Heating and powering our homes and businesses generates a substantial amount of our climate-changing pollution; our built environment is a major contributor to global warming. If our homes and buildings were carbon-free and energy efficient, we would significantly reduce our climate pollution, drastically cut energy costs for owners and renters, and improve air quality where we live and work.
For example, in Washington State, emissions from buildings are growing at a faster rate than any other source of carbon pollution, with this increase largely attributable to the use of fossil gas in homes and buildings. Combusting fossil gas in homes and buildings is not only a significant contributor to climate change, but also poses significant health risks for our communities, children, and other vulnerable populations.
Indoor air quality issues are particularly concentrated for low-income residents in smaller units with poor ventilation. Communities of color are already disproportionately impacted by outdoor air pollution, and should not continue to be disproportionately harmed by poor indoor air quality as well. Gas appliances also worsen our outdoor air quality. For example, California’s residential appliances releasing more than two times as many NOx emissions as all of their gas power plants combined, and commercial gas appliances releasing just as much NOx pollution as all of California’s cars.
Many cities in the region and around the country are increasingly looking at ensuring all new buildings are electric as a key cost-effective pathway for achieving their local or state greenhouse emissions goals. Electrifying buildings is critical to addressing climate change, but it is also achievable, affordable, safe, and creates a more resilient energy system.
We are working with partners to move toward electrifying our buildings for heating, cooling and cooking. We can also construct homes and buildings that get all their energy from sustainable sources, and even produce as much energy as they use — net zero energy buildings.
The international climate talks are a moment in time for forward-looking urban leaders to demonstrate the collective political will they have amassed for bold climate action, and to show how far they have already come in reducing carbon emissions.
A package of hugely important changes to Washington State codes are needed to make buildings more energy efficient and ready for solar and electric vehicle charging.
In the early days of climate action, urban plans to reduce carbon frequently suffered from the laundry list syndrome: cataloguing potential strategies without any evidence of how they would meet long-term goals. Since then, cities and counties have become more sophisticated about cutting carbon, and are developing clean energy transition plans to do it.
Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson once named energy efficiency the “silent hero” in the climate crisis. Republican Governor Butch Otter of Idaho called efficiency the “low hanging fruit in the energy orchard.” We know that a key way to reduce our climate pollution is to reduce our energy demand. By reducing energy use, we also save money on our utility bills. So why are there still barriers to homeowners embracing deep energy efficiency?
“Every watt saved by energy efficiency measures helps create living-wage jobs,” says Stephanie Pitts of McKinstry, the latest business recipient of the BlueGreen Alliance's "Right Stuff" award.
Oregon businesses are responding in ever-increasing numbers to the threat of global warming, and the ways climate change is harming our state's economy right now. You'll be inspired to see who's on the list!
City leaders across the United States see that energy efficiency means not only carbon reduction but also good government and sound economic policy:
Bellevue, WA has been quietly earning accolades for its achievements in sustainability, clean energy and energy efficiency. What's next for this leading city?
Redmond, WA is walking its clean energy talk, allocating $820,000 to reduce the city's energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA is effectively a city of 500 acres and more than 125 buildings, with a daytime population of 58,000.
We can dramatically cut carbon emissions simply by making our buildings more comfortable, cost-effective and efficient. Why haven't decades of energy efficiency programs accomplished more?
The City of Portland is accepting comments on a draft policy to measure the energy efficiency of homes, as part of a long-term strategy to increase energy efficiency, reduce homeowner costs, and to curb a major source of carbon emissions.
SEIU votes to make climate action a priority, California tests zero-net-energy homes, Australian coal CEOs defect to solar and energy efficiency, and more news of the week in climate and clean energy.
CleanTech Showcase is the Pacific Northwest’s premier cleantech business event. This one-day event gathers the industry’s best and brightest to learn about the latest clean technology innovations, research and investment opportunities.
Engage the industry’s best and brightest while seeing the latest cleantech innovations from across the region.
Network with 350+ industry leaders, investors, media and policymakers.
Hear and learn from renowned speakers across research, investing and industry.
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Can energy leverage the sharing economy? Two projects are finding out how cooperative district energy technologies are reshaping facility energy management and community design: Eco District and Cyrene. |
The GridWise® Architecture Council and Smart Grid Northwest are pleased to announce that the Third International Conference and Workshop on Transactive Energy will be held May 17 through May 19th, 2016, in Portland, Oregon, at the World Trade Center.
The conference and workshops will bring together representatives of government, industry, utilities, vendor organizations and academia who have an interest in advancing transactive energy—an approach that combines economic and control techniques to improve power grid reliability and efficiency.
As a part of an international climate and energy actionable knowledge exchange, i-SUSTAIN is gathering together experts from Denmark, Sweden and Washington state in Olympia and Seattle from April 11-12, 2016. The April convening focuses on district energy and combined heat and power, with this bi-directional knowledge exchange on climate and energy continuing in 2016 with other key action areas.
An open-to-the-public meeting with the delegates is being offered in Olympia (April 11th) and Seattle (April 12th):
On April 19, 2016 the Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies will be holding its first Energy Symposium. Students, faculty, and invited experts in the field of energy will be joining together on Western's campus for presentations, lively panel discussions, student poster sessions, and networking. Space is limited. Register now.
On March 10 Seattle took a key step on its path to be carbon neutral by 2050, when Mayor Ed Murray signed
It's time for Oregon to reclaim a leadership position on building codes and to join the vanguard of states leading the way in pursuit of net zero energy homes and businesses.
