The Top Ten Ways We Waste Energy And Water In Buildings | AOL Energy

Dave Bartlett is Vice President, Smarter Buildings at IBM.

Last week, one third of the country saw thermometers hit triple digits. Across the nation, air conditioners are cranking and sprinklers are chugging away as millions continue to seek relief from the summer heat.

While grateful for the welcome relief provided by utilities, many of us are increasingly mindful of the precious resources we are tapping. Just looking around at the buildings where we live and work, it is all too easy to identify ways we waste energy and water. In fact, it has been estimated that we throw away as much as 30-50% of the energy and water that flows into our buildings. Multiply that by the nearly 5 million buildings in the US alone and I’m sure you’ll agree we have a big opportunity to better conserve energy and water.

For more on how regulators are encouraging building owners to boost conservation efforts, see: “Buildings Spend Summer Battling Their ‘Waste’ Line”.

I spend a good deal of my time meeting with building managers and owners helping them identify ways to use technology to make their buildings more efficient. Technology such as analytics is increasingly being used by commercial building and home owners to help automate and add intelligence to reduce buildings’ energy use and flag problems before they occur. Though buildings themselves are getting smarter, we sometimes need a reminder of the basics we can all do at home and at work to drive down our energy consumption.