How lessons-learned from a state-of-the-art net-zero project can help us all reduce our impact

Now that everyone is finally talking about green buildings, the question becomes “Where do we need to go from here?”

The answer? Net-zero.

That’s what a panel of experts told an audience assembled last month at Rocky Mountain Institute’s symposium in San Francisco, RMI2009.

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Building to cut energy consumption by nearly 40% in three years

Officials at New York’s Empire State Building today unveiled a new process for analyzing and retrofitting existing structures for environmental sustainability. As central elements of the $500 million upgrade program presently underway at New York City’s tallest building, the program is expected to reduce energy consumption by up to 38 percent, providing a replicable model for similar projects around the world.

The program is being spearheaded by former President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Climate Initiative, as well as the Rocky Mountain Institute, Johnson Controls Inc. and Jones Lang LaSalle.

“In this distressed economic climate, there is a tremendous opportunity for cities and building owners to retrofit existing buildings to save money and save energy,” said Mr. Clinton today at the announcement. “I’m proud of the work my foundation’s climate initiative has done with 40 of the world’s largest cities, including New York.”

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In a new study, conducted by the Rock Mountain Institute, it has been found that electricity consumption can be reduced by 30 percent through energy efficiency and coal powered power generation can be reduced by 60 percent.

The study, which spanned across 50 states, identified five states with highest electric productivity rates - New York, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware and California - and stated that if all other states were to adopt similar efficiency parameters are implemented in other states the whole country can save up to 1.2 million gigawatt-hours annually. The study also brought out the long-term benefits of improving the electric productivity

In 2020, if the United States can, on average, achieve the electric productivity of the top performing states today, we can anticipate a 34 percent reduction in projected electricity demand, while maintaining 2.5 percent annual economic growth.

The conclusions of this study exemplifies the importance of energy efficiency. Making investments to achieve energy efficiency is as important as investing in developing new renewable energy projects. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is essential not only for the environment but for the economy as well but before we could lay the foundations for a renewable energy centered power grid we must optimize the use of the resources at hand.

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Last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom reported for us that the city had just installed 3 charging stations for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Yesterday, the News & Observer reported that Raleigh, N.C. plans to install eight plug-in charging stations over the next few months, under a program called Project Get Ready.

Like the San Francisco-based program, drivers will access the charging stations through key-cards. In Raleigh, this means simple credit card access at a cost of about 2.5 cents per mile, while the SF-based program uses chargers provided by Coulomb Technologies at no cost, but are only available to members of the car-sharing programs City CarShare and Zipcar.

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The debate about energy policy is a case in point: the proposals so far have ranged from sound (invest in multiple forms of renewable energy) to questionable (clean coal, 45 new nuclear power plants) to the insultingly cynical and foolish (Drill Baby Drill!).

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