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ENERGY STAR DELIVERS REAL SAVINGS FOR AMERICAN CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES

Release Date: 11/05/2001
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Environmental News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced the release of the agency’s 2000 Annual Report on its voluntary climate protection programs, including the successful and expanding ENERGY STAR program. The report details success in building cooperation for results and outlines goals for 2001 and beyond.

Last year alone, EPA’s ENERGY STAR program helped save American businesses and consumers more than $5 billion dollars and reduced greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of the emissions from more than 10 million cars.

“Since taking office, President Bush and I have emphasized the need to build partnerships across traditional boundaries and encourage cooperation in our efforts to protect the environment,” said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman in the report’s opening pages. “These results prove that voluntary partnerships can produce real environmental results. Working with partners across the economy, we are making progress to increase energy efficiency, develop clean energy solutions, capture and use methane gas, and cultivate environmental stewardship.”

ENERGY STAR is one of EPA’s voluntary programs that works in partnership with businesses, organizations, and consumers across the country to enhance investment in attractive, yet underutilized technologies and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The symbol for energy efficiency, ENERGY STAR provides businesses and consumers with energy-efficient solutions that save money while protecting the environment.

Together EPA’s climate change programs, including ENERGY STAR, methane reduction, and environmental stewardship reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 35 million metric tons of carbon equivalent, the same as eliminating the emissions from almost 25 million cars. As evidenced in the Annual Report, the energy savings from the voluntary programs have grown from 6 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) saved in 1995 to 74 billion kWh in 2000. In addition, emissions of almost 160,000 tons of nitrogen oxides were prevented in 2000, equivalent to the emissions from more than 100 power plants.

Other highlights from EPA’s climate partnership programs for the year 2000 include:

* ENERGY STAR developed strong partnerships with 1,600 manufacturers labeling more than 11,000 products in over 30 product categories. More than 600 million ENERGY STAR labeled products have been purchased to date.

* 1,600 homebuilders have joined ENERGY STAR as partners, constructing 25,000 ENERGY STAR labeled homes to date.

* A new national building energy performance rating system was used to evaluate the energy efficiency of more than 4,200 buildings; 215 schools and 330 office buildings earned ENERGY STAR labels.

* Partnership programs achieved reductions of non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases methane, perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) totaling more than 17 MMTCE in 2000 alone.

* The Voluntary Aluminum Industrial Partnership met its aggressive goal for 2000, with emissions reduced about 50 percent relative to 1990 levels, on an emissions per unit of production basis.

In addition to recognizing successes in 2000, the Annual Report lays out expectations for 2001 and beyond including new products and services in the ENERGY STAR family, a greater public awareness of the ENERGY STAR program and continued education efforts to provide businesses and consumers the information they need to reduce energy bills. Future goals also include energy performance ratings for more building types, increased use of partnerships and increased use of cleaner, more efficient energy supply technologies. Goals also include doubling the cost-effective reductions of the non-carbon dioxide gases by 2010.

Copies of "The Power of Partnerships: ENERGY STAR and Other Voluntary Programs," are available by calling the ENERGY STAR Hotline at 1-888-STAR-YES (1-888- 782-7937). The 2000 Annual Report is also available in PDF format online at www.epa.gov/cppd.

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