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Renewable Energy, Conservation, and Sustainability

Renewable Energy

According to the EPA, of the total energy consumed in America, about 39% is used to generate electricity. Therefore, electricity consumption is an important portion of a consumer's environmental footprint.¹

Renewable energy resources are naturally replenished in a relatively short period of time. They include biomass, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind energy, and solar energy. In 2004, about 6% of all energy consumed, and about 9% of total electricity production was from renewable energy sources. Alternative transportation fuels are fuels used for transportation other than gasoline or diesel. Some alternative transportation fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are renewable while others, such as propane and natural gas, are non-renewable.²

Conservation

Energy is the amount of work is takes to perform a task. The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. When energy is "used", it is merely transferred into a different type of energy. For example, when a car engine burns gasoline it converts chemical energy into mechanical energy. Therefore, the total amount of energy in the universe ultimately does not change.

In today's world it is more important than ever to rely on unlimited resources, using renewable energy. Currently, many fossil fuels are employed which have a limited quantity and pollute the environment.³

Sustainability

Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. For planet earth, it is thus the intent to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future. One of the most often-cited definitions of sustainability is the one created by the Brundtland Commission, led by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Commission defined sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[1] Sustainability relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. Sustainability is one of the four Core Concepts behind the 2007 Universal Forum of Cultures.⁴