Dan Haugen

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Make no mistake: Best Buy likes to see customers lining up for that next new, must-have gadget. The consumer electronics retailer is in the business of helping people upgrade their technology, whether it’s a mobile phone or a big-screen television.

For every new product, though, there’s often an old one made obsolete: last year’s iPhone, or a clunky analog TV set, or that computer your media collection outgrew. All of this stuff eventually starts to pile up in closets, landfills or incinerators.

It’s an environmental hazard, and it’s a customer hassle. That’s why Best Buy is seeking to help close the loop on the millions of pounds of electronic waste its stores and customers generate each year.

Best Buy has rapidly become a national leader in e-waste recycling since launching an in-store drop-off program in February 2009. Customers at its U.S. stores can bring in just about any old electronics, regardless of where or when they were purchased, and Best Buy will make sure they get recycled responsibly. Last year, the company collected more than 75 million pounds of unwanted electronics. (Continue reading…)

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I spent a few months this spring looking into the potential risks and opportunities for Minnesota companies as development, pollution, population growth and climate conspire to strain our planet’s fresh water supply. The risk may seem distant here in the land of 10,000 lakes, but in an age when global supply chains span the globe, few industries will be unaffected. Some are already feeling the effects. Meanwhile, the Twin Cities is home to a promising cluster of companies and technologies that could play a role in addressing the coming global crisis. Read more in the July issue of Twin Cities Business magazine.

June 28, 2011, Midwest Energy News —  Two fronts have collided before Minnesota utility regulators, and now, observers on both sides are waiting to see which way the wind will blow in what’s been the state’s highest-profile and hardest-fought battle over wind turbine placement.

The proposed $179 million, 78-megawatt Goodhue Wind project would consist of 50 turbines spanning about 32,000 acres of farm land an hour drive southeast of the Twin Cities. The developer is a subsidiary of Mesa Power Group, which is owned by Texas oil-and-gas tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

Last October, about a year after the developer applied for site permits, Goodhue County adopted a setback ordinance that bans wind turbines within 10 rotor diameters, or about half a mile in this case, of any non-participating neighboring home. That’s in stark contrast with state law in Minnesota, which generally requires setbacks between 750 and 1,500 feet based on noise and other factors.

The local ordinance grew out of grassroots opposition from a group of county residents who fear the turbines will upset their quality of life. The developer, which has partnered with about 200 other local property owners, says the project can’t go through under the local setback rules.

Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission is likely to give its final say on the matter Thursday after months of testimony and discussion. Its decision will be the first major test of a 2007 amendment that gave counties limited authority to adopt more stringent wind setbacks than those spelled out in state law.

“It’s certainly something every wind developer is paying close attention to, because one way or another it affects how they’re going to propose their next project,” said Sarah Johnson Phillips, a renewable energy attorney with Stoel Rives in Minneapolis. Read the rest of this entry »

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In this deadline-free, holiday-bookended week, I have to admit my work-motivation levels have been fairly low. A friend is visiting from out of town and in a few hours I’ll probably pack things up for the year and take tomorrow off. Here’s what I’ll be working on come Monday morning:

The Line: We’ll have a holiday half-issue on Wednesday of next week. I’ll have a report on the Center for Energy and Environment creating green jobs in 2010, as well as a brief about a south Minneapolis beauty shop that’s found an innovative way to streamline its scheduling. And before deadline on Monday morning I’ll be interviewing Tim Kapsner of Aveda about an upcoming green chemistry forum in the Twin Cities.

(Side note: Effective the end of January I’ll be stepping down as The Line’s innovation and jobs editor. It’s been a fun gig, but planning and writing an entire section every week has also scattered my energy/attention in more directions than I would like it to go. I plan to continue my relationship with The Line as a freelance writer, just not quite as regular as it’s been these past several months.)

MedCity Life: Earlier this winter I accepted a position as Twin Cities Editor of MedCity Life, a new city guide site for the medical industry. It’ll be a sibling site to MedCity News and is scheduled to launch on Jan. 15. I’ve spent the past several weeks asking people in the medical industry (hospitals, med-tech, etc.) about where they socialize and network. What are the go-to lunch, coffee, and happy hour spots where they’re likely to bump into their peers? What are the power breakfast spots? Where do people go to impress potential customers/partners or blow their expense accounts? Ideas? Let me know!

Mobile Devices: I’m working on a story for Twin Cities Business about how companies/organizations are making decisions about what mobile devices/platforms to support, and how they’re dealing with the rise in requests from employees who want to be able to check their work e-mail, calendars, etc., on popular consumer mobile devices such as the iPhone or Droid. If you’re a CIO or someone else who makes these kind of decisions, I’ll love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons and complications related to mobile support.

Insurance & Climate Change: I’m working on my first assignment for Momentum, a great magazine affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. The topic is insurance companies and climate change. I’m looking for sources who can help me understand how the insurance industry is responding to or preparing for climate change. If you know anyone who might have some insights in this area, give me a shout.

See you in the new year!

Dan
612-217-1057
dan at danhaugen dot com

P.S. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog/share more in this space. We’ll see…

I had an energizing conversation Thursday with the guys at Element Six Media, a green advertising and branding firm in Minneapolis that builds campaigns around sustainable earth materials and social media buzz. I’ll be unpacking my interview notes in the next couple of weeks for a story on The Line, but I wanted to share one snippet now that particularly lingered with me: This is the New Economy. If we’re waiting for things to turn around or resume to normal, we’re wasting time because this is the new normal. Here’s how co-founder Maikel van de Mortel put it:

“We don’t talk in terms of things turning around. This is the new reality, and we’re at ground zero. The question is: how are we going to build up. The problem is that not everybody has come to peace yet with that new reality, and as long as that doesn’t happen, if you’re not at that point, then you’re going to struggle. The truth of the matter is it’s not going to go back to what it was. We’re not going to see profit margins as high anymore as they used to be. We’re not going to be able to charge those dollar amounts anymore as we were used to. Every single industry is going to have to face some realities, because people are going to object. It’s just part of the new economy. Every day that we talk about how things were, we’re waiting for things to turn around, is time that we spend wasting. That’s what’s really unfortunate. We can’t waste our time. We can’t afford it.”