GreenStep Cities

GreenStep Cities is a voluntary challenge, assistance and recognition program to help cities achieve their sustainability and quality-of-life goals. Maplewood has participated in the program since 2010. In participating, the City implements best practices in order to meet sustainability goals with support from the GreenStep Cities program and peers. Best practices taken within the program focus on cost savings, energy use reduction, resource conservation, climate mitigation and adaptation, and the encouragement of civic innovation.  To achieve Step 4 a city must measure its best practices yearly. To achieve Step 5 a city must improve on at least three core best practices from year to year. In 2025 Maplewood improved on ten sustainability best practices (from reporting year 2023 to 2024) as follows:  

Increase in the:

  • Number of private green certified green buildings which are building constructed to exceed the state’s energy code – from 20 to 21 (increase of 1)
  • Net number of new trees planted in right-of-ways, parks, and the City’s tree sale - from 303 to 474 (increase of 171 new trees)
  • Number of electric vehicle charging stations – from 21 to 52 (increase of 31)
  • Percent of affordable housing – from 0 to 73 percent (of the 77 housing units constructed in 2024, 56 of those units were affordable) 
  • The City’s stormwater assessment which measures policies and practices that improve the management of stormwater – from 51 to 52 percent (increase in 1 percent)
  • The City’s climate adaptation stormwater assessment which measures policies and practices that create resiliency in stormwater management – from 69 to 75 percent (increase of 6 percent)
  • Annual renewable energy purchased by the City – from 735 to 770-megawatt hours per year (increase of 40-megawatt hours per year) 

Decrease in the: 

  • City building energy use - from 132.17 to 125.80 kBTU per square foot per year (decrease of 6.37 kBTU per square foot per year)
  • Commercial solid waste generated per job, per day – from 5.96 to 5.82 pounds per job, per day (decrease of .14 pounds)
  • Greenhouse gas emissions from City-wide non-transportation energy - from 194,395 to 152,545 tons of CO2 (decrease of 41,830 tons of CO2)

Suggestions or questions - contact Shann Finwall, Sustainability Coordinator, 651-249-2304 or email.