While recycling tends to be a well known aspect of municipal environmental efforts, there are many other issues that affect the environment. As of July 2013, a new commission, as a part of the city in St. Louis Park, has begun meeting to discuss these issues.

Tim Brausen is currently an attorney and a City Council candidate. He was recently appointed first chairman of the new Environment and Sustainability Commission of St. Louis Park.

“The city has a made a commitment to be the greenest city in Minnesota,” Brausen said. “One of the ways they’re doing that is they’ve entered into a program called Green Step Cities. These are cities that commit to certain practices in order to enhance the sustainability of the community.”

Brausen said the process of creating the commission began in 2012. Initially, a task force was created in order to assist the city in reaching its goal to be an environmentally friendly community.

Resident Susan Melbye was appointed on the task force in 2012. The task force decided that in order to enhance sustainability, a commission would be the best option.

“Having a commission states our commitment and value to increasing environmental consciousness and responsibility,” Melbye said. “It is the best way to get public input.”

Although the commission is at its beginning stage, Brausen said it is already trying to develop a work plan for reducing the city’s environmental footprint.

“We’re going to hopefully provide a mechanism for the citizens of St. Louis Park to be able to raise ideas that they have for protecting our environment and promoting sustainability,” Brausen said.

Once the work plan is fully developed, the commission hopes to actively focus on specific environmental issues in the community.

“The vision of the commission itself is that it’ll break down into work groups that will be focused around certain issues, whether it’s recycling, solar energy, ground water issues or transportation,” Brausen said.

The commission appointed two students, Alex Sundvall and Caitlin Glennon, in order to get more diverse opinions from people of different ages.

Junior Alex Sundvall said he heard about the commission through the Westwood Nature Center, and decided to apply.

“I wanted to know what St. Louis Park was doing to be more of a green city,” Sundvall said. “Now being on the committee, I didn’t realize that we were doing so much.”

Sundvall said that at their next meeting there will be a representative from another city so they can get new perspectives and learn how other cities are taking action in order to be environmentally friendly.

If students would like to get involved, Brausen urges them to contact the commission.

“Any student that has a passionate interest in it should come to commission meetings and see if there’s an opportunity to work on the issue they really care about.”