Clean Energy News

Atlanta, GA--After over a year of work from a diverse group of stakeholders Atlanta seemed poised to adopt sustainable building standards that would make Atlanta part of a growing number of major cities that are aggressively pursuing the energy, water, and money savings that come with green building.  Unfortunately, the standards, called the Atlanta Sustainable Building Ordinance, were derailed Tuesday in an Atlanta City Council Community Development/Human Resources (CDHR) Committee because of objections from the development and real estate community.

“This ordinance will mean savings for our environment, for our water supply, on our energy bills and for our public health,” said Jennette Gayer Policy Advocate with Environment Georgia. “So much of the energy and water used to run our buildings is wasted; luckily there are simple steps builders can take to change that.”

 America is the largest consumer of energy in the world.  We use approximately 20 percent of all energy used in the world.  Almost half of the energy we use—10 percent of the energy in the world—is used to power our buildings.  Most of this energy comes from burning fossil fuels, leading to increased global warming pollution, increased risk to public health, and a host of other adverse environmental impacts. 

Much of that energy is wasted. Air that has been heated or cooled escapes from our buildings through cracks around doors, through attics, and through poorly insulated walls and single paned windows, taking with it the energy used to heat or cool the building.  Energy is also wasted through inefficient appliances (such as furnaces and water heaters), inefficient lighting systems, and other products and technologies that fail to take full advantage of the energy required for operation.