Goals > Goal 12

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

As part of our 2022-2023 cohort of Initiators Fellows, Noreen Thomas is converting local food waste into fertilizer. The biodigester process, she says, will provide a community-based resource and eliminate the need to import fertilizer from miles or even continents away while also promoting clean waterways and sustainable farming practices.

Our planning services always focus on enhancing the triple bottom line: People, Planet, and shared Prosperity. This is also reflected in the 2022-2026 Compehensive Economic Development Strategy, specifically the strategies identified under Circular Agriculture.

Through a partnership between the West Central Area and Ashby School Districts, local food shelves, and very supportive agriculturally based communities, Growing Grant County will build a system of collaboration to:
• Grow more local food.
• Provide training to students in the art of meat butchering and processing.
• Support Grant County food shelves by increasing donations of fresh foods.
• Create a more sustainable and resilient food system.

Read more about the project and the USDA NIFA grant.

We support community funds in their pursuit of their local and global goals.

  • Reduce, reuse, and recycle, following your local guidelines for recyclables to make sure as much mass can be reused as possible.
  • Be a thrifter. Second-hand stores often contain the items you need, and most utilize their profits for other social benefits.
  • Ask your local manufacturers what steps they’ve taken this year to reduce waste streams and return byproducts cleanly back to the environment.
  • Buy local products, especially those grown or made locally, whenever possible. Reducing the miles a product travels from creation to our homes reduces environmental impact.
  • Clean out your “cloud” data storage. While digital data seems invisible, all information is stored somewhere on a physical server and/or data storage system that uses a significant amount of energy.
  • Use your library instead of buying new. Librarians are master curators, and many of them have pulled together collections beyond books (specialty cake pans, for example).
  • Learn all about composting and how to use it properly.

Explore the map below: More indicators are available to view by expanding that menu at the left. Click on each county to see the data for each indicator.

This information was made available through a partnership with U-Spatial, a department of the University of Minnesota.

View Map Fullscreen

Related Metrics and Progress for: All West Central Minnesota Counties

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
31.4% of population recycles
Needs Work