Businesses Case Studies
As residents of the Midwest know, the growing season is painfully short. When it’s twenty below, what else can you do besides go to the supermarket and buy tomatoes shipped from thousands of miles away? Whitewater Farms in Altura, Minnesota has found a solution. The farm, owned and operated by Sandy and Lonny Dietz, contains a geothermal greenhouse...
Norm and Mary Erickson of Hazelnut Valley Farm retired and started a hazelnut farm in Lake City, MN. Their nutty adventures into the business of growing, harvesting, and processing the crop led them to install a solar-heated greenhouse with many innovative features. They look forward to a future where hazelnuts can be profitably converted into...
Dairy farmers are an industrious group by nature, and farmer and entrepreneur Peter Reese of Goodhue County has eyes for common sense and untapped opportunities. The basic concept of Perpetual Harvest, LLC, came from Peter’s thoughts about how our economy is under-utilizing available and renewable local resources.
Chuck Knierim found a gem in a trash heap when he pulled out a discarded 1976 electric Ford Endura. The Endura traces its origin back to the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 1970s. As oil prices skyrocketed, the federal government allocated funds for alternative transportation options, and every project proposed was an electric car.
Keeping costs low is a constant concern for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Nonprofits might be excluded from having to pay taxes, but they don’t escape energy costs just like every other business. In fact, since nonprofits tend to struggle with cashflow, investing in energy efficiency can be more difficult for them than for their for-profit...
RREAL, a manufacturer of solar thermal panels for air heating, believes that solar technology should be available to people of all income levels. They address this issue by producing an affordable solar-powered furnace and working with local communities and governments to deliver the product to those most in need of energy alternatives.
Tim Terrill from the Winona Soil & Water Conservation District Organization said he saw “an excellent example of how conservation and farming can work together to achieve environmental and economic benefits,” when he partnered with Eric Kreidermacher of Pork and Plants and Professor Bruno Borsari from Winona State University.
The Hunt Utilities Group (HUG) has been involved with CERTs over the last five years, and is a leader in the research, development and application of technologies and methods that support sustainable living and environmental stewardship. Their work inspires innovation and explores new and creative ways to build community.
In 2007 Rebecca Spengler decided to start a business, and rather than starting from scratch she choose to revamp an existing laundromat in Ely, Minnesota. She opened A Laundry Room Inc. that June. She wanted to create an energy efficient laundromat with solar energy production. In an attempt to educate herself on local assets for solar and other...
On a cool day in November 2009, Teresa Copley, the New London Middle School’s Youth Energy Summit (YES!) Team Coordinator, contacted John Duevel. YES! had been working with the New London Little Theatre to improve its energy efficiency, and now the students were interested in helping the Theater do a solar project. The Little Theatre is owned and...
Pages
Get new case studies delivered directly to your inbox
Clean Energy Resource Teams