My partner, Jim, often talks about seeing the evolution of efficiency by looking at the automobile industry. When tasked with getting better gas mileage, there wasn’t a complete overhaul of engines and systems. Rather, there were small, incremental changes that led to better fuel performance, including: lighter materials, better fuel management, tighter seals, etc… These small changes deployed industry-wide add up to significant energy savings.

(for a deep read about the power of small incremental changes: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson)

Energy savings are becoming more important than ever. Present day, there is a natural gas shortage in the United Kingdom and China is cutting electricity to major sectors (almost 40%!) of manufacturing as a result of its energy crunch. The consequence is that Goldman Sachs recently reduced China’s GDP forecast because of those shortages.

So, isn’t it time to think about the small things that we can all be doing to reduce our energy consumption before we get crunched?