Did you know that the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Initiative has saved $13.5B in energy costs in the past year? With all the resources, innovators, and stakeholders involved to bring this plan to fruition, businesses can take so many avenues to reduce their energy costs and more.
What Is the Better Buildings Initiative?
The DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative is a network designed to provide communities with the solutions to improve their energy use, water consumption, waste efficiency, and more. This initiative isn’t just about finding green solutions but also proving that we can make these positive changes without compromising style or comfort. The pillars of the Better Buildings Initiative are advancements in new technology, funding for projects, leadership, and support.
Why Does This Matter?
Beyond helping the environment, there are so many other benefits that come from energy-efficient buildings. Choosing eco-friendly options for your buildings can lower your energy and waste bills, all while using the latest technology to enhance the resilience of your building from natural disasters. The DOE makes it its mission to help various public and private groups to quantify what works and share expertise.
In short, the government is interested in making buildings more energy-efficient.
Energy Efficient Buildings
Buildings account for roughly 29 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions1. In 2019, that number was 1.9 billion tons of CO2. To combat this, many commercial building owners are changing light bulbs, installing solar panels, reducing consumption, adopting technology, and more.
But did you know that 25-30 percent of heat gain and loss are due to window inefficiencies? Worse yet, 34% of heating and cooling energy demands in commercial buildings are due to windows.
Often overlooked, windows are one of the greatest opportunities for improving commercial building energy efficiency since they are one of the biggest contributors to inefficiency. In fact, the Department of Energy recently launched the Partnership for Advanced Windows (PAWS) which recommends window attachment systems for improving energy efficiency.
But before you think that you have to incur the headache and cost of replacing all the windows on your building, there is another way you can transform your current windows to be more energy-efficient without all the hassle.
3M™ Thinsulate™ 75 Window Film
3M Thinsulate 75 window film uses the latest solar technology to reduce heat loss by up to 40% during the colder months and declines 47% of the heat in the warm weather months. Adding this 3M film to your location can get your windows to perform similarly to dual-pane glass without the added cost or installation process.
Safety and Energy Efficiency
To add a layer of security to your windows and increase the energy efficiency of your building even further, you can apply Riot Glass™ with 3M window film. Proven to stop break-in attempts using sledgehammers, crowbars, pickaxes, bricks, and more, Riot Glass is the ultimate security window system.
Go Green with NGS
If you’re interested in learning more about how to transform your building’s energy efficiency and safety measures, click here to watch our webinar about the building energy efficiency benefits of solar control window film.
