Who "does" efficiency?
There's no such thing as the profession of energy efficiency—in fact, many professions participate in making the world more efficient.
- Mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, and chemists, for example, all can work to make the products and processes of modern civilization more efficient.
- Economists analyze the costs and benefits of energy efficient technologies to determine which are least expensive and most beneficial, and identify opportunities where energy savings over the life of a product more than compensate for an increase in purchase price.
- Analysts consider life cycle assessments, taking into account the entire cycle of materials needed, production process, usage, and disposal of products, and the impacts on energy and the environment.
- The business and finance community fund product development and start-up companies to bring efficient technology to market. They can also make available capital to fund energy efficiency retrofits.
- Lawyers protect the intellectual property behind these new technologies, and find ways to make them easier to license.
- Designers consider controls and systems in order to increase efficiency beyond that available from individual technologies.
- Energy auditors analyze how our built environment uses energy, and recommend more efficient technologies and practices.
- Anyone who operates and maintains the technology we use—our buildings, transportation, and industrial equipment—can include practices in their toolkits to keep that equipment running energy-efficiently, and to choose efficiency when replacing equipment.
- Policymakers can develop policies to encourage the adoption of efficient technologies in the marketplace.
- Children can learn about energy efficiency and encourage their parents to do the same.
- You, as a community member, citizen, and consumer, can adopt and use these technologies through the choices you make.
In other words, everyone can do efficiency.
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