Group Creates City Policy Model for Cutting Energy Use
The two-year-old City Energy Project recently doubled the number of participants in its power and water conservation program to 20 municipalities. CEP provides aid and technical assistance to cities for developing voluntary programs and binding policies to reduce building energy consumption. The group hopes to meet its 2030 goal of reducing annual utility bills of building owners in CEP member cities by more than $1.5 billion and cutting annual building carbon emissions by more than 9.6 metric tons.
If U.S. buildings were considered a nation, they would rank third in global energy consumption, after the U.S. and China, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute. In 2015, U.S. residential and commercial buildings used about 40% of the total U.S. energy consumed, or about 39 quadrillion British thermal units, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.