Policy on energy efficiency is lacking, largely due to lack of expectations and guidelines on the current technologies today. Energy efficiency and sustainability is something that most see as a necessity in the far distant future, not in our lifetime. In reality, the sooner the world comes to recognize that importance of becoming energy efficient, the sooner we have a chance of correcting some of the impact of emissions into the atmosphere.
I believe that a policy that the government could use to promote energy efficiency would be one that regulates output of harmful emissions. If companies were charged for their output of emissions, they would be more inclined to develop more energy efficient processes. Energy companies produce what is necessary to keep themselves in business, and often are not overly concerned with the negative impacts their production processes may have. Another policy that should be implemented by government is one that offers guidelines, although they are not established yet, on what businesses and energy companies are expected to do in regards to incorporating energy efficient practices. Policies that explain the amount of energy a company could be able to produce with their own form of sustainable energy, as compared to the larger amount of energy from non-renewable sources.
If I were to develop a business that has the potential to move the idea of energy efficiency forward, I believe that I would need to find an aspect of the energy efficiency ‘business’ that isn’t as well developed. I believe that a good place to start a company would be in consulting or in regulation of energy efficient practices. At this time there really is no ‘guidelines’ to follow or expectations on what are good practices. I believe that, with regulation and consulting, these guidelines could be established firmly and allow for future developments. The move toward energy efficiency and a more sustainable future is only in the fledgling stages. There are so many opportunities that can be seized in working towards this goal.
Hello Amy and thanks for the information in your post. Like you, I totally agree that current policies are not as supportive of renewable energy as they should be. As far as “offering guidelines” – that one may be a stretch for federal or regional governments simply because it’s above and beyond what they’re normally called to do (which often they normally fall short of doing those duties, lol). I think regulations should set a marker for how efficient businesses should be to be considered sustainable however how they attain that efficiency may be up to them by way of another mechanism… which will probably come from the private industry. If you take a look at my post, I mentioned a consulting firm, I think green consultants will rise in this area if policies shift in the right direction.