Thanks to clever marketers, if I said I had a problem with ED, you might immediately have an idea what I'm talking about. But I have a problem with EE. It's no cause for embarrassment -- EE is a great thing. EE can save you money, create jobs, help protect our environment and safeguard our children's future. Unfortunately, many people just don't find EE that exciting.
EE is energy efficiency, and if you're a building or business owner you needed EE yesterday. It's the cheapest way to boost your profit margin, and in these tough times who doesn't want that?
Oil spewing in the Gulf presents yet another reminder of our unsustainable addiction to fossil fuels, amplifying calls to move toward "clean" energy systems. Energy costs in Alaska can stifle economic development, especially in rural areas. Renewable energy generation -- wind, solar, hydro, geothermal -- is crucial to Alaska's clean energy future, and this is what most people think of first when looking for truly sustainable energy solutions.
But the critical first step toward making renewable energy systems a reality is EE. It's the quickest and cheapest way to reduce fossil energy use. At the recent Business of Clean Energy conference one entire day dealt with EE; the conference organizers at Renewable Energy Alaska Project clearly understand the role EE plays in transitioning to a clean energy future.
Where to start with EE? Our buildings! Reducing energy use is a large part of the growing "green building" movement.
In the U.S. buildings use roughly 40 percent of all primary energy (including 71 percent of all electricity) -- more than either the transportation or industry sectors. And our buildings produce about 39 percent of all carbon emissions. (These are national statistics -- we don't have similar data specific to Alaska. But I'd bet we're higher, since, on a per capita basis, Alaskans use twice as much energy as folks Outside.)
So there's a lot of room for savings -- all with off-the-shelf technology -- improving building envelopes, lighting and mechanical systems in existing commercial and public facilities. An added bonus? Renovating existing buildings will create thousands of jobs, in both urban and rural areas.
There's already a lot of good news to report, but because EE doesn't grab the headlines these efforts don't garner wide attention. Anchorage and the Mat-Su Borough require new municipal buildings be constructed to the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard, and Alaska now boasts the northernmost LEED-certified school in North America. There are several other LEED-certified buildings in Alaska, and more than 60 others working that direction.
Going a step further, Cascadia Green Building Council has developed the Living Building Challenge, which promotes "net-zero energy" buildings. To date there are no Living Building projects in Alaska, but there are more than 70 across North America.
Significant steps to promote EE are being taken by both the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and Alaska Energy Authority. AHFC is developing a program to improve the EE of state buildings, guaranteed to save thousands of dollars in operating expenses. AEA has developed a program to promote energy conservation and efficiency, including a project creating a web-based resource devoted entirely to EE that involves a large group of stakeholders.
With rising fossil energy costs, EE building improvements can provide a handsome return on investment. One progressive Anchorage business owner recently reported being able to reduce electricity use by 32 percent and natural gas use by 40 percent, with readily available equipment. And his return on investment far exceeded anything you could get in the stock market!
Actions to improve EE in our buildings, both public and private, can produce the financial savings critical to economic sustainability. And they can produce jobs and dramatically reduce our environmental impacts at the same time. There are many members of the commercial building community -- architects, engineers, interior designers, building owners/managers, contractors -- excited to help "green" your building to save you money, save energy and reduce emissions. Now, if we could just get the marketers to make EE sexy.
Mark Masteller is Alaska director for Cascadia Green Building Council, a chapter of both the U.S. and Canada Green Building Councils. He can be reached at mark@cascadiagbc.org, or www.cascadiagbc.org.
By MARK MASTELLER