Today’s Solutions: August 14, 2026

Buildings are one of the largest consumers of energy, and the worst of the worst are commercial offices. Unnecessary heating and cooling of conference rooms and spare offices eat up large amounts of energy and contribute to the overall problem of greenhouse gas emissions. Enlighted is a new startup from the Sunnyvale, California. Their approach to greening offices is similar to a larger-scale Nest, Google’s smart thermostat system. Enlighted has an interesting business model. When Enlighted gets a new customer they calculate how much the customer will save with their technology, then Enlighted takes out a loan for the amount the customer is projected to save. Enlighted then installs the system for free, and the customer only pays a percentage each month of the savings Enlighted provides. This model directly links Enlighted’s profit to the amount of savings they give to their customers—which is the bold and aggressive approach to energy efficiency we need to see more of in order to see noticeable change.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

How this city in Illinois plans to stop homelessness by the end of the year

Less than a decade ago, more than 700 people were homeless in the small, 150,000 person city of Rockford, Illinois, about 90 miles northwest ...

Read More

This map shows what Indigenous land you live on

If you’ve attended a virtual lecture or presentation lately you may have noticed that the speakers initiated the event with an acknowledgment of which ...

Read More

More on beavers and rewilding

We decided to dust off and update this innovative solution to restoring habitats with the most industrious aquatic mammal: beavers.  At The Optimist Daily, ...

Read More

9 driving changes you can make to save more and burn less

Gas prices keep going up. While many of us can’t yet afford an electric vehicle, and we still need to get places, there are ...

Read More