Thanks to rebates from the City of Minneapolis, grants from both Hennepin County and mspWellness, plus a generous gift from Zion Lutheran Church at their departure from the community last year, LNA is completing some long-needed building improvements!
LNA is investing in their property and taking advantage of rebates by installing a new efficient air conditioner for the 1999 model that is leaking on the basement floor and upgrading to LED lighting. We are also putting in a kitchenette, which will more easily allow the space to be used for events due to a sink finally being located outside of the bathroom!
The kitchenette project is supported by Hennepin County through a program that supports the reuse and recycling of building materials in a renovation project. You can learn more here www.hennepin.us/building-reuse. LNA also received a microgrant through mspWellness to support this project; mspWellness is a collaboration between the Minneapolis Regional Chamber (MRC), Hennepin County Public Health, the Minneapolis Health Department (MHD), and HealthPartners. These four entities work together to help businesses of all sizes create healthier work environments by providing resources, technical assistance, and programming. The kitchen sink will allow for better access to fresh food for LNA employees and tenants in the South Nicollet Action Center, as well as to aid in preparation of food for events.
LNA was lucky to find our perfect partner for this project in WildHeart Made, and a call out to Jeremy at LumberStash for introducing us (and being our source for project lumber)! Kahlyn loves to work with repurpose salvaged materials as much as possible. For our project she has rediscovered aged materials salvaged from other people’s tear downs, rescued new building materials from construction sites, and married them all into what is becoming a sweet little kitchen space! By working this way, we are creating a 100% unique space, reducing our material costs, as well as saving waste from landfills.
Do you have the re-use bug too? Be sure to join in the Salvage Crawl this May! With 13 retail locations participating, most located in Minneapolis, you can search for treasures for your remodeling project and be entered into a drawing to win one of five prizes. More information on this event can be found here: www.hennepin.us/salvage#salvage-crawl.
Participating retailers:
- Architectural Antiques
- Art & Architecture
- Bauer Brothers Salvage (Where we sourced most of our cabinets and other project items)
- Better Futures MN
- City Salvage
- Guilded Salvage
- Habitat for Humanity ReStores – Minneapolis (Where we sourced flooring, trim and other project items)
- Habitat for Humanity ReStores – New Brighton
- Historic Stone Co
- LumberStash (Who has supplied lumber for our LNA projects)
- MN Tool Library
- Scrapbox Salvage
- Wood from the Hood
Saving money with energy-saving programs
We also can’t say enough about the helpful people and programs offered through CEE (Center for Energy and Environment)! They offer programs for commercial and residential projects to help us all maximize our savings both to the environment an our pocketbook!
CEE works with utilities around the state to implement innovative, cost-effective residential energy efficiency programs. For home owners they offer energy audits and can connect you to contractors, financing, and rebates.
For businesses, like us, they can help:
- Make energy efficient lighting affordable with rebates covering up to 60% of total project costs. Their lighting program, sponsored by Xcel Energy, helps small to midsize businesses and nonprofits improve their lighting, earn significant rebates, and lower energy costs for years to come. (INCLUDING US!)
- Provide guidance on cooling and heating system improvements that won’t break the bank. From free smart thermostats to rooftop unit (RTU) replacements, our team will help you find cost-effective solutions to improve the efficiency of your HVAC systems. (INCLUDING US!)
- Improve building performance, by working with their allows their engineers to take on complex building performance issues. They provide independent energy consulting for every building and budget through services like Xcel Energy’s Business Energy Assessment (BEA) program.
