Appendix B 289
documents should visit http://www.ipmvp.org. The IPMVP web site con-
tains new and/or modified content, interim revisions to the existing
protocol and review drafts as they are prepared. Currently, the IPMVP
web site has links to many of the organizations referenced herein, email
archives containing the minutes of the conference calls and all the cor-
respondence among members of the various committees, and contact
information for many individuals associated with the protocol.
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 OVERVIEW
Energy efficiency offers the largest and most cost-effective op-
portunity for both industrialized and developing nations to limit the
enormous financial, health and environmental costs associated with
burning fossil fuels. Available, cost-effective investments in energy and
water efficiency globally are estimated to be tens of billions of dollars
per year. However, the actual investment level is far less, represent-
ing only a fraction of the existing, financially attractive opportunities
for energy savings investments. In the interest of brevity, throughout
this document the terms “energy” and “energy savings” represent
both energy and water. Although there are differences between energy
efficiency measures and water efficiency measures, they share many
common attributes and are often part of the same project.
If all cost-effective efficiency investments were made public and
commercial buildings in the U.S., for example, efficiency project spend-
ing would roughly triple, and within a decade would result in savings
of $20 billion per year in energy and water costs, create over 100,000
permanent new jobs and significantly cut pollution. For developing
countries with rapid economic growth and surging energy consump-
tion, energy and water efficient design offers a very cost effective way
to control the exploding costs of building power and water treatment
plants, while limiting the expense of future energy imports and the
widespread health and environmental damages and costs that result
from burning fossil fuels.
These efficiency opportunities and their inherent benefits prompt-
ed the U.S. Department of Energy in early 1994 to begin working with