Go green

Bring warmth and energy savings to your home

Do you experience high winter heating bills, drafty rooms or huge icicles on your roofline? Keep your home cozy and keep your bills low this winter by signing up for a Home Energy Squad visit!

At your visit, you’ll learn how your home uses energy and identify energy-saving opportunities that can lower utility bills. Energy experts can also install materials such as LED lightbulbs, door weather stripping and more. The City of St. Louis Park offers discounted visits, available for only $35 or $50 (valued at $600) depending on the age of the home. The city also provides free visits for many households.

Visit www.stlouispark.org/hes-challenge to see if you qualify and to learn more about the program.

Bonus: If you sign up for a Home Energy Squad visit before the end of the year, you’ll help St. Louis Park win the 2021 Home Energy Squad Challenge (and help meet our Climate Action Plan goals)! The city is competing with 21 other Minnesota communities to encourage home energy efficiency. Awards will be given to cities with the highest participation rate per capita and the most air sealing and insulation rebates per capita.

Create meals, not waste: tips for reducing food waste

You may not think you waste a lot of food at home, but the little bits here and there add up. In fact, compared to food wasted during production, processing and at retail, consumers are the biggest contributor to the food waste problem. But that’s also good news. We have the power to significantly reduce the amount of food that goes to waste and save ourselves money by making changes right at home in our kitchens and when we go shopping.

You can practice meal planning by deciding what meals you will have for the week and base your grocery list off of that. Keep an inventory of the food you have in your fridge, freezer and pantry, and check what foods you already have at home before heading to the grocery store. Using the food you have seems simple but can go a long way in reducing food waste.

Visit www.stlouispark.org/waste-reduction for more tips on reducing food waste.

Winter maintenance

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency recommends a low-salt diet for Minnesota waters. Doctors tell us to stick to a low-salt diet. Our lakes and streams should follow the same advice. When winter comes and snow and ice build up on Minnesota roads, parking lots and sidewalks, one of the most common reactions is to apply salt. This salt contains chloride, which pollutes water.

When snow and ice melts, the salt goes with it, washing into our lakes, streams, wetlands and groundwater. It takes only 1 teaspoon of road salt to permanently pollute 5 gallons of water. Once in the water, there is no way to remove the chloride. At high concentrations, chloride can harm fish and plant life. Less is more when it comes to applying road salt.

Get Smart Salting certified

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Smart Salting training program offers two level 1 classes and certifications for winter maintenance professionals. The goal of the training program is to provide the latest technologies, best practices and tools, and available resources to assist organizations to be effective and efficient in managing snow and ice. Learn to reduce salt use, improve efficiency, create safe surfaces, save money and protect water resources.

Visit www.pca.state.mn.us/water/smart-salting-trainings to sign up for a training class.