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What is Sustainability?

Energy Facts

If you live in a typical U.S. home, your appliances and home electronics are responsible for about 20% of your energy bills.

Reference: US Department of Energy

Heating and cooling account for about 56% of the energy use in a typical U.S. home, making it the largest energy expense for most homes.

Reference: US Department of Energy

Water heating can account for 14%-25% of the energy consumed in your home.

Reference: US Department of Energy

You can reduce your home's heating and cooling costs by as much as 30 percent through proper insulation and air sealing techniques.

Reference: US Department of Energy

Amount of money that would be saved if the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial buildings improved by 10 percent: $20 billion.

Reference: Energy Star

Amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would be reduced if the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial buildings improved by 10 percent: equal to about 30 million vehicles.

Reference: Energy Star

Amount of global carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere in 2005: 6,000 million metric tons.

  • U.S. contribution of global greenhouse gas emissions: about 20 percent.
  • U.S. population relative to the world: 5 percent.

Reference: Energy Star

The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainability as "ensuring that we meet our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

For NSU, sustainability represents the use of technology in ways that make business sense, while at the same time addressing environmental needs. In other words, use technologies that are cost effective and do not cause irreversible damage to the local, regional and global ecosystems.

By technology we mean how we do things, so this encompasses all of the economic processes and how we live. For example, how we manufacture and distribute goods and services, how we build homes and buildings, how we provide the fuels and energy for the industrial, commercial and residential sectors.

Conservation provides an environmentally and economically sustainable framework for development.

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