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 * Full citation? **

Ten Large US Cities Join Major New Initiative to Reduce Carbon Pollution From Buildings, February 21, 2014


 * Where are the author/s located, what are their backgrounds and what kinds of expertise do they have? **

Kaid Benfield


 * List of at least three details or examples from the text that point to something important about culture, education and/or the challenge of environmental sustainability in the United States. **

Benfield starts by discussing the topic of the article, that ten US cities have met and decided to participate in an initiative that could lower energy bills by $1 billion dollars every year and reduce carbon pollution by targeting buildings which are a huge source of carbon emissions.

If buildings implemented cost-effective strategies and reduced their energy use by 20% it would save 80 billion dollars. The issue is most buildings were constructed before modern energy efficiency codes were introduced, so it takes money to restructure old buildings with low-cost energy saving measures.

The City Energy Project breaks its program into four categories; information and transparency to help owners understand the energy efficiency opportunities, then setting achievable targets for building operations, providing benefits for owners who aim for energy efficiency and focusing on enhancing city-owned buildings to set an example.


 * What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? **

"'Building energy effeciency has far-reaching benefits, not only for the environment, but also in enabling high performing work space, facilitating jobs, and resulting in better financial return'".

"A recent analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of approximately 35,000 benchmarked buildings across the nation found they reduced energy consumption by an average of 7 percent over a three-year period. "

"'With US buildings consuming more primary energy than entire countries like Russia and India, the scale of the opportunity to optimize building energy performance is significant...cities collaborating and implementing creative, practical energy efficiency policies can go a long way to reducing America's $450 billion annual energy bill and carbon emissions.'"


 * What is the main argument of the text? **

America consumes much higher amounts of energy than other countries, and this can be reduced by retrofitting our existing buildings with energy-saving technologies. This is good for the environment and good for our wallets.


 * Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported. **

Kenfield brings up the statistics on what the approximate carbon emission savings will be as well as the amount of money saved if the ten cities participating in the project reduce building energy use.

It goes on to address what would happen if all cities and buildings aimed for energy-use reduction.

The article outlines the steps planned as part of the project.


 * What parts of the argument did you find most and least persuasive, and why? **

I thought the outline of steps were a little weak, I am sure they are abbreviated but I feel that there wasn't enough rigidity to truly enforce the steps and make the transition into energy-efficiency more quickly. I did like the numbers showing energy savings, and also calling out America on using much more energy than other countries was interesting because it reminds us of how wasteful we are.


 * Explain how the argument and evidence in the text relates to our effort to conceptualize, design and deliver EcoEd? **

I like this article because it refers to a very specific field of sustainability--energy efficiency of buildings. Because buildings are huge they naturally have huge demands in terms of energy, and is therefore a huge opportunity for implementing various energy production technologies and is a huge opportunity for corporations to be greedy and pick cheap initial cost over long term financial and environmental benefits. It has a lot of potential to pertain to the literacies taught by ecoed.


 * What additional information has this text compelled you to seek out? (Describe what you learned in a couple of sentences, providing at least two supporting references). **

In the past I have done a lot of research on how to make buildings more energy efficient through various technologies like concentrated solar energy collection and green walls. I think these technologies are a good direction but are still in beta phases and need to be accelerated so they can be brought into buildings.