The world's best thinkers on energy and climate
In the face of limited funding to address massive infrastructure needs, and with climate action at top of mind, it is more important than ever for engineers, designers, and policy makers to understand the full economic and environmental costs of infrastructure project decisions — and not just impacts relating to material choice or from initial construction, but the impacts of choices across the entire life cycle of a project. … [Read more...]
A growing number of U.S. cities are implementing building energy performance policies that require building owners to report their energy consumption, complete energy audits, or retrocommission their buildings. … [Read more...]
A group of retailers – whose members include Aviva, BT, Cemex, Ikea, Kingfisher, M&S, Nestle, Sky and Tesco – have criticised the UK government for not doing enough to improve energy efficiency in non-domestic buildings and asked for a zero carbon building standard to be set. … [Read more...]
Financing Energy Efficiency Through Mortgage Loans, a recent report from IMT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), culminates in a set of recommendations for both lenders and building owners/buyers to better factor building efficiency into mortgage loans and property condition assessments. … [Read more...]
Residents and businesses across the country are saving energy and money thanks to smart state policies. Their stories help explain why some states climbed in our 2017 State Scorecard or maintained strong standings. This year for the first time, we included stories of individuals and communities in our state-specific score sheets. … [Read more...]
It was World Green Building Week last week, with Green Building Councils from across the world campaigning for all buildings to be “net zero” by 2050. … [Read more...]
Over the past few years, Chicago has established itself as a leader in energy-efficient buildings. The city’s landmark energy benchmarking program, for which properties measure and report on their energy use, has already saved Chicago over $17 million, while supporting high-paying jobs and healthier air. … [Read more...]
Renovating old buildings to be more energy efficient or incorporate renewable energy is a win-win—more efficient homes and businesses, some of them generating electric power themselves, cause less strain on utilities and power generators while also saving money for consumers on their monthly bills—but the renovations often come with an upfront price tag that could take years or decades to pay back. … [Read more...]
This blog post is the second in a three-post series on understanding and increasing investments by businesses and individuals in energy efficiency. In the first post, we discussed current energy efficiency investments in the United States, which we estimate total about $60-115 billion per year. This number includes investments driven by policy, private market investments, and a mix of the two. … [Read more...]
The European Commission is proposing that a voluntary scheme for rating the “smart readiness” of buildings be adopted by the end of 2019. This scheme will include the development of a smart readiness indicator, and a methodology to calculate this. Buildings are becoming micro-energy hubs, but the building sector is lagging behind in understanding the implications. … [Read more...]
American cities are home to nearly 63 percent of energy use, despite only accounting for 3.5 percent of land area. It is estimated that these cities and their buildings will account for 87 percent of domestic energy consumption by 2030. … [Read more...]
The most recent Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) collected new information about lighting control technologies and strategies in the United States in 2012. Compared with other investments in energy efficiency—such as upgrading heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems or replacing insulation—lighting controls are often relatively easy, accessible, and affordable changes. … [Read more...]
The 21st century has ushered in a new era of measuring personal progress. With wearable technologies, we can now collect more personal data than we ever thought possible, from heart rate and step count to standing time and sleep quality. The ability to measure what we want to manage in real time has brought new meaning to the phrase “big data.” … [Read more...]
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