A study recently released by the McKinsey consulting firm found that our biggest requirement for improving our country’s energy situation is to make a huge investment in making businesses and homes more efficient. In fact, the study found that an eye-boggling $520 billion worth of improvements on things such as replacement inefficient appliances and sealing ducts will be necessary. Although that is certainly a staggering amount of money, the study also found that making these improvements could result in $1.2 trillion worth of energy savings through 2020 by cutting the country’s energy usage by about 23%.

According to Ken Ostrowski, who is the senior partner at McKinsey’s Atlanta office, the amount of energy our country saves by making these improvements would actually be more than the total amount of energy that Canada is currently using. Furthermore, in addition to reducing the amount of energy we currently use, these changes will also help prevent the projected increase in energy consumption that will occur if we don’t make a change.

The McKinsey report found that homes would enjoy about 35% of the energy gains if the plan was put into place, while the commercial sector would save about 25% of its energy and the industrial sector would save about 40%.

When creating the report, the researchers only considered those improvements whose long-term savings would equal more than the upfront costs associated with making the change. Furthermore, unlike many other “green” studies, this particular study did not look at the environmental benefits that these changes could potentially bring. What it did look at, however, were the potential barriers to making the changes needed to enjoy this significant energy savings. For example, the plan developed by McKinsey would cost about $52 billion each year over a ten year period, but the current national budget for energy efficiency is about 4 or 5 times smaller than this figure. Even with all the eco-friendly funding included in the economic stimulus package, only about $10-$15 billion of it is going toward energy efficiency.

Another barrier to the McKinsey plan is the fact that business owners and homeowners simply may not have the funding needed to make these changes, despite the fact that the long-term savings will pay off in the end. Furthermore, even for those who can afford it, they simply may not have an interest or any real incentive to make their homes eco-friendly. A landlord who is not responsible for paying the electric bill for his tenant, for example, does not have a financial incentive for changing the air conditioner out for one that is more energy efficient. This leads to the biggest roadblock – in order to enjoy such a significant increase in energy efficiency, millions of people would have to take steps toward being more efficient, and widespread participation in this sort of program can be a challenge.

In order to overcome these roadblocks, the McKinsey report suggests taking the following actions:

· Educating the public regarding the potential savings they can enjoy from being more energy-efficient
· Developing stricter building codes
· Creating stricter efficiency requirements on appliances
· Providing greater financial incentives to businesses and homeowners for making energy-efficient improvements

President Obama has already taken steps toward implementing these actions, but there is still a long way to go. In fact, according to Peter Lehner, who is the executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, we can potentially achieve even greater energy savings than what the McKinsey report suggests if people also make some basic behavioral changes, such as turning off lights when not in use and turning down their thermostats in the winter.

Piggybacking off of the McKinsey report and the assertions of Lehner, the National Research Council also conducted a study regarding potential energy savings in the United States. According to this report, which included making changes within the difficult-to-change energy sector, we could save 15% of energy by 2020 and 30% by 2030 if we adopt more energy-efficient technologies.

If you have an interest in eco-studies or otherwise helping our country become “greener,” visit the Top-Colleges home page to start exploring career opportunities within the science and technology field as well as other career options.