Statewide sustainable building and materials management grants

Eligible applicants include Minnesota not-for-profit and non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses, institutions, political subdivisions of the state (including counties, cities, towns, etc.), state agencies, and tribal governments located in Minnesota or serving Minnesota. Multi-organizational collaboration is encouraged.

Eligible project examples include, but are not limited to:

• Research and pilot a project with a focus of built environment waste reduction, and or material/building reuse.
• Develop a program that focuses on building preservation, adaptive reuse of buildings, and/or reuse of building materials.
• Coordinate and oversee the redistribution of funds awarded to the grantee as smaller grants to other entities (i.e., “micro grants”) along with technical assistance for:
  • Building preservation and maintenance: Repair an existing building to ensure its continued use, avoiding demolition and preserving the cultural and historical integrity of the building;
  • Structural moving: Physically move an existing structure to avoid demolishing or even deconstructing the building;
  • Building material reuse: Include salvaged or used building materials in construction or renovation projects to avoid the need for new products and materials; and/or
  • Building deconstruction: Fully or partially deconstruct an existing structure instead of demolishing it to preserve the building materials.
• Equipment needed to facilitate harvesting, storing, and/or re-distributing used or surplus building materials.

Preferred projects. Based on feedback from focus groups and stakeholder meetings conducted by the MPCA, there are two focus areas identified as preferred projects in this round. Applicants that include one of these preferred focuses will be scored more favorably:

• Build or acquire and operate a reuse center to collect, store, and redistribute salvaged building materials. If the project involves new construction or renovation, used building materials or other sustainable building practices should be used. Household goods collection and redistribution can be included in the center’s operations, as long as building materials are the primary focus.
• Develop and implement a deconstruction training program curriculum that provides classroom and hands-on skills-building for the careful unbuilding of partial or full structures to capture building materials that can be reused, using course content outlined in the 2012 Introduction to Deconstruction - Textbook (Oregon State Edition) by the Building Materials Reuse Association.