27-year-old business, PPL Industries contracts with metro businesses to do labor intensive assembly and packaging, while teaching basic employment skills to adults with social and economic barriers to reach steady mainstream employment. Volunteers assist trainees in GED classes and career development efforts, enhancing the level of their work experience.