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The City of North St. Paul, which may be best known by metro area locals as the home of a giant snowman accompanied by a wind turbine (both visible from State Highway 36 between highways 35E and 694), proved last week that smaller cities can have a huge impact when it comes to energy efficiency. Back in the summer of 2012, City of North St.

Minnkota Power Cooperative’s PowerSavers program has distributed nearly 2,300 energy-savings kits to area schools. Each kit contains energy-efficient devices that, if installed properly, can help save about 1,700 kilowatthours or $200 each year. Rarely can fifth- and sixth-graders at Goodridge Elementary School say they saved their family money by finishing a homework assignment.

Located just southeast of St. Paul, between the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers, the City of Woodbury, a Metro CERT Affiliate since January of 2010, has a track record of positioning itself as a leader in sustainability.

The 5th Statewide CERTs Conference – Community-Driven Clean Energy – is coming up on February 20-21, 2013 in Saint Cloud, and more than ever before it will be focused on conversations and action. You should return home with connections, project ideas, and even collaborators who live and work in your part of the state.

As a small business owner, Molly Luther of the The Good Life Cafe in Park Rapids knows first hand how important it is to save money. Luther is one of many businesses and other groups taking part in the Minnesota Water-Saving Bulk Buy from the Clean Energy Resource Teams. She was recently interviewed by Lakeland Public Television for a feature story.

So, what do former Metro CERT staff do when they leave? They put together videos about net zero buildings, of course! You can take the clean energy advocate out of the CERT, but you can’t take the CERT out of the clean energy advocate! Former Metro CERT staff Julia Eagles and Matt Santori collaborated with classmates at the Hubert H.

Thanks to a massive energy efficiency renovation, the Burnsville Ice Arena has become an impressive model of sustainability. Prior to the renovation, which began in 2010, the facility was in serious need of improvement. The ice center was producing 46% of CO2 emissions from city-owned buildings, making it one of the largest CO2 producers in Burnsville.

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Elk River, Minnesota, is proactive about energy savings. The city earned Energy City status in 1997 from the Minnesota Environmental Initiative, and it has been a model for efficient and renewable energy ever since.

Golden Valley, a western suburb of Minneapolis that is home to a number of corporate headquarters, is crisscrossed with city, state and county roads. As a consequence, the city is responsible for maintaining and paying electricity bills for numerous traffic signals.

Solar energy is a big deal in Minnesota—and it’s getting so hot that it’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on! That’s one of the main reasons why the Minnesota Solar Challenge is providing support for communities across Minnesota that may be interested in capturing the benefit of their local solar energy resource.

The City of Harmony’s Community Center is located inside a refurbished 1950’s-vintage elementary school but it now boasts new energy efficient lighting and occupancy sensors that are saving the community both time and money.

As the Redwood County Building Supervisor, Loren Gewerth oversees the general maintenance for county buildings – which means also overseeing a lot of energy use. With the county facing both budget constraints and a reduction in government aid, Gewerth was growing concerned about energy costs and maintenance and began looking for ways to make efficiency improvements to the county buildings.

Small towns across the country are operating on tight budgets, and the City of Cold Spring, Minnesota (population 4,025) is no different. With poor lighting in several buildings, the city staff longed for better lighting but budget and time constraints kept the projects in limbo.

The Kingfield Neighborhood Association (KFNA) has recently worked hard to make local businesses shine. Currently, there are only a few solar photovoltaic (PV) flat roof type installations on Minneapolis small businesses and the Kingfield Neighborhood Association is trying to change that.

Buffalo Public Utilities Director Joe Steffel was looking for a way to engage small businesses in his community by helping them to take advantage of energy-saving opportunities. “I knew that there was no substitute for knowledge,” said Steffel, “and using that knowledge to get people to act.

The Mary MacDonald Business Center is a 58,500 square foot facility located in the town of Silver Bay that was made possible thanks to the time and efforts of community members. Originally an elementary school, the building served a number of purposes after the consolidation of area schools left it student-free.