Publications
Minnesota Green Communities has created and distributed a variety of educational materials throughout the affordable housing community and beyond. These publications are listed below. To request a hard copy of any of the reports, please e-mail Shawna@fhfund.org or call 612-375-9644.

Minnesota Green Communities Brochure
Minnesota Green Communities is an initiative of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the Family Housing Fund, and Enterprise designed to foster the creation of affordable, healthier, and more energy-efficient housing throughout Minnesota. This publication provides and overview of the Minnesota Green Communities initiative and its goals.
Click here to download Minnesota Green Communities Brochure

Green Specifications for Single Family Housing Rehabilitation in Minnesota
Aligned with the Minnesota Green Communities Initiative Criteria

Developed by Armand Magnelli with support and advice from Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation, Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, and the Family Housing Fund.
Click here to download Green Specifications for Single Family Housing Rehabilitation in Minnesota

Click here to download specifications as a Word document (.doc)

Going Green, Looking for Answers?
March 2009

Minnesota Green Communities, Minnesota GreenStar, and the local chapter of the USGBC, the Mississippi Headwaters Chapter, collaborated on a brochure that compares the three complementary green programs to help homeowners, builders, and/or developers identify which program is the best fit for a project.

Click here to view the report.

Affordable Housing’s Green Future
As a result of the successes of Minnesota Green Communities, national partner Enterprise featured the Minnesota initiative in this special publication that is being disseminated nationally. The report identifies Minnesota as a leader—incorporating a wide range of activities and tackling systems change within the affordable housing sector directly through policy work, outcome documentation, and training.
Click here to download Affordable Housing’s Green Future Report

Minnesota Overlay to the Green Communities Criteria™
Minnesota Green Communities and partner Minnesota Housing negotiated minor changes to the mandatory items of the Green Communities Criteria to make them work better in Minnesota. The new Minnesota Overlay to the Green Communities Criteria has been incorporated into the Minnesota Housing Design Standards, becoming threshold criteria for new construction projects that apply for funding through the Consolidated RFP.
Click here to download Minnesota Multifamily Overlay to the Green Communities Criteria™ (2008)
Click here to download Minnesota Single Family Overlay to the Green Communities Criteria™ (2008)

Click here to download Multifamily and Single Family 2009-2010 Overlay for use with Green Communities Criteria 2008 ™
Click here to download The National Green Communities Criteria™

Green Communities Criteria™ Checklist
This publication is a handy four-page document that provides an overall summary of the Green Communities Criteria.
Click here to download the Green Communities Criteria™ Checklist

LESSONS LEARNED Minnesota Green Communities Demonstration Projects June 2009

Minnesota Green Communities has created a new series of lessons learned originating from the eight original Minnesota Green Communities demonstration projects. The initiative is completing building performance testing on the demonstration projects, and has gathered lessons learned in several areas.
The Lessons Learned series includes the following publications:
Integrated Design
Multifamily Green Rehabilitation
Construction Training and Monitoring
Cost Increase Triggers in Plans and Specifications
Ductwork
Duct Design
Duct Sealing
Air Leakage
Pressure Balancing Between Rooms
Kitchen Ventilation
Radon Testing and Mitigation
Water Efficiency

Green Resources Sheet
Updated June 2009

There are many organizations, both locally and nationally, that are working on green building and design. This resources sheet includes some helpful websites, books, magazines, and articles that provide additional information on a number of topics related to the “Green by Design” conference.

Click here to download the Resource Sheet

Minnesota Green Communities Demonstration Projects
Minnesota Green Communities has published project sheets for all of its demonstration projects that provides details on units, housing developer, architect, contractor, project financing, and the project’s unique and green features. Project sheets can be found on the Project page.

Click here to visit the Minnesota Green Communities Demonstration Projects

Green Single Family Home Plans
Greater Minnesota Housing Fund's Building Better Neighborhoods home plans were revised in late 2007 to make it easier to address construction-related Green Communities Criteria. By using the products and procedures found in the “GREEN PRODUCTS” section of the cover sheet, these home plans provide prospective homebuyers and builders with a variety of options that lead to construction of healthier homes affordable to own and operate. GMHF’s national partner in Green Communities, Enterprise, provided technical assistance and funding for energy modeling related to these revisions.

Click here to view the Green Craftsman home plans

Single Family Rehab Resources
Green Guidance (.pdf )

Green Specifications for Single Family Housing Rehabilitation in Minnesota or Word (.doc)
(April 2009)

Green Specifications for Single Family Housing Rehabilitation in Minnesota (.pdf)

Green Communities Overlay (2009 – 2010)