Clean Homes

Minnesota has
four seasons. 

We need warm homes in the winter and cool ones in the summer.  We need our energy to be reliable & affordable; we need it to be clean & equitable. 

To balance these values, we need a managed transition: from older, less efficient homes to updated, cleaner homes.

What’s The Solution?

With over 1.6 million owner-occupied homes and over 600,000 rented homes, we have our work cut out for us. 

To get started, we’re focusing on two strategies: accelerating Neighborhood-Scale Decarbonization and creating a Minnesota Home Improvement Office.

  • First, we can fix more homes if we fix them together.  Instead of going ‘one-house-at-a-time’, we can create scaled, coordinated programs that make the planning, financing, & project management easier for Minnesotans.  Called Neighborhood Scale Decarbonization, we’ll need to electrify appliances in whole neighborhoods and build thermal energy networks that link homes to geothermal heating & cooling.  We’re working on legislation to develop these two pathways across the North Star State.

  • Second, we’re proposing the creation of a Minnesota Home Improvement Office, to be housed at the Minnesota Department of Commerce.  The MNHIO would be a front door for Minnesota homeowners, a one-stop-shop where folks who want to fix their homes could get connected to programs that work.  Beyond aligning those programs, MNHIO would also identify unmet needs, invest in innovative research, and support the retailers, contractors, & workers who are making it happen.


To find out more visit our Resources page.