This past week was a quietly exciting one for energy efficiency, highlighting the fact that energy efficiency is slowly acquiring friends in (very) high places.
First, President Obama highlighted the importance of energy efficiency in his State of the Union Address, claiming that "even if you doubt the evidence [of human-induced climate change], providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation."
We couldn't agree more, and have faith that a program like Cash for Caulkers, or Home Star, humble as it may seem, could turn out to be significant in terms of job growth and greenhouse gas reductions. The next step is getting that program and others like it off the drawing board and into the field. Reuters reported that a Senate jobs-creation bill to be unveiled this week will include Home Star as one of its primary elements, but that the trouble will be reconciling that with a previous House bill that didn't include a similar program.
The real big news last week, of course, was the release of Apple's iPad, which Earth2Tech gave a B for environmental friendliness, while Martin LaMonica at CNET pondered whether there might be an eco-angle to the "Tablet." If you've jumped to the conclusion the iPad is the end of "dead tree" media and the green white horse, think different. LaMonica points out that the answer isn't so simple, once we take into consideration such factors as greater recycling rates for newspapers than for electronics, embedded energy and an uncertain lifespan for any given electronic device -- concluding ultimately that "Whether [the iPad] brings a net environmental benefit... has more to do with the owner than the device."
Energy efficiency took a prominent place at the table of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as well, according to the International Property Journal as well as the blog of Jones Lang LaSalle (the world's second-largest publicly traded commercial real estate brokerage), where CEO Colin Dyer wrote "The big problem about energy management and carbon emissions from real estate is not so much building new properties effectively. The issue is retrofitting energy efficiency into existing stock." Exactly.
Speaking of existing building stock, new research from the National Association of Home Builders and Better Homes and Gardens found that, for the first time in almost 30 years, the size of the average American home actually shrank in 2009 from 2,500 to 2,400 square feet, as homebuyers increasingly look toward efficiency over extravagance. The study also found that up to a quarter of all new homes built in 2009 met Energy Star standards, up from 11% in 2007. Whether that says more about the homes being built or about the Energy Star Homes program we're not sure, but take it as a good sign that the value of energy efficient homes is being increasingly recognized.
Kate Galbraith wrote at Green Inc. about Idaho Power, which has taken bold and progressive steps to promote energy efficiency through weatherization and insulation programs and by paying farmers to reduce their peak usage, being assailed for failing to incorporate more non-hydro renewables into its portfolio. This appears to be a case study in the ongoing sexy/unsexy debate: whether energy efficiency (purportedly unsexy) may in some cases have equal or greater value as renewables like wind and solar (purportedly sexy). We think it does, and take to heart the words of Paul Kjellander, the head of Idaho's office of energy resources, when he says of efficiency: it's “easy to sell it to people who watch their pocketbook.”
And finally, we came across this gorgeous chandelier created by Tim Fishlock and highlighted at Inhabitat. The chandelier, which is constructed of old incandescent lightbulbs and illuminated by a single energy efficient light bulb in the center, is an apt metaphor for incandescent wastefulness and compact fluorescent power. Art in the service of energy efficiency? We like that.
