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What is the Metro CERTs Network?

Many Twin Cities neighborhood groups, community organizations and other metro-area residents are currently engaged in local clean energy efforts. The Metro CERTs network helps connect, provide support for, and increase the effectiveness of these local efforts in conducting community energy projects.

The 2007 Minnesota Legislature adopted CERTs in the Statutes and called for the creation of a Twin Cities Metro CERTs Network. Since this time, the Metro CERTs Network has been building relationships with a number of affiliate groups and supporting clean energy projects across the eleven county metro region.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON CERTs

POWERFULLY GREEN offers complete design and installation packages for both solar electric and solar thermal systems. Our team includes all the necessary experts including trained installers, certified electricians, roofing specialists, and structural engineers.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON REBECCA LUNDBERG AND POWERFULLY GREEN

TIPS, Info and more

Visit www.optimalhomelocation.com Simply stick in the addresses of all of the places that you and members of your family regularly go (grocery stores, work place, daycare, dog walking, strip club, whatever) and the website will weight them appropriately and then tell you where exactly, within your town, you can live using the least amount of gas.

Light Green Tip #4821 - Stop Idling your car!

Every moment you spend idling your car's engine means needlessly wasting gas, as well as rougher wear on your vehicle. Idling for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than is needed for startup. Overall, Americans idle away 2.9 billion gallons of gas a year, worth around $78.2 billion.

VAULT TIP #343: With winter comes snow and ice, and a great deal of this water-turned-slippery-solid is going to fall on our driveways and walkways. To avoid accidents, many of us are going to look for methods to get rid of the ice. The best way, in my humble opinion, is with some hard labor. Shovel the snow and break up the ice. That's the best way. Lots of people use rock salt for their driveways. Salt is a really abundant, naturally occurring resource. It shouldn't hurt the environment, right? Wrong! Over half of the salt in the USA is used for de-icing purposes. So much salt is used, in fact, that it can get into our waterways and poison the fish and vegetation. It is also corrosive and can damage cars, leading to reduced sustainability of vehicles. And don't even think about snow-blowing. Snow-blowers are loud, annoying to neighbors and gas-guzzling. Plus, they don't clear away the ice that's beneath the snow. That's the hard job, anyways.

Lose the Ice on Your Walkway the Green Way

1. If you have a bad back, hire a neighborhood kid to shovel your walk.


2. Buy a shovel with backache-prevention in mind. Combo the ergonomic shovel with an ice chipper. Ice chippers can break up the ice so much better than the metal edge of a shovel.


3. If you cannot break up the ice, sprinkle sand on the ice for traction. Sand can be bad for storm drains. Use it sparingly.


4. Use a calcium magnesium acetate-based deicer. Don't let the big, scary chemical name fool you. This stuff is as corrosive as tap water, and it is less harmful to the environment than rock salt.


5. Heat your drive way. Some companies can install a radiant heating system into your driveway. This method uses electricity, but if you power the heated driveway in an eco-friendly manner, this can potentially be the greenest and easiest way to remove snow and ice.