Homes and Buildings

Cutting China’s energy intensity index by more than 5 percent over the next three years may seem a daunting task. But a nation-wide energy-efficiency and conservation campaign is helping China achieve its 2010 goals by shifting energy use to the forefront of public awareness.

Having pledged 41.8 billion yuan (USD 6 billion) to the cause this year, the Chinese government has deigned responsible energy use a national priority, and called for all citizens to participate in energy conservation and emissions reduction.

In June, state energy officials released the results of a 2008 Energy Cost Survey – the first national survey to quantify the impact of rising fuel costs on households of various income brackets. The findings provide valuable insight to the current energy crisis and its effect on American households.

Dana C. Christensen is Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.

Fifteen years ago, before voluntary environmental reporting was common, this high-technology company began measuring and reporting its environmental impact, and it has been committed to reducing energy use, water consumption, and waste throughout its operations. UTC has continually exceeded its own ambitious environmental goals since 1991. In the past 10 years for example, UTC reduced its own energy use by 20 percent while the company more than doubled in revenues.

For more than 30 years, Rinnai – winner of the Alliance’s award for innovation in energy efficiency – has been a leader in innovative gas appliance technologies that have kept the company at the forefront of energy efficiency. Rinnai also was instrumental in the U.S. Department of Energy’s February 2007 decision to establish an ENERGY STAR program for residential water heating – the only major residential energy end use without an ENERGY STAR designation at that time.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Wellinghoff will receive the Charles H. Percy Award for Public Service, named for one of the Alliance’s founders, in recognition of his decades of outstanding public service and his expertise and leadership on energy efficiency as the nation confronts the dual challenge of electricity supply security and climate change.

Energy-related tax breaks and other incentives are the spring trend in the southern states, as bills passed in Georgia and presented in South Carolina this month would seem to indicate.

House Bill 670, signed into law by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue (R), creates a clean energy tax credit that’s $2.5 million each year for five years, to be used as income tax incentives for solar, wind, geothermal, and energy efficient buildings in both the commercial and residential sectors.

National Coatings Corporation (NCC) is prepared to green the rooftops of an important client: the city of Los Angeles. Their sustainable roofing products, which satisfy criteria in three categories of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), can help developers earn the general LEED certification required of new 50-unit/50,000 sq.-ft-buildings, as described in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Green Building law.