Whether you’re thinking about increasing energy efficiency for your home or focusing on your business, efficiency is extremely important when it comes to energy. Previously, we may not have known much about efficiency in energy, but luckily, we have the knowledge and technology necessary to improve efficiency in energy usage. There are many ways you can improve the energy efficiency in your home or in commercial and industrial businesses; from large to small ways. These improvements are important and can make a huge difference. However, many people remain skeptical towards importance of energy efficiency. Here are some facts to help you understand why it’s so important to our everyday lives and to our futures.

Boost local economy

Improving on energy efficiency can be a great boost to the local economy. The cost reduction will make companies more competitive and thus support growth. It will likely be easier to find smaller, local companies to help you out with domestic energy sources like solar panels, biogas or cogeneration. More and more Energy Service Companies, ESCOs provide services to make your business itself more efficient are creating interesting job opportunities while contributing significantly to innovations. Sometimes, the reason energy usage is less efficient can be something as simple as bad insulation. A traditional local contractor can look at your home and make suggestions that can increase energy efficiency. This contractor can then continue improving its skills and provide more and more specific and competitive solutions.

Lower your energy bills

One of the benefits of paying attention to the importance of energy efficiency is that you’ll see a significant decrease in your energy bills. Basic issues like insulation are facing new opportunities as companies, utilities and some city governments promote higher standards. If our standards are higher than those in other countries, especially third world countries our suppliers will be better suited to face off international competitors. Important and successful utilities like NRG (place the link here??) and Constellation are supporting large scale efforts that will significantly improve the competitiveness of their customers or simply reduce household electricity bill.

Help the environment

Energy efficiency is foremost a cost reduction and competitiveness issue. Commercial and industrial companies will be more competitive, households will save money. The utilities will be able to cover our energy needs without adding significant investments thus facilitating the transition to renewable energy sources. At least in larger cities, citizens do not appreciate breathing highly contaminated air, thus the most important reason you should care about energy efficiency is the benefits it has for the environment. So much of the pollution in the environment comes from greenhouse gases and plants that are putting out these harmful pollutants. Individual homes can be a major factor too; whether you’re working on making your business or home more efficient, or simply being more conscious of how much energy you use in your daily life, there will be plenty of benefits for the environment and make the world a cleaner, healthier place.