If you’re looking for a nice hotel that’s keeping a sharp eye on its carbon footprint, you’ll want to check out the Crown Spa Hotel. It’s in Scarborough, on the Yorkshire coast, but if you can get there, you’ll find that the management and staff at this hotel are taking steps to reduce carbon emissions and energy usage (proving the important point that energy savings is a cost savings!) I asked manager David Franks what drives him and his colleagues. Meet this enthusiastic and dedicated energy saver. And, if you happen to know a good place for him to buy 100 square meters of solar panels, let us know…

A few facts: in the U.S., residential and commercial space accounts for 40 percent of our primary energy consumption and 38 percent of CO2 emissions are from operating buildings. Why, then, is so little attention paid to building energy efficient offices and residences? Prof. Gil Masters from Stanford University wants to change that. His dream to build a student dorm that is green and clean is being realized: the Green Dorm project at Stanford is under way.

My students talked to him about this project, which includes the use of geothermal heat pumps, solar heating and fuel cells. Now, if Gil got his way, the dorm would have one or more pluggable hybrids also…

Forget alternative energies: in the short term the only feasible solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum dependencies is energy efficiency. There is much to be gained, especially in the U.S., where energy consumption per person has risen above that of any other country in the world. Professor Jim Sweeney directs the new Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency on the Stanford University campus. Energy efficiency measures can reduce our consumption significantly whilst not hurting our economy nor lifestyle: there is no excuse not to go this way.