Energy efficiency – getting the same cold beers and warm showers while using less energy (h/t Amory Lovins) – will play a crucial part in our energy future and economic recovery. It is a vast resource of relatively cheap energy, and its thoughtful deployment can mostly offset the cost of more expensive ways of mitigating global warming (google “McKinsey cost curve”). I focus on increasing the use of cost-effective energy efficiency in the Midwest, especially in those states (Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan) that recently committed to serving a portion of their energy needs with efficiency. We want utilities to meet their targets for energy efficiency and renewable energy, but the ultimate goal is market transformation. If we’re successful, Midwestern consumers and businesses will increasingly demand and receive energy efficient products and services. This shift will reduce global warming pollution, save money, and create jobs. It’s a great line of work to be in.
I came to NRDC on a MAP Fellowship from Stanford University, where I got a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Atmosphere/Energy program. Before Stanford I lived in Chicago for a year and spent a year in Washington, D.C., where I worked in geoscience education. I got my BA in Environmental Geology from the University of Missouri. I have long been interested in energy and the built environment. I’m a big fan of architecture (Thom Mayne, Rem Koolhaas) and music (mainly electronic, with some guitars thrown in).
Posted January 17, 2012 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming
Energy efficiency sometimes has an image problem. Despite incredible innovation in the field in the last 15 years, in some people’s minds, it’s still associated with ugly plastic window insulation and harsh fluorescent lights. Compared to other catchy solutions to...continued→
Posted December 13, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Honeywell, the Fortune 100 company, doesn’t have a tagline. There’s no “We deliver for you” next to its name, or “Don’t leave home without it.” But at the risk of overstepping my role as an energy advocate, I’d like to...continued→
Posted December 9, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
This is a special guest post from 2011 MAP fellow Lauren Kubiak. She, Rocky Kistner and I recently returned from a road trip in Ohio visiting and profiling businesses with a stake in the clean economy. You can find posts...continued→
Posted December 1, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming
This post is co-authored by Dylan Sullivan and Mathias Bell of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and cross-posted on RMI's "Outlet" blog. The utilities in Ohio will tell you that they're nothing like the energy efficiency leaders in California, Oregon, Vermont,...continued→
Posted November 28, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
This is a special guest post from 2011 MAP fellow Lauren Kubiak. She, Rocky Kistner and I recently returned from a road trip in Ohio visiting and profiling businesses with a stake in the clean economy. You can find posts...continued→
Posted November 21, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
This is a special guest post from 2011 MAP fellow Lauren Kubiak. She, Rocky Kistner and I recently returned from a road trip in Ohio visiting and profiling businesses with a stake in the clean economy. You can find posts...continued→
Posted November 4, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
In 1998, when Tom Kirpatrick bought Cincinnati-based Eco Engineering, LLC, the company had five staffers and revenues of just $600,000 a year. Soon thereafter, he “made a strategic decision to focus on lighting and lighting controls and to do that...continued→
Posted October 17, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
For manufacturing businesses, in today’s economy, every dollar counts. Saving $100,000 a year can make the difference between staying in business in Ohio and chucking in the towel. And $100,000 is approximately how much money small-to-midsized Ohio manufacturers save, on...continued→
Posted September 28, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
“We wanted to eliminate the utility bill. And we wanted to show we could build an economy around Ohio production.” That’s what Ohio State University mechanical engineering student Ellen Gentry told me about her team’s entry into one of the...continued→
Posted September 16, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming
“We’re hiring like hot cakes!” That’s what the communications manager at Melink Corporation, based in Milford, Ohio, told us at the NRDC. And to confirm it, we called the company’s founder and president, Steve Melink: “Yup. In the last six...continued→
Posted September 14, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming
Bryan Loskorn had been underemployed—unemployed, really—for a long time before he found a job at First Solar, in Perrysburg, Ohio. The company is a world leader in the manufacture of “thin film” solar panels that make pollution-free electricity from the...continued→
Posted August 16, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming
Thirty-five years ago, when Bob Ready began his lighting business, he started out small, in “a Cincinnati garage, with four employees,” he recalls. Back then, he saw a niche opportunity—creating energy-efficient lighting for the lower-cost, self-service gas stations that sprang...continued→
Posted July 26, 2011 by Dylan Sullivan in Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
The Ohio unemployment rate may be closely tracking the national one: a dismal 8.6 percent in May. But at Greg Smith’s Energy Optimizers USA (EOUSA) in Tipp City, Ohio, there’s a jobs boom underway. “We’ve gone from one employee less...continued→
Posted November 23, 2010 by Dylan Sullivan in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
What makes this environmentalist skeptical? When a post-election commentator employed by a big-business-loving “libertarian” think tank interprets the 2010 Ohio election results as a mandate for his employer’s dirty energy agenda. The relevant op-ed appeared in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer. The...continued→
Posted November 17, 2010 by Dylan Sullivan in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
Today, First Energy announced that it is cancelling the conversion from coal to biomass of units 4 and 5 of its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside, Ohio and shutting the units down. What might sound like a setback for renewable...continued→
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