Celebrate Energy Efficiency Day with MeterLeader

Today is October 2nd – just a little over a week since Greta Thunberg gave her impassioned speech protesting shameful government inaction on climate change at the United Nations – which means that it’s truly no better time to celebrate Energy Efficiency Day and kick off October Energy Awareness Month.

As many of you may know energy consumption (in the form of electricity and fuel combustion) is responsible for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions, representing about one third of emissions in the US and globally. What you may not know is that energy efficiency can actually halve energy use and emissions by 2050 and get the United States halfway to its climate goals.

What is Energy Efficiency?

Energy efficiency simply means using less energy to perform the same task – in other words, eliminating energy waste. Most of our cars, appliances, and buildings waste a significant amount of energy. By simply addressing this waste Americans can save billions of dollars each year on utility bills, support at least 2.3 million direct jobs, and, by avoiding power plant emissions, clean our air and prevents 30,000 asthma cases each year.

It may come as a surprise to you, but it is estimated that up to 30% of energy use in commercial buildings and homes is wasted. Energy efficiency in homes and buildings entails addressing all aspects of how energy is used. You can make your lighting, appliances, heating, cooling, water heating, and electronics more energy efficient by investing in energy efficient equipment upgrades. But did you know that homes and buildings can also become more energy efficient when occupants adopt energy efficient behaviors?

Encouraging the adoption of energy efficient behaviors is what we specialize in here at MeterLeader. MeterLeader allows users to easily create and participate in customizable energy saving challenges that are integrated with real-time energy data. Our platform is designed based on proven social science and gamification principles that have been shown to yield anywhere from 1-27% in energy savings. You can use the MeterLeader platform to quickly create a challenge to encourage your team to save energy in their homes or your office building. Save energy, save money, reduce carbon emissions, and have fun doing it together – it’s a win-win for everyone.

How does Energy Efficiency help combat Climate Change?

Despite growth in renewable energy over the last decade, most of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuel sources like natural gas and coal. So when most people think of transitioning to a clean energy grid, we think of solar panels and Teslas. Energy efficiency isn’t quite as sexy….but climate change doesn’t require only the sexy solutions. There is no silver bullet to solving climate change. We need an all-of-the-above approach and we need all hands on deck.

In fact, energy efficiency and renewables go hand in hand beautifully. By reducing energy waste on the demand side in parallel to bringing on more renewables to the supply side of the grid, we more quickly and cost effectively approach a clean energy grid. After all, energy efficiency is still the most cost effective way to reduce emissions, coming in at a cost of about 3.1 cents per kilowatt hour nationally. It only makes sense that energy efficiency is a big component of the Green New Deal as well.