Recently...
On July 17, Brad Heavner, the director of Environment Maryland, testified on behalf of Environment America before a House committee on the climate benefits of increasing energy efficiency in buildings.
America’s
global warming emissions could be cut 9 percent below 2005 levels by 2020
through simple building efficiency measures.
Read the testimony.
What's at stake
A new generation of
clean, efficient, zero-energy homes and businesses could be just on the
horizon. With new high-tech building products, advanced construction
techniques, and increasingly affordable solar panels, we've already got what it
takes to build green.
Homes and
businesses account for almost half of our energy use—and half of our global
warming pollution. And yet we are still designing most of our buildings as if we
weren’t facing skyrocketing energy costs or a growing threat from global
warming.
We can do better—and bring our homes and businesses into the
21st century. From city building codes to the incentives set by Congress, we’re
working to rewrite the rules that affect how we build. In doing so, we can move
our country forward, past the old, inefficient and wasteful, and put ourselves
on track to make all new buildings zero-energy by 2030.
To get to zero, we need to:
- Ramp up building energy codes—the rules that set the minimum for
building efficiency.
- Make sure we’re enforcing these codes, so that all buildings are wasting
as little energy as possible.
- Give innovative builders the tools they need to go even further by
retrofitting old buildings and developing new ways to save energy.
- Make it easy for everyone to add solar panels and other renewables to
their homes and businesses.
The 30 Percent Solution: The First Step
In September, officials from towns and cities across the
country will be coming together to
make one of the most significant energy decisions of 2008. Read more.
