How Making Homes and Businesses Energy Efficient Could Boost The Economy And Create Jobs
See how energy efficiency improves the Australian economy by creating jobs, reducing energy costs, and reducing carbon emissions.
We all know that conserving energy is important — not just for our own wallets, but for the environment as well. What you may not know is that making your home or business more energy efficient can positively impact the economy and create new jobs.
Energy-efficient businesses are more productive, while energy-efficient homes pay reduced energy costs and are more relaxed during summer and heated up during winter. We can all agree that energy efficiency is required for the Australian economy to grow. But here’s the hard part for many people: understanding how energy efficiency boosts the economy. We’ll get to this in a bit. But first, the basics:
What is Energy Efficiency?
Energy efficiency is achieved when you can reduce the energy you use to do the same work at a faster and cheaper rate. It is key to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and stimulating economies so people can live in the best manner with constant access to energy.
Australia has several energy efficiency schemes looking to boost the economy by promoting energy efficiency in homes and businesses, such as the NSW Energy Savings Scheme, ACT Energy Efficiency Improvement Scheme, Victorian Energy Upgrades Program, and South Australian Retailer Energy Efficiency Scheme.
Benefits of Energy Efficiency
One of the most obvious advantages of energy efficiency is that it can lead to lower energy bills and insulate you from future energy price increases. When you use less energy, you need to purchase less energy from your utility, saving you money monthly.
But beyond this, there are other benefits of energy efficiency in our society and economy as we consume energy. That Renewable energy creates jobs.
Jobs created by renewable energy
The Energy Efficiency Council reports that Energy efficiency is already a booming employment venture in Australia. About 500,000 Australians spend their time improving energy efficiency in homes and businesses across different professions, such as electricians, architects, and engineers.
But more hands are needed on deck; Australia has many expensive energy efficiency projects that are labor intensive. These projects are upgrades on Australia’s energy-inefficient structures: hotels, shopping centers, lower-grade offices, and older residential housing.
According to businesses, unions, and green groups that joined forces in May 2020 to call for a sustainable COVID-19 economic recovery, through energy efficiency, if major action is executed to increase energy efficiency in businesses and industries, the industry could deliver over 120,000 job-years of employment.
Through these newly created jobs, needed upgrades can be made across Australia’s commercial, community, industrial, and government buildings. The improvements to be made that would create these new jobs would include:
- More efficient appliances and equipment for heating and cooling
- Improved means through which heat transfer is avoided in buildings
- Use of smart meters to measure energy use
- Self energy generation and storage
- Sale and transfer of excess generated energy to electrical grids
- Uptake of more efficient electric vehicles
- Switching from gas or electric water heaters to heat pumps
- Waste and material recycling.
- Gender equity in the energy efficiency industry
In March 2022, the state of Victoria announced its initiative to encourage women to take up jobs in the energy efficiency industry, while the Australian federal government announced it would begin delivering reports on energy sector jobs to avoid skill shortages.
The government of NSW plans to subsidize 50% of the cost of apprenticeships to help women enter the industry and to provide them with a tool allowance and salaries for six months. Splendid!
How Does Renewable Energy Reduce Greenhouse Gases And Boost Jobs?
Energy efficiency is the cheapest way for homes and businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve energy productivity. Energy efficiency creates an economic boost by reducing electricity bills paid by homes and businesses. It also breeds competition amongst companies and helps manage energy demand.
The environment is a crucial part of any economy. It is where you find the natural resources used by businesses to produce goods and products. So it’s a two-way relationship where the economy is expected to protect the environment as much as the environment protects the economy.
Energy efficiency stabilizes this relationship between the environment and the economy, allowing the economy to grow in a sustainable environment. According to ClimateWorks, improving the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial processes could save 46.9 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. It could also save $1.7 billion for businesses and $2.3 billion for the economy annually.
Regarding households, energy efficiency in the home also has a big part to play in reducing carbon emissions because our homes contribute more than 10 percent of Australia’s carbon emissions. The Climate Council is campaigning on home energy efficiency to make better policies and investments a priority across all levels of government.
Sustainable energy transition
The transition to energy efficiency is already well underway globally. And Australia, being one of the countries with the highest solar and wind capacities in the world, is well placed to capitalize on the resulting economy-boosting opportunities.
The ability of energy efficiency to create many more jobs in metro and regional areas and boost the economy is well documented. However, the process begins at the grassroots level in our homes and businesses.
Efficient Energy Group has helped thousands of homes and businesses embrace energy-efficient solutions that cut back on carbon emissions and reduce bills. Want to join the winning team? Hit us up for bookings or a no-obligation consultation to see how we can help you.