Imagine a wireless monitor that tells you, hour by hour, how much energy your hot tub, television and fridge are using.

John Simpson believes just having that information would make you compete with yourself to see how much you can reduce how much each of those devices use, in a bid to conserve energy, and ultimately obviate the need to construct that polluting coal-fired electrical generation plant in your region.

Simpson is a principal with the Rocky Mountain Institute of Boulder, Colorado, and he was speaking Tuesday at the second annual conference of the Okanagan Environmental Industry Association in Kelowna.

He says such monitors are already available and he points out that knowledge is power.

Once we have the information we have the power to reduce the amount of power we use.

“The Renaissance took 100 years, and this is another one. It could take another 100 years, but it begins with just one step,” he says. “We’re already on the path. The worst thing you can do is deny there is anything wrong.”

Where buildings used to have high ceilings and use awnings to permit good air circulation and shade buildings from the sun, people then moved to consumption of fossil fuels to provide air conditioning.

Today, we must look at the building as a whole and maximize opportunities for energy efficiency, he told delegates to the conference.

It’s a challenge, he admitted, because people are not programmed to suffer; and they want cold beer and hot showers, not kilowatt hours.

However, he says by retrofitting old buildings, energy savings of 40 per cent to 60 per cent can be achieved, and by being more energy efficient in construction of new buildings, the savings can be 60 per cent to 80 per cent.

It’s important to see the whole picture instead of single contractors working on different aspects of a building, in isolation, he emphasized.

Reusing and using renewables is a serious human rights issue, he believes, because we are just renting from our children.

Buildings should also be designed with seasonal changes in mind.

“The most sustainable material is one we chose not to use,” he notes.

In the end, he said, your waste stream should be sold as raw material for another project.

He talked about Property Assessed Clean Energy Bonds, or PACE Bonds; municipal loans to homeowners which can be paid back via property taxes to enable property owners to improve the energy efficiency of their property.

That’s a concept that Kelowna City Coun. Angela Reid said the city is looking at, and both Vancouver and Dawson Creek have already embarked on.

The conference attracted about 60 exhibitors, engineers, builders, architects and others interested in sustainability, said association chairman David Mayes.

He’s optimistic that people are becoming more aware of the importance of sustainability, and he said the federal government has been very supportive of such initiatives as use of or conversion to solar hot water heating.

It’s been a rocky road at times, with legislation and bylaws not always in sync with some of the innovations underway in the building sector, he agreed, but legislation changes are now being made at all levels to accommodate green building, he says.

jsteeves@kelownacapnews.com