Saint Paul
City Scorecard Rank
20
Saint Paul, MN
45.50Scored out of 100Updated 10/2020
Community-Wide Initiatives
Score: 5.5 out of 15 points
Community-Wide Summary List All
The City of Saint Paul adopted the Climate Action & Resilience Plan in 2019.
Last updated: September 2021
Community-Wide Climate Mitigation and Energy GoalsList All
Climate Mitigation Goal
Saint Paul's Climate Action and Resilience plan includes a goal to achieve citywide carbon neutrality by 2050, with an interim carbon reduction goal of 50% below business-as-usual levels by 2030. ACEEE was unable to project if the city will achieve its near-term community-wide GHG emissions reduction goal because insufficient GHG emissions data were available for our analysis.
The city has conducted one greenhouse gas inventory for 2015.
Energy Reduction Goal
We did not find information regarding a community-wide energy reduction goal for the city.
Renewable Energy Goal
The Climate Action and Resilience Plan includes goals for 50% of households to participate in Xcel Energy's Windsource or Renewable*Connect programs, install 50 MW of residential rooftop solar capacity, and install 150 MW of commercial rooftop solar capacity.
Last updated: September 2021
Equity-Driven Approaches to Clean Energy Planning, Implementation, and EvaluationList All
Equity-Driven Community Engagement
While developing the Climate Action and Resilience Plan, the city hosted five community forums to solicit feedback. Four of the five forums were held in areas of concentrated poverty where a majority of residents were people of color. Additionally, each event was co-hosted by a community organization partner.
Equity-Driven Decision-Making
In January 2021, the City Council approved the Mayor’s appointments for a 16-member Climate Justice Advisory Board (CJAB). The CJAB will advise the Mayor and City Council on developing policies and programs related to the City of Saint Paul’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP). The CJAB’s focus will be to ensure that the costs and benefits of new programs in clean energy, energy efficiency, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and climate resilience and adaptation, are equitably distributed and address the challenges faced by our most vulnerable populations and neighborhoods. CJAB members are 50% BIPOC.
Equity Accountability Measures
Saint Paul’s Path to Carbon Neutrality: Building Sector report established a goal to reduce energy burdens in ten years so that no household spends more than 4% of its income on energy costs. Appendix 5 of the report included near-term priorities and year-one milestones towards the goal.
Last updated: September 2021
Clean Distributed Energy ResourcesList All
District Energy Saint Paul is the largest district energy system in North America, and the city played a significant role in its creation. The system provides heating and cooling to most buildings in the downtown area and integrates biomass-fired cogeneration, thermal storage, and solar thermal technology. The city also supported the creation of the Energy Park district heating and cooling system, serving several million square feet of office and residential space.
Saint Paul subscribed to a 3.2 MW community solar system and encourages residents and businesses to subscribe to community solar.
Last updated: September 2021
Mitigation of Heat Islands List All
UHI Mitigation Goal
The city’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan set a goal to increase urban tree canopy coverage to 40% outside of the downtown area and to 15% within the downtown area.
UHI Policies and Programs
St. Paul does not have any urban heat island mitigation policies or programs, but the city has released the Strategic Framework for Community Resilience, which states the intention to address stormwater management through green infrastructure, and parking lot design standards require green space, in part to reduce heat effects and provide areas for stormwater retention.
Last updated: September 2021
Buildings Policies
Score: 10.5 out of 30 points
Buildings Summary List All
The City of St. Paul enforces the state’s building and energy codes. The city has a benchmarking policy for commercial and multifamily buildings. The city offers several incentives, notably for energy efficiency projects.
Last Update: June 2021
Building Energy CodesList All
Overview
The State of Minnesota currently requires local jurisdictions to comply with the Minnesota Energy Code. The state based the Minnesota Energy Code on the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for residential buildings and the 2018 IECC for commercial buildings. St. Paul does not have the authority to set its own building energy code, but actively advocates to the state for more stringent codes. Additionally, the state allows St. Paul to set stricter building standards if the development is receiving public funding. To learn more about the Minnesota building energy code requirements, please visit the State Policy Database.
Commercial
Commercial properties must comply with the Minnesota Energy Code. The city’s zEPI score for their residential energy code is 52.5. St. Paul actively advocates to the state to adopt more stringent energy codes.
