Posts Categorized: Energy Efficiency
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Once Upon an Energy Efficiency Conversation: Using Storytelling to Talk About Energy Policy
by Sam Randall
During this holiday season and time of sharing stories around the table, I had the great pleasure of sharing my blog posts with family and friends for the first time. With their insightful feedback I was inspired to write a new post about what I learned from the experience.
Prior to sharing my 2024 blogs, I repeatedly ran into the same communication barrier when trying to explain energy efficiency policy work: confusion over terminology and bias about climate and/or energy science. Read More
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Carrying Our Weight: Shared Wisdom for Backpacking & Energy Efficiency
by Sam Randall
Right around the time I made the exciting professional move from grad school to begin my fellowship with E4TheFuture, I was simultaneously embarking on a personal journey to break into the next level of outdoor exploration and learn how to become an overnight backpacker.
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Weatherization Without Walkaways: Change is Coming, But Needs a Push
by Steve Cowell
Weatherization is in the news more than ever, with infrastructure funds coming and with state and federal legislation proposed to improve buildings.
Funding is necessary, but not sufficient, to solve our nation’s crisis in substandard housing. We absolutely need smart strategy. If we do not apply funds quickly and effectively, this opportunity could turn into its own crisis. This is what keeps me up at night.
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With Building Efficiency Retrofits, You Really Can Have It All
by Carina Wallack and Pat Stanton
Care about economic and environmental well-being? If so, you realize that our most valuable assets are sectors that create jobs quickly while cost-effectively reducing emissions for the long haul. Building energy efficiency investments accomplish this and more.
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Efficiency: Minimizing Total Costs of a Precious Resource
by Pat Stanton
Fighting climate change hinges on transitioning consumption to what will become our most precious energy resource: zero-carbon electricity.
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Insulation: Maximizing Value of a Precious Resource
by Pat Stanton
How do you keep drinks cool when you’re out far from home? Bags – or blocks – of ice (duh)!
Consider ice, a precious energy resource in the great outdoors. Your choice of a container dramatically impacts your results: To keep cool all day will require much more ice (your precious resource) if you choose an open metal bucket, compared to a well-insulated cooler.
Getting to Zero
When you want to decarbonize the building sector, your precious energy resource is zero-carbon electricity (including its generation, transmission and distribution). Poorly insulated buildings waste energy resources, like an open metal bucket wastes precious ice on a hot day.
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#EEDay2020: More Vital Than Ever
by Carol Harley
Looking for an opportunity to raise your voice for positive change? It’s coming soon! Everyone can get on board with “Save Money. Cut Pollution. Create Jobs.” Please help us spread the word!October 7 marks a 5-year milestone of the big annual campaign E4TheFuture helped to establish, proclaiming energy efficiency’s powerful benefits. Everybody knows saving energy saves money. This year’s campaign can inspire a very broad audience: Everyone who lives in a home, goes to school, and/or works in a building.
Act Now. It’s free to Join!
Visit Energy Efficiency Day and join your voice to hundreds helping to promote the massive benefits of EE. Please shout out loud about EE’s power to effect positive change. Read More -
Building Consensus to Achieve New York’s Ambitious Energy and Carbon Goals
by Steve Cowell
New York is stepping up as a national leader on energy and carbon reduction. And details matter. How will New York achieve its goals? How are stakeholders and advocates helping to provide direction? Read More
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Energy Efficiency: A Critical Component to Preparedness for Extreme Weather
by Pat Stanton
Record-breaking Hurricane Michael devastated coastal communities last fall. Because severe weather events on Florida’s Panhandle occur less frequently than on its Atlantic coast, that region was unprepared for such a potent storm. Panhandle building codes were less stringent than elsewhere,* and residents paid a steep price.
A famous picture from The New York Times shows one house unscathed in Mexico Beach, amidst flattened home sites. Why did this building withstand the storm? The owner worked with experts to design it for extreme weather events, using insulated concrete forms rather than taking a typical “design-to-code” approach. Learning this fact led me to consider the range of benefits that resilient buildings provide to their owners and occupants. Read More
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Key Questions Researched as Electricity Distribution Models and Practices Evolve
by Steve Cowell
Repeatedly, we hear about how fast the electric grid is transforming, and about how many difficult issues utilities, regulators, project developers, and other industry players must grapple with daily. Whether you engage with these issues every hour of the day or only tangentially, you know it’s necessary to keep up with what’s happening. I am pleased to announce new essential resources on non-wires alternatives (NWAs) and multi-user microgrids (MUMs). These two papers bring insight to current grid edge topics, and show how location is critically important to planning. Read More
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How to Return NY to “Top Three” for Energy Efficiency
by Steve Cowell
New York was once among the top three states–and can be again. Gov. Cuomo has called for ambitious new energy efficiency targets, and New Yorkers are urging the governor to present a statewide EE goal later this month that will help restore New York’s once-held status as a national leader.
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Barn Roof Community Solar – An Untapped Massachusetts Resource
by Rachel Ehrman
A palpable sense of pride emanates from people who live in rural towns. Untouched nature and thriving family farms are cherished rarities in Massachusetts. Protecting the integrity of such communities, while ensuring their constituents have access to local, renewable energy, is a delicate – yet important – challenge that E4TheFuture is ready to tackle.
Recent Articles
- Once Upon an Energy Efficiency Conversation: Using Storytelling to Talk About Energy Policy
- Navigating Uncertainty: Staying Motivated and Inspired by the Growth of Energy Work
- Election Rhetoric vs. Reality: Pennsylvania’s Clean Energy Vision
- Carrying Our Weight: Shared Wisdom for Backpacking & Energy Efficiency
- The Human Element: Bringing Trauma Informed Practices to Clean Energy Policy