The Ramsey County Environmental Center, located in Roseville.
Roseville officials discussed the city’s Climate Equity Action Plan and 2026 Sustainability Update on Tuesday
by Cecilia Wallace — Environmental reporter
The Roseville Public Works, Environment and Transportation (PWET) Commission gathered at City Hall on Tuesday for its annual sustainability review. The discussion focused on the city’s Climate Equity Action Plan and 2026 Sustainability Update.
Now in the second phase of three in the Climate Equity Action Plan, the city has already completed its first round of community engagement, three of four Climate Justice Advocacy Group workshops, and two of three staff workshops.
“We are in the middle or nearing the end of the second phase, which is the collaborative planning process, and we plan to have a full plan in about a month, at the end of March,” said Ted Redmond, paleBLUEdot Climate Action Planner Architect.
As they further develop the plan, Roseville will focus on the “refinement of preliminary plan goals and supporting actions,” Redmond said.
In doing so, community feedback is crucial, and the city wants to address as many resident concerns as possible.
Resident concern levels oppose each other, show little indifference
From a recent city-wide poll, results found that 33% of Roseville residents are extremely concerned about climate change, 24% very concerned, 9% moderately concerned, 8% slightly concerned and 27% not at all concerned.
Within these worries, Redmond identified four themes that individuals connected to their climate change-related concerns. These included support for municipal action and leadership, reduced energy use and increased renewable energy, waste reduction and diversion and resource protection and improvement.
Considering these themes, Roseville is taking next steps with community events. Its second community input on March 4 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. will get input on preliminary plan actions and a climate storytelling project through March 19 for sharing hopes and visions for Roseville’s climate future.
The city will then draft a development plan in March, then review and finalize with final presentations by mid-summer.
Sustainablity Update shows lowered greenhouse gas emissions
After discussing the Climate Equity Action Plan, Noelle Bakken, Roseville sustainability specialist, introduced the 2026 Sustainability Update.
Many of the updates included adjustments to better work toward the city’s Comprehensive Plan 2040 Goals. Some of these goals include 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, 100% city operations from renewable sources by 2040, 25% city operations electricity from on-site generation by 2040 and producing enough inbound solar electricity to meet 10% of citywide electricity use by 2030.
“We need to do other things to try and move that needle down,” Bakken said, looking at the city’s greenhouse gas report.
Between 2016 and 2024, there has been a notable improvement in the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are seeing drops in our mobile combustion,” Bakken said. “We do see that we had a dip in 2020 due to the pandemic, obviously. We are still not back to pre-pandemic combustion levels yet.”
City seeks program expansion as ICE stalls Green to Go enforcement
In addition to these goals, the city aims to further its Green to Go, Pollinator Protection and Partners in Energy programs, as well as its bike plan.
Green to Go is “an ordinance requiring food establishments to provide either recyclable or compostable single-use containers or reusable containers for to-go food packaging.”
At this time, Bakken said the city is not enforcing it as heavily as many restaurants are struggling with the increased number of immigration officers in the Twin Cities.
Still, as the year goes on, she said they aim to continue educating businesses on the ordinance and supply and disposal options, increase the residential recycling rate and recognize businesses that are already compliant.
“We’re really trying to do our best to recognize people for doing good things versus punish them for doing bad things,” Bakken said. “Any kind of positive reinforcement I can add is really the goal.”
To learn more about Roseville’s 2026 Sustainability Review, click here, or join the Public Works, Environment, and Transportation Commission at its next meeting on March 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Roseville City Hall.
Cecilia Wallace can be reached at celiadw016@gmail.com.