Residential
Residential properties must comply with the Minnesota Energy Code. The city’s zEPI score for their residential energy code is 51.9. St. Paul actively advocates to the state to adopt more stringent energy codes.
Solar--readiness policies
Saint Paul, like all cities in Minnesota, must comply with the state building code, which means that the City is not allowed to mandate residential new construction to be solar-ready.
Saint Paul is a SolSmart Gold designee. As such, the city has implemented programs and practices to streamline these procedures to encourage solar development and allows solar energy use in all zones.
EV-charging readiness and infrastructure policies
Saint Paul, like all cities in Minnesota, must comply with the state building code, which means that the City is not allowed to mandate residential new construction to be EV-ready.
Low-energy use requirements
The Saint Paul Sustainable Building Ordinance, which applies city buildings as well as private development receiving more than $200,000 in public investment, requires all new construction and major renovations to be certified either LEED Silver, MN B3, Enterprise Green Communities, or Green Star Silver. Regardless of what standard is followed, each building must comply with the Minnesota SB 2030 energy standard. SB 2030 is a progressive energy standard that ratchets down 10% every five years until 2030 when it will reach net zero. The Policy applies to all building types.
Last Update: August 2021
Building Energy Code Compliance and EnforcementList All
St. Paul does not staff any full time employees solely dedicated to energy code enforcement. The state’s building and energy codes require plan reviews and performance testing on projects exceeding $500. The city provides upfront support for energy code compliance. The city offers suggestions to work through the codes to find the path they feel is best for their project. After that discussion, city staff work with the project’s mechanical engineer on the mechanical portion of the energy code path.
Last Update: June 2021
Policies Targeting Existing BuildingsList All
Commercial and multifamily benchmarking
St. Paul adopted the Energy Benchmarking Ordinance to require commercial and multifamily buildings greater than 50,000 square feet to benchmark energy usage. The policy does not require buildings to disclose data.
Incentives
The city offers commercial property owners access to property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) financing for energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy installations through the St. Paul Port Authority.
Additionally, developments receiving more than $200,000 must meet the Minnesota SB 2030 energy standard.
The city also administers the Energy Smart Home program to offer residents zero-interest loans for energy efficient upgrades. The program is available for all residents, but allows income-eligible participants to borrow 100% of project costs without a match. However, it is currently inactive while the city amends its terms.
Saint Paul offers commercial and multifamily property owners access to financing for energy efficiency upgrades in new construction and improvements through the Saint Paul Port Authority’s MinnPACE and Trillion BTU programs.
Voluntary programs
Beginning in 2018, the city implemented a voluntary benchmarking program for commercial and multifamily buildings called Race to Reduce. In January 2020, the city passed a mandatory benchmarking ordinance, under which about 78.6 million square feet benchmarked in 2020. The City maintains the Race to Reduce to recognize all properties (and their owners) that make a full benchmarking disclosure, or about 79% of 296 properties that benchmarked. The city also recognizes buildings that have an ENERGY STAR score of 95 and above.
Last Update: June 2021
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Workforce DevelopmentList All
Saint Paul does not have programs committed to developing a dedicated energy efficiency or renewable energy workforce.
Last Update: October 2021
Transportation
Score: 13 out of 30 points
Sustainable Transportation Planning List All
Sustainable Transportation Plan
The Saint Paul 2040 Comprehensive Plan, approved by City Council in 2019, established a policy to reduce VMT by 40% by 2040. The plan lays out strategies to accomplish this by supporting transit, pedestrian, and bicycle focused infrastructure decisions. The plan establishes a modal hierarchy placing pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit considerations above vehicle considerations. The Plan should receive final approval from the Met Council in early 2020.
The Saint Paul draft Climate Action and Resilience Plan also calls for reducing VMT by 40%, with a sub-goal of reducing per person VMT 2.5% per year. This plan also provides strategies for achieving these goals.
VMT/GHG Targets and Stringency
The Saint Paul 2040 Comprehensive Plan, approved by City Council in 2019, established a policy to reduce VMT by 40% by 2040.
Progress Achieved Toward VMT/GHG Targets
Saint Paul does track progress toward their VMT goal and is currently seeing reductions in annual VMT citywide.
Last Updated: December 2021
Location Efficiency List All
Location Efficient Zoning Codes
Saint Paul’s zoning code encourages TOD, compact or mixed-use development and street connectivity in areas with traditional neighborhood zoning, as well as within master planned sites and within transit station area geographies (station area plans).
