Winning awards and making a difference for generations to come… How Liberty Apartments and Townhomes and Hilton Garden Inn are Leading the charge in clean living.

How would you like to live in a cutting edge community development that not only cuts your cost of living, but makes a real difference to the future of our planet? The Liberty Apartments and Townhomes in Golden Valley is building a new template for multi-residential housing. They are creating a view into a better future by integrating sustainable solar energy into their new apartment complex project. The complex will consist of 55 townhomes, 200 apartments units and a community clubhouse equipped with pool that boasts 1,448 Solar Panels alone. 

One of many benefits of committing the project as a sustainable solar community from inception, is the labor and installation costs are greatly reduced versus trying to retroactively adapt to clean energy years later. Residents of the apartment complex will also see the benefits from day one, consuming clean energy and offsetting 5,325 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 25 years. They can also track the amount of electricity they are generating by smartphone app or online.

The development of Liberty Apartments and Townhomes will create jobs and opportunity for local companies. Twelve local design and installation jobs, will be created and multiple local companies such as Werner Electric will be part of the project. The solar arrays, consisting of 900 PV panes and 280,000 watts of energy will be designed and constructed by TruNorth and connected to Xcel Energy distribution system.

This project stands as an example of what can be accomplished in our communities using solar integration. The excitement for the project is growing. It won the 2018 Environmental Initiative award and is creating buzz within the development community as a leader in what can be done. Through partnership (more than nine companies!) they are showing the world what can be accomplished with solar. Learn more at http://www.TruNorthSolar.com or visit www.LiveAtTheLiberty.com for more information.

Another local business getting props for sustainability and clean energy initiatives is Hilton Garden Inn in Maple Grove. They ranked the top in efficiency out of 27 hotels in their management group here in the Midwest. What makes this accomplishment so noteworthy is that they were able to achieve an 80 on Energy Star portfolio manager, not by new expensive technology, but by high staff engagement.

While guests will notice some LED lighting, they may not notice the due diligence of the staff behind the scenes. Efforts are made by cleaning, maintenance and kitchen staff to adjust thermostats, shut off lights, close windows and blinds, perform regular equipment repairs and shutt of exhaust hoods between breakfast and dinner service. These small but impactful efforts add up and make a huge difference in energy and cost savings.

Hilton Garden Inn is able to accomplish this through teamwork and a strong sense to do the “right thing” by the entire team, starting at the top. Team members have a say in the projects they take on, and management supports them by providing the tools to be successful and finally the results of their efforts. They use a Green Scorecard where they track more than 150 conservation items. A Green Committee with representatives for each hotel in the group as well as a Green Newsletter  are also used to initiate and promote new ideas.

What would our communities look like if all businesses had such insight, vision and the drive to do what is best for its customers and communities? Examples such as these allow us to visualize what a better future could look like. With such successes as Hilton Garden Inn in Maple Grove and Liberty Apartments and Townhomes in Maple Grove hopefully other businesses and future developments will hop on the clean energy and sustainability band wagon.