The Future of Hot Water is Heat Pumps

State and local leaders nationwide are beginning to recognize the importance of eliminating fossil fuels in newly constructed buildings. The rationale is clear: gas has an extremely limited place in our clean energy future, and it’s far more difficult, costly, and disruptive to swap out gas-consuming equipment from an existing building than it is to build without gas from the start.

2020 Green Lease Leaders Stand Apart

This year, 29 organizations, collectively representing more than 1 billion square feet of leased space earned the Green Lease Leader designation. These organizations consist of owners and renters ranging from small and large commercial offices to retail and industrial properties and data centers. The 2020 Green Lease Leaders were recognized at the Better Buildings, Better Plants virtual leadership symposium.

Through the Better Buildings Initiative, DOE partnered with the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) in 2014 to develop the Green Lease Leaders program, an industry recognition platform that recognizes real estate companies and practitioners who modernize their leases to spur collaborative action on energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings. These organizations include local governments, small businesses, leading-edge real estate companies, and major technology firms.

Stronger Together: Systemic Efficiency through Demand Management

Most conversations around clean energy are focused on what type of energy we are using, but to fully decarbonize our economy, we also need to address when energy is used. The timing of energy consumption is critical because renewable energy sources typically have periods when they are more and less available. By purposefully managing energy usage, we can better match the demand for power with the availability of clean energy.

Webinar: How Deep Can Building Retrofits Go?

Energy-efficient building retrofits will be critical for saving money, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and meeting climate goals. This free webinar, a sneak peak to this month’s Summer Study Buildings, will explore the potential scale and energy savings of retrofits for single-family homes as well as multifamily and commercial buildings. Authors of three Summer Study papers will preview and discuss their findings.