Residential Parking Policies
Parking maximums exist citywide and are more stringent along the Green Line light rail. There are no parking minimums in Downtown Saint Paul or in the Green Line Station area zones. In 2021, the City began reviewing amendments to the zoning code that would either strategically reduce minimum parking requirements based on context or eliminate them citywide. The study is also proposing to greatly update Saint Paul’s Travel Demand Management ordinance and program to facilitate use and incentivize multimodal transportation choices.
Location Efficiency Incentives and Disclosure
New development along the Green Line automatically gets a density bonus given that there are no parking minimums. A minimum floor-to-area ratio (FAR) of 0.5 is required in light rail station areas. In 2020, the City adopted updates to Residential Multifamily zoning districts to facilitate greater by-right density as well as provide an optional density bonus for including affordable housing.
Last Updated: December 2021
Mode Shift List All
Mode Shift Targets
The 2040 Saint Paul Comprehensive Plan, approved by the City Council in 2019, establishes mode share targets as follows: 25% walking, 20% public transit, 8% bicycling by 2040. The draft Climate Action Plan also lists a goal to ensure that 85% of Saint Paul residents have safe access to protected active transportation facilities and to increase miles of bike infrastructure to 300 miles by 2050 and close all sidewalk gaps by 2050, with interim goals for each.
Progress Achieved Toward Mode Shift Targets
Saint Paul does not track progress towards their mode shift target.
Complete Streets
The City of Saint Paul City Council adopted a Complete Streets resolution in 2009. Subsequently, City Staff developed the Saint Paul Street Design Manual and Complete Streets Action Plan, which were adopted in 2016.
Last Updated: December 2021
Public Transit List All
Transportation Funding
The transportation entities that serve the City of Saint Paul have received $7,781,422.60 on average annually between 2015 and 2019. That equates to roughly $2.73 per capita between 2015 and 2019 within the Authority's service area.
Access to Transit Services
The Transit Connectivity Index measures transit service levels. It is based on the number of bus routes and train stations within walking distance for households scaled by frequency of service. The city of Saint Paul's Transit Connectivity Index value is 7.7, scoring 1 point in the City Scorecard.
Last Updated: December 2021
Efficient VehiclesList All
Vehicle Purchase Incentives
Neither the City or Xcel Energy currently offer incentives for the purchase of high-efficiency vehicles. However, Xcel has filed a proposal with the PUC to offer rebates on the purchase of EVs. The Saint Paul Climate Action and Resilience Plan calls for incentivizing the sale of electric vehicles and expanding the charging infrastructure so that 40% of vehicles on city streets are electric by 2030.
Vehicle Infrastructure Incentives
Xcel Energy has a vision of powering 1.5 million electric vehicles across the communities it serves by 2030. In Minnesota, Xcel Energy is providing more than $25 million in support for electric transportation. Xcel Energy offers several programs for residential EV charging, including two programs that provide direct install and maintenance of home chargers, while other programs offer special charging rates.
EV Charging Locations
The City has 24 charging ports available for public use, equivalent to 7.8 ports per 100,000 people.
Electric School Bus Goal
Saint Paul does not have an electric school bus goal.
EV Transit Bus Goal
In 2018, Metro Transit released a plan to introduce electric busses to its fleet, beginning with eight and growing the number to 75 by 2022. The plan is not going as planned. Only eight electric busses have been purchased thus far and Metro Transit appears to be shifting to bio-diesel.
Last Updated: December 2021
Freight System EfficiencyList All
Saint Paul’s comprehensive plan outlines a number of goals to improve the overall efficiency of the freight system. These include:
1. Prioritize investments in infrastructure that improve river commerce and conditions necessary to maintain and grow regional logistics and commodities hubs connecting, river, rail, truck modes.
2. Explore freight delivery solutions that resolve loading/unloading conflicts in congested areas so as to support businesses and provide safety to pedestrians and road users.
3. Work with agency partners and the Saint Paul Port Authority to implement and support freight transportation improvements in and near industrial areas of regional economic importance.
Last Updated: December 2021
Clean, Efficient Transportation for Low-Income CommunitiesList All
Affordable New TOD Housing Policy
Saint Paul’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program awards site selection priority points to affordable housing proposed along high-frequency transit routes (i.e., Green Line Light Rail, Bus Rapid Transit, or higher-frequency bus lines).
