According to a recent study recently released by McKinsey & Company and sponsored in part by the USGBC, investing in energy efficient buildings combined with other non-transportation initiatives can reduce energy consumption in the United States by 23 percent by 2020. This, in turn, would amount to annual savings of $130 billion or $1.2 trillion total, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of 1.1 gigatons, and the creation of 900,000 new jobs.

 

The report titled “Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy”, provides a detailed assessment of how the nation can increase energy efficiency in buildings (excluding transportation initiatives) using existing methods and technologies. The required investment to realize the potential savings would be about $50 billion per year over a period of 10 years.

The energy efficiency potential cited in the report is divided across three sectors of the U.S. economy: industrial (40 percent of the end-use energy efficiency potential), residential (35 percent) and commercial (25 percent).

Solutions, drawn from proven, piloted and emerging national and international examples, show that maximizing the energy efficiency potential from any single opportunity - weatherizing homes, utilizing efficient air conditioners, or employing combined heat and power generation - requires addressing multiple barriers simultaneously.

The report calls for an integrated national plan guided by five principles:

McKinsey’s research finds that a comprehensive strategy, executed at scale, could reduce the annual non-transportation end-use energy consumption analyzed in this report from 36.9 quadrillion BTUs in 2008 to 30.8 quadrillion BTUs in 2020 - saving 9.1 quadrillion BTUs relative to a business-as-usual baseline.

In addition to USGBC, the report was also sponsored by Austin Energy, Department of Energy (Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy), DTE Energy, Energy Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Exelon Corporation, Natural Resources Defense Council, PG&E Corporation, Sempra Energy, Sea Change Foundation, and Southern Company.