I just returned from a wonderful vacation to France: 4 days in Paris and a week or so in rural southern France, in the Pyrenees. The French are so French and the buildings aren't considered old unless they were built before the 1400s. Fascinating history that dates back millenia, though occasionally rather bloody. And while my lovely wife and I were soaking up the history and culture, I was also taking in how they used energy - how they modernized and heated all the old stone buildings, what their energy package was (electricity production, natural gas for heating, etc.), and their cultural beliefs around indoor comfort, personal space, and expectations. Luckily, she was tolerant of my constant musings on buildings and energy use.
I expected and was familiar with Europe's smaller, more efficient vehicle size, excellent public transit system, higher percentage of scooter use, and the fact that walking is so much more a part of life than in the States, even in rural areas. Transportation issues in the cities, and even interurban, are a whole topic in themselves and I won't go in to them here. But the first thing that struck me as different and unusual inside a building was as soon as we got to our first hotel in Paris. We tended to stay in what I'll call low-end-fancy or high-end-budget. Michelin two and three stars but the cheapest of them. As we walked in to the hall on our floor, it was initially dark but the lights turned on the moment we turned the corner, dim but adequate - aha, they're on motion detectors and turn off after a few minutes. A little strange for us because the area is dark until you approach it but very effective as far as energy usage. Then we enter our room and there is no light in the room until one sticks the key card in to a slot on the wall that turns on all the electricity in the room. This was so common and expected there that they didn't even tell us about it at the front desk. Granted, I've seen it in a few hotels in the States but it's still relatively rare but I suspect saves a LOT of energy. No more lighting unoccupied rooms or endlessly droning room heaters. Then we turn on the lights and find that they're CFLs in the ceiling and LEDs on either side of the bed. LEDs, no less. They're investing in LEDs on a public scale. Small, excellent for reading at night, and probably draw less than 5 watts apiece. There's more, but you get the picture: our carbon footprint while we were staying there was far less than the average hotel in the States (and yes, I'm making a point out of ignoring the huge carbon cost of our flight there and back - I'm still working on that area).
The other hotel we stayed at was similar, and what came to mind was a difference in cultural expectations. The quality of life there is comfortable while the average person's energy footprint is considerably less than ours. Hotels are actively investing in energy reducing technology: central boilers that not only provide the hot water but also feed individual, quiet water-to-air heaters in each room, either fan fed in a dropped ceiling or passive white radiators on the walls; modern LED directed lighting; services that are only available when needed, controlled by motion detectors or key card controllers. These things cause a small amount of bother. The room isn't perfectly warm for us when we enter, it's dark until we approach an area, there's more task lighting and less area lighting. And we're conditioned to expect to not be bothered by little niggly things like that. But the net savings from those actually very small adjustments are substantial.
Which brings me back to expectations. I didn't gain anything directly from having to make little adjustments to accommodate these energy saving features. On the contrary, they cost me slightly according to my American expectations. But they saved the country substantially as a whole. This takes me back to my college philosophy class and the concept of The Commons: the area of our cultural life that we all have to share with each other. Water, air, roads and transportation, public spaces, most things the government does for us. We take care of The Commons even where it costs us some personally because it's better for all and in the end, that's better for us. We all do it to some extent. We pay taxes, we share the road, we recycle and try not to pollute. In Europe, with it's much older, denser history of human occupation, they just have a bit more developed sense of The Commons than we do here in the States, with our sense of unlimited space and resources.
As our population grows and we strive to keep our standard of living while not destroying our environment, Europe has a few things to teach us about resource usage in our buildings. And I haven't even gotten to the windmill farms, bullet trains, our plenty big turbo diesel rental car - full size for Europe - that got nearly 50 mpg in hilly, stop and go, and freeway driving while passing stringent air quality requirements and giving us standard amenities that most American cars don't even have as options.
Come on, America, we need to be on the *forefront* of energy efficiency, not lagging farther and farther behind. Because the country that does more with less will end up leading. And right now, that's not us.
Now how can I import that turbo diesel we drove there. Mmmm....
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