Connecting Existing Affordable Housing Stock to Efficient Transportation Options
The new EV Spot Network/Evie carshare service, launched in July 2021, will include a reduced rate for low-income residents, as well as a monthly usage credit. Evie carshare will be the program most similar to BlueLA in the country upon launch. The rate structure, including low-income rates, have not been made public yet.
Last Updated: December 2021
Energy & Water Utilities
Score: 13 out of 15 points
Energy & Water Utilities Summary List All
Xcel Energy, an investor-owned utility (IOU), is the primary electric and natural gas utility for the City of Saint Paul. The State of Minnesota requires spending and savings targets for its utilities through an EERS. Utilities are also required to file IRPs to the Public Utilities Commission identifying how known resources will meet consumer need in future years. This includes energy efficiency as a significant resource. Minnesota passed the Energy Conservation and Optimization (ECO) Act in May 2021, which gives utilities more options for how they help customers save energy. The ECO Act increases the energy efficiency resource standard and raises energy efficiency spending to assist low-income households. To learn more about the state requirements for electric and gas efficiency, please visit the Minnesota page of the State Database.
The Saint Paul Regional Water Services is the municipal utility that provides the City of Saint Paul with drinking water services. Wastewater treatment is provided by the Metropolitan Council. Stormwater management is provided by two watershed districts and the City of Saint Paul.
Last Updated: July 2021
Electricity and Natural Gas Efficiency SavingsList All
In 2019, according to Xcel Energy, they achieved 404,837 MWh in net electric incremental savings, representing 1.40% of retail sales. In 2019, Xcel spent $92,816,075 on electric energy efficiency programs, which represents 2.06% of its retail revenue.
In 2019, Xcel reported 5.85 MMtherms of net natural gas savings at the meter, which represents 0.93% of its retail sales across the utility’s service territory. In 2019, Xcel spent $13,929,520 on natural gas energy efficiency, which equates to $30.04 per residential customer. These savings figures cover the utility’s entire service jurisdiction, not just Saint Paul.
Xcel offers natural gas and electric efficiency incentives and technical assistance to residential and commercial/industrial customers.
Saint Paul participates in Xcel Energy’s Partners in Energy program where the city and utility partner to set energy efficiency targets and determine renewable energy strategies to work toward carbon neutrality by 2050 in the building sector. Through this program, Xcel Energy provided the City of Saint Paul access to data regarding energy use by customer, neighborhood, business district, census track, and other local configurations. Developers complying with the Saint Paul Sustainable Building Ordinance must participate in the Xcel’s Energy Design Assistance program. Those projects are then eligible to receive incentives from Xcel Energy.
Last Updated: July 2021
Low-Income & Multifamily EE Programs List All
Low-Income Programs
Xcel Energy offers a portfolio of programs for low-income customers, including the Home Energy Savings Program (HESP), Low Income Home Energy Savings Program (LIHES), and Multi-Family Energy Savings Program (MESP). HESP offers free home energy education and improvement services to income-qualifying customers. HESP starts with a home assessment and installation of LED lighting. Additional measures offered are refrigerator, freezer, room air conditioner replacement and recycling. For natural gas customers the program offers replacement of furnace, boiler or water heater. HESP will also provide weatherization services for homes heated with natural gas or electricity from Xcel Energy, and the program coordinates with the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). The LIHES Program offers installation services to electric and gas customers who seek to improve their homes’ comfort and lower their utility bills. During a home visit, the program identifies energy savings opportunities, educates customers about energy-saving measures, and then installs the customers’ measures of choice, such as light bulbs, water efficiency measures, and door and attic hatch weatherstripping.
MESP offers free education and electric saving measures to income-qualifying multi-family buildings. Services are provided in the resident’s units and include installation of LED bulbs, replacement and recycling of refrigerators, freezers, and room air conditioners. Outside of the low-income portfolio, the Multi-Family Building Efficiency Program will provide double incentive for income-qualified buildings.
Income eligible participants may leverage funding through the Weatherization Assistant Program or other external sources—such as City funded and administered grant programs—while participating in utility-managed programs. Beyond funding for efficiency projects, some communities support the program outreach through their staff, community members and city specific communications resources. Health and safety measures were not eligible for conservation improvement program (CIP) funding in 2019 or 2020. However, funding for health and safety measures was recently approved to be funded through the Home Energy Savings Program (HESP) starting in 2021.
