{"id":21,"date":"2009-11-16T11:02:26","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T15:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=21"},"modified":"2009-11-16T11:02:26","modified_gmt":"2009-11-16T15:02:26","slug":"distinguishing-between-efficiency-and-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/distinguishing-between-efficiency-and-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguishing between efficiency and conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In presentations and conversations, I make a point of distinguishing between energy <strong>efficiency<\/strong> and energy <strong>conservation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, energy is similar to money in that it can be considered a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">store of value<\/span> or a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">medium of exchange<\/span>.\u00a0 The value to the end user is not in the thing itself, but it what can be done with it.\u00a0 Some refer to this as the concept of <strong>energy services<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, the end user doesn&#8217;t want kilowatts, gallons or cubic feet, but wants to get from point A to point B, heat, cool or light an office or home and use electric devices.<\/p>\n<p>If that&#8217;s the goal, the user has two options to reduce use and increase sustainability:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> Energy efficiency<\/strong> &#8211; use less energy to accomplish the same results<\/li>\n<li><strong>Energy conservation<\/strong> accept a different result<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If I install a high-efficiency gas boiler in my home, I can keep my home as warm as it was before using less energy.\u00a0 That&#8217;s an increase in energy efficiency.\u00a0 If I turn the thermostat down and wear warmer clothing, that&#8217;s energy conservation.<\/p>\n<p>Both energy efficiency and energy conservation approaches are valid ways to reduce energy, save money, increase energy security, combat climate change and increase sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>Making the distinction between the two is particularly important to encouraging behavioral changes, especially for some audiences.\u00a0 Americans have accomplished much by embracing a vision of the United States as a land of boundless opportunity, optimism an initiative.\u00a0 For too many, increasing sustainability has a negative connotation &#8211; one of deprivation and reduced opportunity.\u00a0 Think of the reaction to Jimmy Carter&#8217;s sweater &#8211; a shorthand for the call to turn thermostats down to save energy. \u00a0 It didn&#8217;t work &#8211; in fact, it backfired.<\/p>\n<p>Pointing out the distinction between energy efficiency and energy conservation makes the point that much can be accomplished by increasing efficiency and that a more sustainable society does not have to be a deprived society with fewer opportunities for growth.\u00a0 Just the opposite may be true.<\/p>\n<p>Encouraging energy efficiency and appealing to people&#8217;s sense of the possible is a positive way to encourage behavioral change.\u00a0 That doesn&#8217;t nullify the value of conservation as an option or a part of the solution.\u00a0 But it gets people moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In presentations and conversations, I make a point of distinguishing between energy efficiency and energy conservation. In many ways, energy is similar to money in that it can be considered a store of value or a medium of exchange.\u00a0 The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11,121],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behavioral-change","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","","tg-column-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}