Efficiency Work Keeps Contractors Busy

Efficiency Work Keeps Contractors Busy

Apr 1, 2013 |

For close to two years, more than a dozen home energy assessors, contractors, and workers from three local companies have made the city-sponsored pilot home-efficiency program tick. They’ve made more than 500 Traverse City homes-a remarkable 20 percent of the town’s owner-occupied residences-more comfortable and affordable. The success stories-and the jobs and savings they produce-could multiply dramatically if some Traverse City civic, business, and elected leaders find a way to expand TCSaves into a permanent, communitywide program.

TCSaves homeowners cheer cozier homes, lower heating bills

TCSaves homeowners cheer cozier homes, lower heating bills

Feb 28, 2013 |

The two-year TCSaves program was-and is-good news for Traverse City: It kept local contractors and building supply wholesalers busy. Now it’s saving energy dollars for homeowners and keeping some of those dollars in town, rather than sending them to distant coalfields. Lessons learned from TCSaves will help the community as it moves forward with a long-term energy efficiency project for Traverse City.

This is what democracy looks like

This is what democracy looks like

Feb 28, 2013 |

Fifty-six people. 27 students. 30 hours round-trip on a cramped bus. Four hours standing on the National Mall in frigid temps followed by a march to the White House. That’s what democracy looks like. It’s not always comfortable, but it sure is inspiring. On Saturday Feb. 16, I joined 55 other people on a bus in Traverse City headed for Washington D.C. to march in what was to be the largest climate rally ever held in the United States.

Hans Voss: Choosing TCL&P’s New Director Is a Big Deal

Feb 14, 2013 |

Our message is clear: TCL&P board members should look far and wide for a new director, attract the best candidates possible, and interview them with wide-open minds and complete transparency. Like every utility today, Traverse City’s is at a crossroads. It must choose between its business-as-usual model and the new, even revolutionary 21st-century models now emerging around the world.

MLUI Welcomes New Members to Board and Advisory Council

MLUI Welcomes New Members to Board and Advisory Council

Feb 13, 2013 |

The Michigan Land Use Institute Board of Directors recently welcomed its newest member. Tim Pulliam brings with him vast experience in the energy efficiency field as co-founder and president of Keen Technical Solutions, LLC. Keen provides clients throughout North America with analysis and energy conservation strategies. Inc. Magazine named Keen one of the “500 Fastest Growing Private Companies” in a profile last year.

Public-Private Partnerships Power Business Efficiency

Public-Private Partnerships Power Business Efficiency

Jan 31, 2013 |

You’d never know it driving by, but tucked into a nondescript warehouse district just south of town is an office and production space so airy and dazzling that it would turn heads in the hippest urban enclaves. The comfortable digs and lighting at Britten, Inc., are the result of several recent, major energy efficiency projects. They are making Britten’s workers happy, but the firm’s accountants are smiling, too.

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