Building energy footprints trending down

This week Minnesota Public Radio released a report describing how real estate company Madison Equities is overhauling three of their large downtown St. Paul buildings. The most visible upgrade will be the replacing the neon lighting on the iconic First National Bank Building with LED lighting. This is part of a comprehensive $12.5 million retrofit project resulting in a 40 percent reduction in energy use between the three properties. And while the end result of this project will mean big savings, it actually started with a small decision – to benchmark how much energy the buildings were using in the first place.

Powering our future with clean electricity

Mark and Kate Hanson’s home in Roseville, Minnesota, has many special features – but one of the most exciting is their use of clean electricity for heating, cooling, keeping the lights on, and powering the family cars. For nearly 25 years, Fresh Energy has been working to transition to a clean energy system in the state. Increasingly we see that an “all-electric economy” – like the one modeled by Mark and Kate Hanson – may just be the answer.