Unleashing Local Green Jobs Through Energy Savings

As published in Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering and Technology (EEE) 2011

Authors: Martha Amram, PhD and Tabitha Scott, CEM, CDSM

Abstract

Saving energy creates well-known benefits including cost reductions, commodity price risk reduction, natural resource conservation, and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The standard policy argument is that jobs are also created from energy savings, through the workforce that installs insulation, weatherization and energy efficient products. The model introduced in this entry provides a new and significantly larger package of economic development and jobs, via a community-based program that links residential energy conservation to rewards from local merchants. This entry outlines the challenge for residential savings, highlights the results of our recent behavior change study, and details the creative model that provides local government with a new tool to unleash local economic growth through energy savings. A major city in Silicon Valley, California, will be rolling out this program in 2011

Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering & Technology (EEE), 2011. “Unleashing Local Green Jobs Through Energy Savings”. PDF