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· It is not energy that the economy needs, but rather the services that energy provides (hot showers, mobility, comfortable buildings, etc). This means that if we can get the services for less energy, our society is actually richer (rather than poorer).
· Higher efficiency can pay back in more than just energy costs. For energy efficient buildings, the value from things such as the superior acoustical and thermal comfort for people are not easily quantifiable, yet provide significant benefits beyond the energy savings.
· Today, the reliance of competing interests to come up with designs for buildings or machines leads to poorly designed and poorly meshed systems. For example, consider the interests of those involved when building a new building. Some of the stakeholders are the owner who doesn't really have a reason to provide any efficiency goals, the designer who isn't thinking about the end operating efficiency unless it is part of the codes, the contractor who looks for the most inexpensive materials and the tenant/user who pays for the ongoing energy costs. Each of them maximizing for their own interest produces at best a poor system. Using whole-system design techniques (using a holistic perspective with energy efficiency as a primary goal) can lead to outstanding improvements in energy efficiency and some beautiful, yet extremely useful buildings and/or systems.
RMI shows that we don't have to make a trade-off between protecting the environment and having an economy that runs on energy. In fact, they say that we could meet our Kyoto energy goals by simply doing some of the same things California did before their disastrous encounter with the unregulated (and highly colluded) energy market. But they think that we can and should do much, much more. They propose:
"Technological research and development must therefore be supplemented by improved design education, re-treading of practicing design professionals, and greater attention to energy anthropology - the emerging science of why people use energy the way they do." [3]
RMI has been a key player in promoting the hyper-car, of which we are seeing only the first promise in the new hybrid-cars such as Toyota's Prius or Honda's Insight and now the new hybrid Civic. Moreover, RMI thinks we are on the verge of moving to the ultimate clean energy source: hydrogen. They believe the hyper-car will eventually be fueled by hydrogen which when not in use, will provide electricity to run your household needs.
Getting beyond our current energy policy battles while providing enough energy for the whole world without destroying our environment is an exciting and truly positive vision. A new energy policy which makes us independent of the middle-East could also provide not only us but also Iraq a brighter future, one based on maximizing our human capital, and not simply using resources underground.
[1] Rocky Mountain Institute is an organization that was founded to promote: the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life sustaining. Please visit http://www.rmi.org to find out more about them.
[2] Energy Surprises for the 21st Century, Journal of International Affairs, Fall 1999, 53, no 1, http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid171.php, page 1.
[3] Ibid,
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