Energy is literally all around us. Our distribution and management of it are fundamental to innovation and enterprise; without power, business simply could not exist.
Yet it’s clear that our current energy system, relying primarily on fossil fuels, creates a variety of problems for all of us. It’s costly, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all corporate operating budgets. It’s unhealthy, contributing to 886.5 billion dollars nationally in associated health costs every year. And it’s damaging our planet by releasing greenhouse gases and causing climate change.
Our present state will not take us much further. What, then, does a sustainable energy future look like?
Solutions to our energy challenges fall under three main areas: energy consumption, energy transmission and energy generation. A sustainable energy system begins with efficiency. New construction is designed better, old buildings are retrofitted and we all use just as much energy as we need with no waste. Cities are planned to encourage public transit, biking and walking. This changes are already starting to take effect – the American Public Transportation Association reported Monday that use of public transit has reached its highest level since 1956.
Equally as important as consumption is the transmission and distribution of energy from producers to users. Our current power grid is inefficient and has not changed much since it was first built. In fact, 10 percent of energy generated is lost in transmission. As we make upgrades to our grid, we would do well to develop to a smart grid, one that allows for communication among users and producers and is equipped to accept power generated by homes and buildings.
Finally, a sustainable energy future requires clean and renewable energy generation. Instead of generating our energy from polluting and increasingly expensive sources like coal, natural gas and oil, we will use power from the sun, wind, biomass, geothermal heat, ocean tides and others. These sources are regenerative, meaning we can’t deplete them in the way we can fossil fuels. They are clean in that they don’t produce carbon dioxide or other emissions. And they are available to everyone; with the right technology, they can be used in developed and developing countries alike.
While building a sustainable energy system may be a challenge, there is good news all around. Demand for solar energy rose by 41 percent in 2013 due to huge growth in residential projects. More than 700 organizations in the United States, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, are currently meeting 100 percent of their energy needs through renewable energy as part of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership. Clean-energy jobs are growing four times faster than jobs in other industries.
At BGI, we embrace the enormous role that energy plays in business and in a sustainable future. Students in our one-year Certificate in Energy Solutions program work to make this vision a reality. They gain a whole systems understanding of the many factors that influence clean energy policy and study everything from the history and context of our current energy system to new developments in the field, all under the guidance of lead faculty and CEO of Distributed Energy Management, Jimmy Jia. Students finish their certificate with a real-world project and leave with the knowledge and tools to implement sustainable energy systems anywhere.
