Energy Efficiency Secrets of Better Buildings
Energy Efficiency Markets, June 28, 2013Several corporate leaders have volunteered to reduce energy use 20 percent by 2020 as part of the Better Buildings Challenge initiated by President Barack Obama. But that’s not the big deal.
The big deal is that they have agreed to publicly disclose how they’re doing it.
Factories, data centers, stores and other large energy users often balk at revealing their energy efficiency strategies. After all, saving energy reduces the cost of doing business and gives them a competitive edge. By sharing details they tip off the competition to better practices.
By not sharing details, however, they force others to reinvent the wheel – if they invent it at all – thus slowing US progress in reaching national energy productivity goals aimed at bettering the economy.
“The real goal is to figure out who is leading in the space and how we can learn from their learning and replicate their activities in the marketplace quickly,” said Maria Vargas, director of the Better Buildings Challenge at the US Department of Energy.