According to ENERGY STAR, heating and cooling make up half of an average household’s energy bill. But homeowners can save approximately $180 a year with a properly set and maintained programmable thermostat. Make a note: the key word in the previous sentence is “properly.”

If you’ve made a concerted effort to increase the efficiency of your home, you understand the positive impact it can have on your family’s budget.

There are a lot of new lighting options out there today, so Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) has created the Right Light Guide to help you find your way through the lighting aisle at the hardware store.

Have you ever wanted to have a professional energy expert visit your home and identify all the ways energy and money is slipping through the cracks? Sounds expensive, right? It’s not. Thanks to Community Energy Services, it’s only $30 for Minneapolis residents.

The U.S. Green Building Council recently released its 2011 list of top U.S. states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings, and Minnesota came in at number 10.

Do you want a healthier school environment for your kids, one that improves their learning environment, boosts test scores, and decreases missed school days? What if schools could save money at the same time?

Are individual states making any progress on energy efficiency? We look at the big picture.

Of all currently available energy resources, one stands alone when it comes to affordability, clean power, and job creation. That resource? Efficiency.

Currently, less than half of the country’s energy actually produces useful work like lighting and heating your home or powering your car. The rest—57 percent—is wasted.

Energy efficiency isn’t about giving things up. It’s about doing things better and doing more with less energy.