Unveil Building Energy Use, Create Thousands of Jobs (2 New Reports)

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

 
It’s a simple thing — unveil the energy use of a building to its owners or managers or potential buyers and people will pay more attention to how they can save energy and money; in the process of finding ways to save energy and money, jobs in the energy-efficiency and energy-conservation sector are created.

energy efficient houses

“Two new reports from the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) show how a new kind of energy policy is creating skilled, export-proof jobs in cities across the United States,” an email to me 10 hours ago noted. “Under this type of policy, called building energy rating and disclosure, owners of large buildings track exactly how much energy their properties use. Armed with this information, they can make changes that reduce their utility bills and those of their tenants—helping everyone’s bottom line.”

Sounds good, eh? But what’s the actual potential here? Glad you asked…. (Or am I just speaking/writing to myself again?) While 5 cities and two states have now adopted such policies, if there were a national policy along these lines, “23,000 net new jobs would be added in 2015 and 59,000 jobs in 2020.” Cha-ching!

Here are some more useful thoughts and facts from the email sent to me earlier:

When buildings’ energy use is made transparent (given a grade that is published online or shared in a real estate transaction), it’s like an MPG sticker for buildings. Americans can shop for office space or a new apartment with an eye on how much it will cost them in utilities. That, in turn, spurs owners to make their buildings more efficient, creating demand for specialists who can help reduce energy use: energy managers and auditors, sustainability consultants, and HVAC professionals.

Energy Disclosure and the New Frontier for American Jobs profiles business leaders who are adding jobs and expanding their client rosters. These are mostly small business owners who are pioneers in the emerging field of building energy management.

  • In New York City, FS Energy has grown from 3 to 10 employees, thanks to the city’s Local Law 84. Steven Winters Associates has added more than 10 members of staff. “Our business is growing a lot and we anticipate it will continue to grow. We already have more work to do than we have people for,” says Erica Brabon, senior consultant.
  • Sustaining Structures, a Seattle firm, expects to triple in size in coming years, and has already seen its client base grow by more than 30 percent since Seattle’s rating and disclosure law was passed.

Analysis of Job Creation and Energy Cost Savings From Building Energy Rating and Disclosure Policy shows that current job growth is just the beginning. This analysis by IMT and the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, predicts:

  • A national building energy rating and disclosure policy would create more than 23,000 net new jobs in 2015 and 59,000 jobs in 2020.
  • It would reduce energy costs for building owners, consumers, and tenant businesses by more than $18 billion through 2020.
  • The energy and greenhouse gas reduction would be equivalent to taking more than 3 million cars off the road each year.

“Brilliant in its simplicity, public disclosure of building energy consumption will start a stampede to upgrade buildings,” predicts venture capitalist Elton Sherwin, author of the book Addicted to Energy. Energy disclosure harnesses the power of information in a way that’s unprecedented for the built environment. For decades, nobody has known the difference between an energy-efficient building and an energy-inefficient building.

“Better information means more competition for better buildings,” says IMT’s Andrew Burr, the lead author of both reports. “It means more private investment channeled into training workers, retuning mechanical systems, and upgrading equipment. And that means more work improving American buildings and more American jobs.”

Image: houses courtesy shutterstock


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7324 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan