Bill Penny
Bill Penny

Bill Penny is a Member in the Nashville office of Stites & Harbison. He is a member of the firm's Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Service Group as well as the Green Industry Practice Group. Bill has more than 25 years experience in environmental law. You can contact him at william.penny@stites.com or by phone at 615-782-2308.

Bill Penny
Christina Davidow

Christina Bodewig Davidow is an Associate in the Nashville office of Stites & Harbison and a LEED Accredited Professional. She is a member of both the Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Service Group as well as the Green Industry Practice Group. She may be contacted at christina.davidow@stites.com or by phone at 615-782-2323.

green building

Energy, Efficiency, and the Environment

09.04.09 5:20 AM
posted by

Excitement over energy efficiency is crackling through the air.  Just today I've come across at least three references to energy efficiency in different sectors within the environmental realm:

First, the EPA has announced that it “has revised the qualifications for televisions to achieve the Energy Star label, requiring TVs to be 40 percent more energy efficient than conventional models."  The EPA estimates that if all retailers in the US were to sell only Energy Star TVs, the nation would reap at least $2.5 billion in energy savings, not to mention the greenhouse gas emissions we would avoid (amounting to the emissions of 3 million cars). Click here to read the news release.

Second, there has been much talk relating to Mireya Navarro’s article on inefficient energy usage  and LEED certified buildings in last Sunday’s New York Times. If you haven’t read it, please click here.  Ms. Navarro pointed out to the public that although LEED is perceived to promote everything green, some of the buildings it has certified “did not score high enough to qualify for the Energy Star” rating.  In response to Ms. Navarro’s article, LEED supporters acknowledge that the program is a work in progress, and look forward to expanding the data collection process.
 
Third, a colleague at our firm, Bryan Echols, has written a post about the proposed energy effciency requirements of the House and Senate Energy bills.  According to Bryan, “buildings meeting the national building code energy efficiency target will have a 30 percent reduction in energy use relative to the baseline code. By 2014 (residential) and 2015 (commercial), buildings meeting the national target will have a 50 percent reduction; and an additional 5 percent reduction will be required every three years thereafter, until 2029 and 2030 for residential and commercial buildings, respectively.” Please click here to see the rest of his article. 

Moral of the story is (and as my dad used to tell me when I was a kid), “Turn off the lights when you leave a room!”

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  1. Enjoying the blog!  The first LEED hotel in Athens just opened and I'm hoping to take a tour.  I am interested to learn what level LEED certification they received (Gold, I think) and whether they obtained the Energy Star rating. 

    – Rachel Goodrich · September 9, 2009, 10:39AM

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