Create or participate in a marketing/outreach program to connect businesses with assistance providers, including utilities, who provide personalized energy, waste or sustainability audits and assistance.
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
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Promote business assistance providers on your city website on an ongoing basis, or identify how the city has promoted business assistance to at least 5 for-profit or non-profit organizations about audit/assistance programs within the past year. Report outreach to just tourism businesses under action 25.3; report work on business operations related to water under action 20.6; report promotion of PACE financing under action 26.3 |
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Participate on a 1-time basis in a campaign organized by an assistance provider; report outcomes from these visits (# of businesses assisted, by whom, sampling of results/improvements made, such as energy or waste reductions, materials exchanges). Report assistance to businesses on water conservation and wastewater pretreatment (could be from a city utility) under actions 20.6 and 20.7 |
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Explicitly include energy/water/waste assistance into BR&E (business retention & expansion) efforts; a Partners in Energy campaign; create an ongoing city-organized business assistance program AND report results (financial/environmental outcomes). |
Resources
See additional resources for businesses (BPA 2.4).
Assistance Providers:
- The Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) can help commercial businesses reduce energy costs through their lighting program, HVAC consultants, refrigeration experts, large building assessments, and more.
- Minnesota Waste Wise / Minnesota Energy Smart. Energy Smart helps businesses save energy and connect to financial incentives. All services are at no cost. Waste Wise provides environmental sustainability consulting at no cost to organizations located in Ramsey, Washington, Anoka and Carver Counties.
- The Minnesota Technical Assistance Program helps Minnesota businesses develop and implement industry-tailored solutions that prevent pollution at the source, maximize efficient use of resources, and reduce energy use and costs to improve public health and the environment. Since 1984, through 5,000 site visits and 300 intern projects, MnTAP has helped businesses save $53 million, 800 million gallons of water, and 400 million tons of waste.
- The MN Materials Exchange, a reuse network, is a free service, operated as part of MnTAP, that links businesses and organizations that have reusable goods they no longer need to those who can use them.
- Minnesota Retiree Environmental Technical Assistance Program at the MN Pollution Control Agency, whose clients save an estimated average of over $4,300 per year upon implementing RETAP recommendations.
- The MN Pollution Control Agency's Small Business Environmental Assistance program helps Minnesota businesses and local governments access free technical staff to assist in reducing or eliminating the amounts of emissions, wastes, energy, water and materials' use, and stormwater generated. SBEAP also helps businesses maintain compliance with new and existing environmental requirements, and helps reduce regulatory burden. See their Climate impacts and resilience for small business training.
Campaigns:
- Clean Energy Resources Teams (CERTs) can help promote energy efficiency with a business blitz - like Winona.
- See lessons learned from energy coaching for small businesses.
Order Number
2
Action Type
Finite