Federal, state, and local governments could save at least $139 million annually by reducing energy waste through the purchase and use of energy-efficient products. Reducing this waste would reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 4.1 million metric tons of carbon (MMTCs) by the year 2010; the equivalent of planting an area of trees the size of Yellowstone National Park. In addition, with $50-70 billion in purchasing power for energy-related products, specifying energy efficiency could significantly shift the market for these products.
The Federal government recently launched the ENERGY STAR{\textregistered} Purchasing Initiative to channel the purchasing power of state and local governments -and its environmental impact- in the direction of energy-efficient products to capture significant environmental benefits and increase the demand in the marketplace. Part of this effort studied why governments don{\textquoteright}t currently procure the most efficient products, and attempted to identify the changes that would be necessary to allow many governments to do so. Some of the initial barriers to energy-efficient procurement that were found are:
This paper will present the results of this study and describe the mechanisms that will be put into place to address each of these barriers.
}, year = {1998}, booktitle = {ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 23-28, 1998}, journal = {ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 23-28, 1998}, series = {ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 23-28, 1998}, volume = {7}, address = {Pacific Grove, CA}, }