Are You an Energy Star?

Guess what? Your building may already qualify as an ENERGY STAR rated building. How can you tell? It’s easy: Just ask Minnesota Energy Smart to assist you, at no cost, with completing the assessment process for the U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR program.

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. You probably recognize ENERGY STAR from its work in the consumer market—remember those yellow information tags that are attached to appliances when you shop?

The Minnesota Waste Wise Energy Smart program is certified as an ENERGY STAR Partner. Two businesses, one in St. Paul and the other in Anoka, recently received the ENERGY STAR building rating with Energy Smart’s help and encouragement.

Donald’s Uniform and Apparel and DecoPac were rewarded for their ongoing efforts to increase their facility’s energy efficiency—it turns out they already qualified as an ENERGY STAR building, and did not realize it! Now the companies can use the ENERGY STAR ranking as a point of commonality with potential customers, as an advantage over competitors, and as a morale-booster for its employees.

Energy Smart is eager to help businesses make energy efficiency improvements that will earn them an ENERGY STAR rating, and to assist companies that already qualify get the recognition they deserve.

Minneapolis-St. Paul has consistently ranked among the top 15 cities for its number of ENERGY STAR rated buildings, but that ranking has slipped since 2008 when the metro area was in 8th place to its current ranking of 14thplace. As of 2011, the Twin Cities have 142 buildings that qualify. Collectively, these building owners are saving more than $50 million in energy costs over inefficient buildings!

The program is open to business of all sizes, so contact Energy Smart today to find out how your company can qualify.