The Bryants began looking into investing in energy efficiency upgrades. “[We] wanted to do good things for the business, good things for the environment, and try to be a good role model for the rest of the world too,” Steven Bryant says. As Publyk House was growing its business, Bryant felt that saving money on energy costs would have the most impact if the restaurant could simultaneously cut its carbon footprint. Fortunately, Vermont has Efficiency Vermont, an organization whose mission is to do just that. Since 2000, Efficiency Vermont has been working to “create energy savings as a public resource,” notes public relations manager Jeff Buell. Efficiency Vermont is the state’s publicly funded energy efficiency utility, and the first energy efficiency utility in America. As an energy efficiency utility, Efficiency Vermont’s goal is to encourage Vermonters to save energy. This saved energy is effectively treated as its own energy resource, similar to the electricity produced by conventional electric utilities. This work is funded by a 4.5 percent surcharge that appears on Vermonters’ energy bills.