In 2019, according to Xcel Energy, it achieved 2,187 MWh and 0.08 MMtherms in energy savings, while spending $2,486,988 and $1,578,353 on electric and natural gas low-income programs, respectively. In 2019, Xcel Energy served 4,269 electric and 759 natural gas low-income customers.
The City of Saint Paul invested $1 million into its Energy Smart Homes no-interest loan program. The program is temporarily inactive as the city works to improve its efficacy by amending the terms while adhering to federal guidelines. The program implemented in partnership with the Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) and offered up to $6,500 for attic and wall insulation and air sealing, heating system upgrades, water heaters, and electrical or ventilation related work.
Multifamily Programs
Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy jointly offer the Multi-Family Building Efficiency (MFBE) program and the Multi-Family Energy Savings Program. The MFBE provides a free whole-building energy audit, whole-building energy usage, free installation of screw-in LEDs, energy-saving faucet aerators and showerheads, water heater blanket and LED signs in the resident’s units and common areas of the buildings. If the building has sufficient cost-effective savings opportunities to reach a minimum of 15% energy savings, they can achieve an incentive of at least 25% of the project cost—the incentive increase with higher savings achievement potential. If the building qualifies as low income, the incentives are doubled. Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy also provides a dedicated low-income multifamily program, Multi-Family Energy Savings Program. This program provides a 25% rebate bonus on top of its standard rebates for income-qualified customers.
In 2019, according to Xcel Energy, it achieved 2,908 MWh and 0.03 MMtherms of savings, while spending $1,736,684 and $298,639 on its electric and natural gas multifamily programs, respectively. Xcel served 11,888 electric housing units at 355 multifamily properties and 3,511 natural gas housing units at 114 multifamily properties in 2019.
Last Updated: July 2021
Provision of Energy Data by UtilitiesList All
Xcel Energy provides free automatic upload of monthly energy bill data to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager accounts, including aggregated whole building data for buildings with four or more tenants. Beginning in 2020, the Company’s MFBE program offered benchmarking services to those customers who are interested.
The city of Saint Paul and Xcel Energy provides community wide energy usage information for planning and evaluation purposes through their Xcel Energy Partners in Energy program and is Xcel Energy’s annual Community Energy Report. The Regional Indicators Initiative also provides complete energy data for residential, commercial, and municipal buildings. Municipal buildings data is included in the commercial buildings figure. Municipal buildings are benchmarked using B3 software and is publicly available.
The City of Saint Paul does not advocate for better access to utility data for ratepayers or the establishment of data-sharing agreements between the city and its utilities.
Last Updated: July 2021
Decarbonization and Climate Change Mitigation Efforts of Energy UtilitiesList All
Utility Climate Mitigation Goal
In December 2018, Xcel Energy set a goal to provide customers with 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. They also include an interim goal of reducing carbon emissions 80% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. To achieve this goal, Xcel Energy will need to reduce emissions by 6.2% annually from 2019 levels in the state of Minnesota.
City-Led Efforts to Decarbonize the Electric Grid
In December 2019, the City Council passed a resolution opposing the inclusion of a new natural gas plant in Xcel Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), urging Xcel and the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to instead find ways to further accelerate utility-scale renewables and storage. The resolution directed staff to comment on Xcel’s IRP filing at the PUC. In turn, City staff submitted comments to MN PUC on Xcel Energy's Integrated Resource Plan opposing new fossil gas plant and asking for deeper analysis of renewables plus storage. The City is also supporting analysis being done between District Energy St. Paul and Xcel looking at opportunities to decarbonize District Energy Saint Paul's operations.
The City’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan, published in December 2019, also calls for increasing distributed single-family residential solar on rooftops from the current 7.1 MW citywide to 50 MW by 2030 and 70 MW by 2050, as well as commercial and multi-family targets of 100 MW by 2030 and 160 MW by 2050. The City and Xcel partnered on the Partners in Energy Plan, which became the groundwork for the buildings chapter of the city’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan. The City has also signed a letter of interest with Xcel to purchase 5 MW of renewable through the next round of Xcel’s Renewable Connect program. The City has expressed interest in purchasing Renewable Connect green tariff electricity from Xcel and has expressed initial interest in a new green tariff product Xcel will be offering based on a hydro facility in Saint Paul.
