230% Return on Investment? Where Do I Sign Up?

What if someone told you that by spending just $43, you could make $100 back? Sounds like a great deal to me.

Well, that’s the potential return on investment of energy efficiency according to a new report:

A new report on energy efficiency from the consulting firm McKinsey found that the United States could save $1.2 trillion through 2020, by investing $520 billion in improvements like sealing leaky building ducts and replacing inefficient household appliances with new, energy-saving models.

That investment would cut the country’s projected energy use in 2020 by about 23 percent — a savings that would be “greater than the total of energy consumption of Canada,” said Ken Ostrowski, a senior partner in McKinsey’s Atlanta office, at a press event in Washington this morning. It would also more than offset the expected growth in energy use that would be expected otherwise in the United States.

Here’s part of what Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson had to say about the report:

The energy that most effectively cuts costs, protects us from climate change, and reduces our dependence of foreign oil is the energy that’s never used in the first place. According to McKinsey’s report, energy efficiency improvements alone can reduce consumption more than 20 percent by 2020 and prevent up to 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gases annually, helping America lead the way in averting the worst effects of climate change. The McKinsey report reveals new possibilities for energy efficiency, and will be instrumental in engaging consumers, businesses and everyone else to cut energy consumption, reduce harmful emissions, and save money on electricity.

The report only reinforces the need for comprehensive climate & clean energy legislation. Please take a moment now to tell Congress to take action!

Photo via Flickr’s SolarPowerForYou