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Departments
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 | News Watch: Efficiency Progress at Risk
Energy efficiency may be the farthest-reaching,
least-polluting, and fastest-growing energy success story of the last 50 years,
but this success is also invisible, misunderstood, and in serious danger of
missing out on needed future investments. That’s the assessment of the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) after its attempt to quantify
the overall impact of the hidden U.S. energy efficiency boom. The resulting
report shows that U.S. energy consumption (as measured per dollar of economic
output) will have been slashed by the end of 2008 to half of what it was in
1970, from 18,000 Btus to about 8,900 Btus.
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 | Association Report: AHAM: Appliance Contributions are Sustainable
My last column centered on sustainability because it was the
theme of AHAM’s annual member meeting in late April. The column discussed how
various entities and companies define sustainability. At the meeting, excellent
speakers from Bissell, GE, Invensys Controls, and Whirlpool provided solid
examples of how their companies address sustainability in products and processes.
by Joseph M. McGuire
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 | Editorial: All Rise for the Green Court
A man steps out onto the patio of an English pub, sets down
his pint of bitter, and lights a cigarette. He zips up his jacket and grumbles
about the damp chill in the air, and that grumbling sets off a chain of events
with implications for the global appliance industry. File it under the Law of
Unintended Consequences. England banned smoking in bars, restaurants, and other
public places last year, and puffing patrons were not happy about stepping out
into the cold to smoke. Concerned over losing business, pub owners began
installing gas patio heaters to make their outside customers more comfortable.
The trend quickly spread, and sales of patio heaters soared. Good news for the
appliance industry, right? Not exactly.
by Richard Babyak
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