Since 1980, energy efficiency has met half our region’s load growth. Stellar as that achievement is, multiple studies document abundant opportunities to capture even more cost-effective energy efficiency savings. The reality of climate change increases the urgency of achieving those savings to avoid new fossil-fuel electrical generation and to decommission existing coal plants. The NW Energy Coalition’s 2008 strategic plan set in motion a new campaign called Efficiency Works! to make energy efficiency the region’s first option for realizing all cost-effective electricity and natural gas savings and its No. 1 strategy for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Achieving this bold goal requires a major shift in how the region plans, delivers and communicates about energy efficiency. In September 2008, the Coalition obtained major new funding to develop and launch the campaign. This section archives the important documents from that campaign
All this talk about energy efficiency can, to the skeptical ear, sound like so much happy talk. Really, can something as simple as changing lights or adding insulation actually make a meaningful difference in my business’ financial performance?
Well, in a word, yes. Investments big and small can have an outsized impact on the amount you spend on energy.
In late 2008, the NW Energy Coalition initiated the Efficiency Works! project to accelerate Northwest businesses’ energy efficiency investments. The project’s two-year run has ended. But the archives of the Efficiency Works! website are collected here.
You have a stake in making our region even more energy efficient than it is. Energy efficiency is the cleanest and cheapest way to meet most of our region’s new energy needs and our goals to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Many organizations throughout the Northwest are already hard at work saving energy. But more can be done. That’s what this paper is about: getting over the hurdles to increased energy efficiency and getting to solutions. We have a lot to lose if we wait and a lot to gain if we act.
This entry is part of a series, click to view more articles > Efficiency Works! Archive» What you can do to find the most energy savings for your dollar Energy Star, a program of the U.S Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, offers information about planning, financing and executing energy efficiency projects of [...]
Barriers, Opportunities & Solutions to Financing Energy Efficiency for Small and Mid‐sized Businesses in the Northwest
The up-front costs of energy efficiency improvements may just be the king of barriers to energy waste reduction at the scale that will allow us to stop building costly and polluting new electric generating plants.
The Coalition’s Efficiency Works! project has commissioned a study of Northwest lending for energy efficiency projects in small and mid-sized commercial enterprises. The goal is to examine the current landscape, including the barriers encountered by existing programs, and offer a menu of solutions…
Northwesterners can save enough electricity to power the region’s economic growth over the next decade, according to a new study from the NW Energy Coalition.
The study, The Power of Efficiency: Pacific Northwest Conservation Potential through 2020, also shows increased efficiency can cut new regional natural gas demand in half.
The NW Energy Coalition is an alliance of more than 115 environmental, civic and human service organizations, progressive utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. We promote development of renewable energy and energy efficiency, consumer protection, low-income energy assistance, and fish and wildlife restoration on the Columbia and Snake rivers.
