From Guest Blogger Jon Rabinowitz: Energy Efficiency Initiatives in Sustainable Cities
European Sustainable Cities
European cities are making big sustainability strides and the rest of the world is taking notice. The combination of the continent’s “Europe 2020 growth strategy,” government and institution-backed programs like EPIC-HUB and SMART-HG, and regulations like mandatory energy audits for large enterprises are creating green cities, environmentally responsible businesses, and citizens empowered with energy efficiency.
Within the next 5 years, the EU is planning to cut their annual primary energy consumption by 20%: a lofty goal. To succeed, they understand that they must increase energy efficiency at all stages of the energy chain: generation, transformation, distribution and final consumption.
For combating the final consumption stage, the EU has turned its focus to its cities
Italy, Serbia, and Spain Empower Neighborhoods
The EU’s EPIC-HUB project empowers cities’ neighborhoods to tackle energy efficiency, self-generation, emissions reduction, and exploit the excess energy generated and the unused/unshared storage potential often available at the neighborhood community level.
Three pilot programs have been launched in Genoa (Italy), Belgrade (Serbia), and Bilbao (Spain) to guarantee real-life condition validation with a deep involvement of final users.
The program aims to integrate the analysis and management of the energy carriers, aggregate the optimization of energy flow, and stimulate energy behavior at the community level. By taking advantage of energy efficiency innovations like cloud-based real-time analytics of energy consumption data, the EU is poised to succeed in this process.
SMART-HG Project Targets the Home and the Grid
In Rome, the Sapienza University has coordinated the SMART-HG project, which gathers real-time information about energy consumption of residential homes in an attempt to minimize energy usage and cost in each home and optimize operation of the grid.
American Sustainable Cities
Though Europe is leading the world, it is certainly not alone. Sustainable cities in American too have placed energy efficiency at the forefront.
Greener Greater Buildings Plan
New York City’s Greener Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP) is designed to deliver a great impact and is therefore hailed as the most comprehensive building energy efficiency policy in the nation. New York City requires energy benchmarking of buildings, along with several other cities and states: Seattle, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Austin, California and Washington state. The GGBP begins with benchmarking energy use in existing buildings. By concentrating on the largest existing buildings that are responsible for 45% of all citywide carbon emissions, the GGBP is expected to reduce citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 5% while saving hundreds of millions of dollars and creating thousands of new jobs.
Cleveland’s Energy Efficiency and Green Building Initiatives
Another American city making energy efficiency a priority is Cleveland, where the city has declared its commitment to green buildings and energy efficiency. The city has also instituted energy efficiency and conservation initiatives in City facilities, thus saving taxpayer money and taking the right steps towards carbon neutrality.
Sustainable Cities and Energy Efficiency
To achieve sustainability goals, cities throughout the world are finding that they cannot rely only on private citizens. However, by enacting sustainability programs and government mandates that encourage sustainability, we can reach our goals. Add to this corporate social responsibility measures like those of Walmart, P&G, and other industry giants, and greener cities are within our sights. Enterprises are adding energy management solutions, city programs are encourage green building, community awareness, and grid optimization, and governments are passing laws and creating energy efficiency programs and rebates.
With these measures, we are on the right track toward energy-efficient, sustainable cities throughout the world.
