Sustainable Energy 101

The goal of the Sustainable Energy Initiative is to build a sustainable energy future through increasing conservation, improving efficiency, and raising the percentage of renewable energy in the nation's overall energy portfolio.

The initiative includes public outreach on energy-efficient practices for homes and businesses, promoting green power, working to establish rigorous energy efficiency standards for federal and state agencies, and advocating for increased investment in renewable energy technologies at the state and federal levels.

About Green Power

Green power is electricity generated from renewable sources. It includes solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and small hydro. Renewable sources are more environmentally friendly than traditional electricity generation. Unlike fossil fuels they emit little or no air pollution and leave behind no radioactive waste like nuclear. Most importantly, they are naturally replenished by the earth and sun.

• Solar: Converting energy from the sun into electricity using photovoltaic panels and solar thermal plants.
• Wind: Harnessing the power of the wind using turbines (wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy technology).
• Geothermal: Use of steam that lies below the earth's surface to generate electricity.
• Biomass: Releasing solar energy stored in plants and organic matter by burning agricultural waste and other organic matter to generate power.
• Small Hydro: Use of flowing water to power electric turbines (small hydro plants are less than 30 megawatts in size).

Find out more about green power.

What Is Brown Power?

Brown power is power generated from environmentally hostile technology. The vast majority of electricity in the United States comes from coal, nuclear, large hydro, and natural gas plants.

Brown power generators are:

• The single greatest source of air pollution in the United States, contributing to both smog and acid rain.
• The greatest single contributor of global climate change gases including carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

Consider these additional facts:

The average California household's annual use of electricity produces the same amount of smog the average car would generate if driven across country from Los Angeles to New York City, and about the same amount of global warming-causing carbon dioxide if that same car was driven a third of the way around the world.

It is estimated that 50,000 people in the United States die each year from heart and lung disease due to air pollution linked to the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity.

Energy Roadmaps

Global Green USA worked with commercial property owners to create a tool ("Roadmaps") to assist them in deciding how best to incorporate energy-efficient techniques strategies, and equipment in the upgrading of their buildings.

The Roadmaps help building owners and managers to more fully understand the wide range of opportunities and implications of working with consulting energy engineers and Energy Service Companies (ESCOs).

View Roadmaps.

Links to resources on the Web.

For more information, contact the RESCUE Program office:
Global Green USA
2218 Main Street, 2nd Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Phone: 310.581.2700
Fax: 310.581.2702
Walker Wells, AICP, LEED AP
Ted Bardacke, LEEP AP