A white paper authored by Schneider Electric suggests that meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets will fail unless “Active Energy Efficiency” becomes compulsory. They define “Active Energy Efficiency” as “effecting permanent change through measurement, monitoring and control of energy (more…)

While the U.S. is known around the world for innovative companies like Google and Facebook, there is a new vanguard of American companies creating and exporting clean energy technologies,” said Jim Kapsis.  His company, OPower, an (more…)

While every forward-thinking company has certainly become aware that it’s good business to be more efficient, to create less waste, and to monitor energy usage and expenses closely, what’s going to drive real changes in behavior that lead to those ends: public policy from federal and local governments, or (more…)

Luxury car technology is now being used to make wastewater treatment plants more efficient.

Although great advances have been made since the days when human waste was merely tossed into the street, about half the raw sewage generated in the U.S. never gets treated before it reaches open water. (more…)

Last week, temperatures soared into the triple digits, reaching record highs for the Twin Cities. After a wicked winter, I actually welcomed the heat with open arms. That is, until the temperature inside my house hit a steamy 86 degrees – even with curtains closed and fans circulating. And while I pride myself on (more…)

Well, I’m usually not one to say “I told you so” but, at the very least, a new study from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) supports my “preaching” about energy efficiency over the past year.

According to a recent EDF report, if homeowners adopted certain energy reduction behaviors – based on data generated from information-based (more…)

Let’s be honest. Many of us probably had trouble paying attention one or two times in middle school science class. While the occasional frog dissection and "potato-volt" experiments were cool, not all of us got up in the morning, scarfed down Cocoa Puffs and got geeked about test tubes and (more…)

There is a corner of the Federal government that, unless you are as data obsessed as I am, you never knew existed.  For the part 25 years, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has collected  baseline data on commercial building energy usage, known as CBECS.  CBECS is the only government source of (more…)

According to an AIA study, between 2006 and 2009, municipalities with green building programs increased by 50%.  Many programs sponsored by municipalities, states, utilities and the federal government are designed to promote energy efficiency and green construction. 

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As a Boulder resident, I am loosely participating in the SmartGridCity project run by our local electric utility, Xcel Energy. I say “loosely” because the extent of my participation has been the few times I logged into my online account to see a more granular view of my energy consumption. On this website, I could see into my daily energy usage in as small as 15 minute (more…)