ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Approximately 50 percent of the energy use in buildings is devoted to producing an artificial indoor climate through heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. A typical building’s energy bill constitutes approximately 25 percent of the building’s total operating costs. Estimates indicate that climate-sensitive design using available technologies could cut heating and cooling energy consumption by 60 percent and lighting energy requirements by at least 50 percent in U.S. buildings. Returns on investment for energy-efficiency measures can be higher than rates of return on conventional and even high yielding investments.

Participants in the Green Lights program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have enjoyed annual rates of return of over 30 percent for lighting retrofits. When participants complete all program related improvements, Green Lights could save over 65 million kilowatts of electricity, reducing the nation’s electric bill by $16 billion annually.

If the United States continues to retrofit its existing building stock into energy-efficient structures and upgrade building codes to require high energy efficiency in new buildings, it will be able to greatly reduce the demand for energy resources. This reduction, in turn, will lessen air pollution, contributions to global warming, and dependency on fossil fuels.