Businesses Project Planning Resources
This page starts out by showing you the most recent content from across the CERTs website. Jump to detailed resources.
Clean energy isn’t just for demonstration projects—harnessing clean energy technologies can create another source of income for your business. And energy savings can also save you money.
Businesses Blog Posts
Matt Kazinka - LEDC
Fri, 02/03/2012 - 4:33pm
For restaurant owners like Lorenzo Ariza, energy costs can make the difference between profit and loss any given month. “Every time I looked at my expenses, I wondered how I could reduce them,” says Ariza, who has owned Salsa a la Salsa...
Abby Finis
Fri, 01/27/2012 - 11:08am
Construction workers from Raymond, Willmar and the surrounding area have benefited from steady work provided through a partnership with the Heartland Community Action Agency. Using money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the agency...
Joel Haskard
Tue, 01/24/2012 - 5:26pm
As we kick off 2012, we are excited to announce the projects awarded CERTs seed grants in each of the seven Minnesota CERTs regions. Each region awarded $10,000 worth of seed grants, catalyzing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects...
Businesses Case Studies
West Central Minnesota has been the hub of much excitement with the beginning of the Youth Energy Summit (YES!) program, which engages teams of youth in action projects to literally put energy into our future. In Willmar, the high school YES! team took a particularly bold approach—fixing up an old greenhouse, heating it with renewable energy, and...
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...
Upcoming Businesses Events
Businesses Event Highlights
Funding & Financing Opportunities
There are various opportunities for funding and financing any clean energy project. CERTs offers a list of funding opportunities currently available in the fields of energy and the environment. Start exploring now! Learn more
Looking for technology resources?
If you’re looking to learn more about a specific technology, like energy efficiency, solar, or wind, we have what you’re looking for. Our technology resources include everything from basic introductions and frequently asked questions to CERTs case studies to recent reports and organizations that can help you go deeper. Learn more
CERTs Supported Projects
CERTs awards mini-grants to community groups for energy efficiency and clean energy projects across Minnesota. We awarded grants in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. The average amount is $5,000. We have descriptions and maps of all of the projects that we’ve funded. Check them out to see what folks are doing! See projects
Detailed Resources for Businesses
Lodging Resources
Lodging businesses have unique challenges and opportunities in energy efficiency. CERTs recognizes how lodging businesses are well-positioned to make meaningful gains by saving energy.
Consult our utility project planning resources for more information about utility-offered programs.
Energy Smart
Energy Smart is an energy efficiency business assistance initiative developed by Minnesota Waste Wise, an affiliate program of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. The Energy Smart program connects
businesses to existing Conservation Improvement Programs (CIPs) offered by the state’s energy utilities, as well as other energy efficiency tools and resources offered to the Minnesota business community. Energy Smart directs businesses to the information they need to make informed choices about their facilities’ energy use and efficiency upgrade options, highlighting potential cost savings or available financial incentives.
Clean Energy Projects You Can Do Now! – CERTs
Tips for Greening Your organization – Clean Air–Cool Planet
Simple steps your business can take to reduce its climate footprint.
ENERGY STAR for Small Business
Provides unbiased information and technical support to help you improve your company’s financial performance by reducing energy waste and energy costs, while at the same time protecting the environment.
National Small Business Association ENERGY STAR Challenge
NSBA is challenging—in partnership with the voluntary ENERGY STAR Small Business program, which is providing technical support—the 150,000 small businesses it reaches to reduce their energy consumption by 10 percent or more through improved energy efficiency. Find out how your business can get involved.
Center for Small Business and the Environment
CSBE believes that profitable, efficient, and innovative small businesses can lead the way to a new economy that protects and restores the environment while it produces abundant growth and employment. They operate through a network of like-minded environmental and small business leaders to promote green small businesses.
Alliance for Sustainability} – The Natural Step Framework
AFS is a Twin Cities-based nonprofit that promotes The Natural Step Framework, a creative approach for addressing environmental challenges—that businesses across Minnesota and the US have adopted—based on consensus and systems thinking. Its purpose is to develop and share a common framework comprised of easily understood, scientifically-based principles that can serve as a compass to guide society toward a just and sustainable future.
Clean Energy Resource Teams