Energy Information Helps Save Money and the Planet

While the U.S. is known around the world for innovative companies like Google and Facebook, there is a new vanguard of American companies creating and exporting clean energy technologies,” said Jim Kapsis.  His company, OPower, an information-enabled energy efficiency company, is one of them. Opower is transforming the relationship between consumers and how they use energy in their homes.  According to Kapsis, Opower is on track to save households more than $100 million next year and enough energy to take the equivalent of more than 100,000 households off the grid.

OPower provides 10 million U.S. households with home energy information and has clients in 25 states. (by OPower)

Founded in 2007 by two college buddies, the company started out with a simple idea: utility bills are too difficult to understand.   The friends, co-founders, Dan Yates and Alex Laskey, bet that if people had better information about their energy usage, they would use less of it, save money, and improve the environment.  “It was an innovative business idea, but given the complexity of the energy market, they weren’t sure at first that it was going to work,” said Kapsis.  By working with utility companies to deliver better information to their customers, OPower not only helps people understand how they are consuming energy, but how they are doing relative to other similar homes in their neighborhood. By coupling this context with personalized energy saving advice, Opower is giving households the tools to make more informed choices about their energy use.

How Kids Can Do Something to Protect the Earth

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

I am Grace Cortese, and I am 10 years old. You might think I’m too young to make a difference in the environment. The reason I don’t believe that is because of my science teacher, Jillian Esby. She cares a lot about the environment and she teaches us that there are a million ways we can help if we pay attention and are willing to change our habits. Even the little things can add up, like turning out the light when you leave a room, or using both sides of the paper. Now my whole school is doing things to help protect the earth.

My school has a composter for our lunch leftovers, a waste-free lunch program, recycle bins all over campus and a book swap. Our school made a carpool program to reduce the number of cars on campus, and we have a “Walk to School” day once a year. We also did a really cool thing to eliminate paper napkins and disposable water bottles. Each classroom has a party pack with cloth napkins, plastic cups and plates and we use those for all the class parties and events. My science teacher Mrs. Esby has a “Teenie Greenies” club at lunch and she teaches a class in “up-cycling” after school. Last year, we planted a fruit orchard on campus. We will give the fruit to the local food bank. My school does a lot to help others, too. We collect canned food for the Westside Food Bank and we fix meals for the homeless. Last year we collected 17,720 pounds of food and fixed 285 meals. In second grade, we “adopt a beach” through Heal the Bay and we do beach clean-ups. I learned a lot about the disgusting things that end up in the ocean, like cigarette butts and plastic bags. Last year at school, we had a read-a-thon to raise money for malaria nets in Malawi, Africa for a place called. G.A.I.A. I called my friends, grandparents, aunts and uncles and I raised $2,000! That is enough for 200 bed nets, and I feel really happy that I helped keep kids in Africa safe from malaria.