Money quote:

The study indicates that using existing products and practices, such as weatherizing homes or installing combined heat and power systems, could result in significant savings by 2020, however, there are number of barriers, including the up-front cost, a fragmented array of products covering hundreds of thousands of buildings and billions of devices, and a lack of awareness that efficiency exists as a “fuel source” itself, McKinsey consultants said during a press conference, reports CNET news.

Emphasis added, by me, b/c I’m into emphasizing.

Via Environmental Leader

image by Robert F. W. Whitlock

There’s a lot to be said for people who take on massive projects, barrel forward, ignore criticism and uncertainty, and change the world.  But they sometimes fail.  I’m not just talking huge life saving projects-this can be applied to simple, everyday objects and industries.

So while Al Gore’s Apollo-style mission to get the US off fossil fuels in 10 years is wonderful, there are often softer, simpler, cheaper, and surprisingly effective ways of making change by thinking outside the box.

Like the fact that painting every roof in the United States white would reflect solar energy, decrease energy consumption and carbon emissions, and save “$1 Billion USD” annually.

Globally, roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement accounts for about 35%. If all were switched to reflective material in 100 major urban areas, it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases, which have been trapping heat in the atmosphere and altering the climate on a potentially dangerous scale.

That’s exciting.

Via Treehugger