How to Save $130 Billion a Year
A new report from McKinsey & Company shows that the U.S. economy has the potential to reduce annual non-transportation energy consumption by roughly 23 percent by 2020, eliminating more than $1.2 trillion in waste – well beyond the $520 billion upfront investment (not including program costs) that would be required.
The residential sector, the report says, accounts for 35 percent of potential energy savings. “Our houses leak, our light bulbs produce more heat than illumination, our big screen TV sets draw power when they are turned off, and that’s just the start of it,” comments GreenerBuildings contributor Mark Guenther on on the report.
There’s a vast network of small things that need to be done, all requiring investment, not only financial but educational, as well. As the report says,
the efficiency opportunity is fragmented across literally millions of locations and billions of devices and most opportunities require an initial investment that pays back over time.
Gunther comments on this point,
Americans waste energy for many… reasons, all, in a sense, market failures. Owners of apartment buildings have little incentive to make the air-conditioning more efficient in tenants pay the bills. Buyers of new homes neglect to ask about the insulation’s R-value. Working class people strapped for cash won’t pay extra for a more efficient clothes dryer, even if it saves money in the long run. There’s a vast lack of knowledge, even in business, about how and where energy is consumed.
