We link only to organizations and agencies we consider authoritative and useful. They are listed here as public resources you can contact directly; inclusion does not mean a partnership or endorsement in either direction. Programs and rebates change often, so always confirm current details on each organization’s own site.
About federal tax credits: The federal Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (25C) does not apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and the Residential Clean Energy Credit (25D) does not apply to expenditures made after that date, according to the IRS. For current help with upgrades, check Focus on Energy and your utility.
Home energy
- Focus on Energy: Wisconsin’s statewide energy efficiency and renewable energy program, offering rebates and incentives through participating utilities. Start here for current offers on insulation, heating equipment and more.
- U.S. Department of Energy: Home Energy Assessments: how professional and do-it-yourself assessments work, and what to look for.
- ENERGY STAR: DIY Guide to Sealing and Insulating: step-by-step instructions for finding and sealing attic air leaks.
- DSIRE: the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, a searchable listing of incentive programs by state.
Water, stormwater and the watershed
- Wisconsin DNR: Rain Gardens: state guidance and publications on designing and building rain gardens.
- U.S. EPA: Soak Up the Rain: practical ideas for reducing stormwater runoff at home and in the community.
- Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance: an Appleton-based organization focused on the Fox-Wolf watershed, including its annual watershed cleanup and water-quality education.
Waste, recycling and composting
- Wisconsin DNR: Recycling: what Wisconsin law bans from landfills, how to recycle at home and how to reach your local recycling program.
- U.S. EPA: Composting at Home: the basics of greens, browns, moisture and what not to compost.
- Your county or municipal recycling program: Outagamie, Winnebago and Calumet counties and individual municipalities run their own recycling and household hazardous waste collection. Check your city or village website for current schedules and drop-off sites.
Gardens, pollinators and native plants
- UW–Madison Division of Extension: research-based help on gardening, soils, water, community development and more, with offices in every Wisconsin county.
- Wisconsin Extension Master Gardener Program: horticulture education and volunteer opportunities, including the Outagamie County program.
- The Xerces Society: science-based guidance on protecting pollinators and other invertebrates, including regional native plant lists.
- Homegrown National Park: a grassroots effort encouraging people to replace lawn with native plants to support biodiversity.
Frameworks and community dialogue
- The Natural Step: the organization behind the science-based sustainability framework and four system conditions used in our workshops. Read our overview of The Natural Step.
- Everyday Democracy: Dialogue to Change: a widely used approach to community dialogue that grew out of the study circle tradition. See our study circles page.
Sustainability glossary
- Air sealing
- Closing gaps and cracks in a building’s shell, especially in the attic and basement, so heated air does not leak out.
- Backcasting
- A planning method that starts with a picture of a successful, sustainable future and works backward to identify the steps needed to get there.
- Baseline
- Your starting point for measuring change, such as last year’s energy use for the same months.
- Biodiversity
- The variety of living things in a place, from soil microbes to birds, and the relationships among them.
- Blower door test
- A diagnostic test that depressurizes a house with a calibrated fan to measure how leaky it is and locate air leaks.
- Brownfield
- A property whose reuse is complicated by real or suspected contamination from past use.
- Carbon footprint
- The total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by a person, household, organization or product.
- Circular economy
- An economic model that keeps materials in use through repair, reuse and recycling instead of a take-make-waste pattern.
- Community supported agriculture (CSA)
- A farm arrangement in which members pay up front for a share of the season’s harvest.
- Compost
- Decomposed organic matter, made from food scraps and yard waste, that improves soil structure and fertility.
- Eco-municipality
- A city, village or town that formally adopts sustainability principles, often based on The Natural Step, to guide its decisions.
- Embodied energy
- The energy used to extract, manufacture and transport a material or product before it is ever used.
- Energy efficiency
- Getting the same service, such as warmth or light, while using less energy.
- Greenhouse gases
- Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that trap heat in the atmosphere.
- Heat pump
- An electric appliance that moves heat into or out of a building instead of generating it by burning fuel.
- Heating degree day
- A measure of how cold a period was, used to compare heating energy use fairly across different winters.
- Impervious surface
- A hard surface such as a roof, driveway or parking lot that water cannot soak into.
- Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
- The unit of electricity on your bill; one kilowatt of power used for one hour.
- Life-cycle assessment
- A method for measuring a product’s environmental impacts from raw materials through disposal.
- Native plant
- A plant species that occurs naturally in a region and evolved alongside its local wildlife.
- Net metering
- A billing arrangement that credits solar owners for electricity they send back to the grid.
- Nonpoint source pollution
- Pollution carried by rain and snowmelt from many diffuse sources, such as lawns, streets and fields, into waterways.
- Phantom load
- Electricity used by devices that are switched off or idle but still plugged in.
- Phosphorus loading
- The amount of phosphorus reaching a lake or river; excess phosphorus feeds algae blooms.
- Rain garden
- A shallow, planted depression that captures runoff from roofs and pavement so it can soak into the ground.
- R-value
- A measure of insulation’s resistance to heat flow; the higher the number, the better it insulates.
- Renewable energy
- Energy from sources that are naturally replenished, such as sunlight, wind and moving water.
- Stormwater runoff
- Rain or snowmelt that flows over the ground instead of soaking in, often picking up pollutants along the way.
- Study circle
- A small, facilitated group that meets several times for democratic discussion of a shared issue and then plans action.
- System conditions
- The Natural Step’s four science-based principles describing what a sustainable society must avoid doing to nature and people.
- Therm
- The unit of natural gas on your bill, equal to 100,000 British thermal units of heat.
- Triple bottom line
- Measuring success by social and environmental results as well as financial ones: people, planet and profit.
- Watershed
- All the land that drains to a particular river, lake or stream, such as the Fox-Wolf basin that drains to Green Bay.
Have a resource we should consider, or a term you would like defined? Email [email protected] or use our contact form. You can also find answers in our FAQ.