Last Updated: July 2021
Efficiency Efforts in Water ServicesList All
Citywide Water Efficiency and Goals
The utilities currently do not offer joint energy and water efficiency measures. However, Xcel Energy does offer several efficiency measures that also save water, including efficient showerheads, faucet aerators, ENERGY STAR clothes washers, and efficient commercial dishwashers.
The city’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan identifies specific water conservation goals (water use reduction goal of 2% per person per year) and provides several strategies to achieve those goals. SPRWS has found that the most common cause of unintended increased usage is a running toilet. In 2019, as many as 4,700 water customers experienced a potentially leak-related spike in their bill. SPRWS has established a program for early detection and assistance with identifying/fixing malfunctioning toilets. The program has a dual goal of conserving water and preventing financial strain since water bills can add up quickly when leaks related to malfunctioning toilets are left unresolved.
Water Plant Efficiency and Self-Generation
Saint Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS) has installed LED lighting in its facilities and has resized the high service pump that will save approximately 150,000 to 300,000 kWh per month. SPRWS is in the final configuration steps to automatically upload its energy consumption data into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager into the state of MN’s B3 benchmarking program. This will allow SPRWS to establish goals and measure progress.
Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES), which operates and maintains regional sewers and wastewater treatment, is also dedicated to minimizing its energy use and emissions. MCES has met 50% of Executive Order 19-27, directing state agencies to reduce its energy consumption by 30% between 2006 and 2027. The energy conservation work that MCES has implemented equates to about $3 million per year in savings. Over the next 10 years, the solids improvement projects at Empire and Seneca wastewater treatment plants that will further decrease energy consumption.
The MCES operates two wastewater treatment facilities, the Metro plant and the Blue Lake plant, both of which self-generate energy. MCES also produced methane gas through anaerobic digestion.
Last Updated: July 2021
Local Government Score:
3.5 out of 10 points
Local Government Climate and Energy Goals List All
Climate Mitigation Goal
The Saint Paul Climate Action and Resilience Plan sets a goal of having municipal buildings reach carbon neutrality by 2030 through a 9% reduction in emissions annually between 2019 and 2030. The Plan also includes a stretch goal of reaching the carbon neutrality target by 2025. ACEEE was unable to project if the city will achieve its near-term GHG emissions reduction goal for municipal buildings because insufficient GHG emissions data were available for our analysis.
Energy Reduction Goal
We were unable to find information regarding a municipal energy reduction goal.
Renewable Energy Goal
Saint Paul aims to use renewable energy to power 50% of city operations within five years.
Last updated: May 2021
Procurement and Construction Policies List All
Fleet Policies and Composition
Saint Paul prioritizes replacing vehicles if the replacement are hybrid, electric, or clean diesel. The city’s fleet is composed of 1.5% efficient vehicles, including hybrid and battery electric vehicles.
Public Lighting
Saint Paul has not adopted a policy requiring efficient outdoor lighting, such as the International Dark-Sky Association’s Model Lighting Ordinance. However, all streetlights in Saint Paul are controlled by optical sensors that extinguish when sufficient light is available. Through Saint Paul’s outdoor lighting replacement and upgrade program, 38% of streetlights owned by the City have been converted to LEDs.
Onsite and Offsite Renewable Systems
Saint Paul has installed approximately 500 kW of solar on city-owned facilities.
Inclusive procurement
The Mayor’s Office has a directive for all city departments to have 20% of all purchases be made from CERT vendors. The CERT Vendor Program includes certification of Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE), Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE), and Small Business Enterprise (SBE). The city complying with the CERT requirements as it uses the $5 million Green Energy Revolving Loan Fund to replace all fluorescent and incandescent lamps with LEDs in all city-owned facilities over the next two years.
Last updated: May 2021
Asset Management List All
Building Benchmarking
Saint Paul benchmarks energy use in 100% of municipal facilities over 10,000 square feet, and data is monitored quarterly. Saint Paul has 116 sites entered into B3. Of those sites, 111 have complete data.
Comprehensive Retrofit Strategies
In 2009, Saint Paul allocated $1 million for an internal revolving loan fund that departments could borrow from to make energy efficient improvements to City buildings. In 2019 the loan fund was increased to $5 million. The City has conducted audits of facilities over 25,000 square feet and high-energy-use buildings have been prioritized. Retrofits and improvements are underway.
Last updated: May 2021