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The Opportunity of Energy Efficiency
Today’s energy system is incredibly inefficient ― wasting $4.5 trillion, or almost 5% of global GDP ― all before any value is created with energy. Energy efficiency reduces waste, costs, and pollution — and it's essential to meet climate goals.
The opportunity of energy efficiency goes beyond reducing waste across energy supply. By pairing efficiency with flexibility, digitalization, and innovation, we can also shape demand for energy, water, land, and resource-intensive materials and create up to 4.5 million jobs worldwide in this decade.
Efficiency begins with the desired end use and works backward to consider the full range of solutions available to deliver high-quality service with fewer resources. In the case of cooling, we can find more systemic solutions when we step back from air conditioners alone to a broader lens of thermal comfort and safety. This approach, which we have named Energy by Design, can help us design systems that better fit people’s needs while improving energy affordability, equity, and resiliency.
This is just one of many ways we can reframe our challenges to achieve the most efficient, affordable, and appropriate solutions.
Learn more about how RMI centers efficiency in our work below.
Understanding Energy Efficiency
The Importance of Accelerating Energy Efficiency
Three Ways to Accelerate Energy Efficiency
Improving Efficiency in the Built Environment
A Marketplace for Equitable Building Retrofits
Cost-Effective Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings
The Retrofit Playbook for Large Buildings
Guide: Best Practices for Achieving Zero Over Time for Building Portfolios
Why State Land Use Reform Should Be a Priority Climate Lever for America
Building Urbanism into Climate Policy
Improving Efficiency in Industry
The Aviation Efficiency Revolution
Financing Energy Efficiency
The Battery Mineral Loop
Battery Circular Economy Initiative
Improving Efficiency in Transportation
The Aviation Efficiency Revolution
SHIFT Calculator
The DMV: An Unlikely Climate Champion
Improving the Efficiency of Electricity Systems
Power Shift
Three Myths About Renewable Energy and the Grid, Debunked
Community Solar+
GET a GRIP: A Path to More Renewable Energy on the Grid
How To Build Clean Energy Portfolios
How to Restructure Utility Incentives
Virtual Power Plant Flipbook
Rewarding What Matters in Energy Efficiency
RMI’s Energy Efficiency Legacy
How Big Is The Energy Efficiency Resource?
Reply to "The Efficiency Dilemma"
Jevons Paradox: The Debate That Just Won't Die
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