My Job Is to Police Energy Use in My Office. Here’s How We Got to Net Zero

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/opinion/energy-office-buildings-net-zero-climate.html

By Carlos Gamarra, The New York Times, guest essay. 

Excerpt: ...by paying close attention to every aspect of our energy use, my co-workers and I have seen how even the smallest actions can have an impact on climate change. We now take pride in the fact that the office’s electricity bill is $0. What’s more, the local utility pays our organization, the Houston Advanced Research Center, over $1,000 a year in rebates for the energy our solar panels provide to the power grid. ...Some 40 percent of annual global carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings and construction, and commercial buildings, which have an average life span of 50 to 60 years, account for around 20 percent of U.S. energy use. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that on average, 30 percent of the energy used in these commercial buildings is wasted.… 

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