A Green Button issue

What if you could reduce your home energy bills 10 percent just by pushing a button? Well, that’s just what a recent White House initiative is aiming for.

Two months ago, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra “challenged the utility industry to enable consumers to download their detailed energy usage with the simple click of a ‘Green Button.’” This onscreen device “gives utilities a way to simplify and standardize sharing usage statistics with their customers via a one-click download.”

Building on the success of the VA’s Blue Button, which gives veterans a way to access their health care information, the Office of Science and Technology Policy launched Green Button. As Chopra said, “With this information at their fingertips, consumers would be enabled to make more informed decisions about their energy use and, when coupled with opportunities to take action, empowered to actively manage their energy use.”

But the White House isn’t simply supplying a concept and a small piece of software. Instead, as TechCrunch explained, “Federal officials hope this kind of data liberation will inspire developers to build apps and services that will help customers track and reduce their energy consumption.”

And, the OSTP is reporting initial success: California’s three largest utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison – have signed onto the program and are creating their own Green Buttons.

Of course, progressive groups, including CWA, have been pushing for something like this for a good while, as Speed Matters reported in 2010, How Broadband Will Benefit a Green Economy.

A few months earlier, the Blue Green Alliance, Communications Workers of America, Sierra Club, and Natural Resources Defense Counsel released “Networking the Green Economy: How Broadband and Related Technologies Can Build a Green Economic Future, which illustrates how smart buildings, smart grids, telehealth, teleconferencing, digital education – all of which are part of a highly-networked economy – will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, conserve energy resources, and promote and retain good, green jobs.”

Modeling a Green Energy Challenge after a Blue Button (Office of Science and Technology Policy website, Sept. 15, 2011)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/15/modeling-green-energy-challenge-after-blue-button#

'Blue Button' Provides Access to Downloadable Personal Health Data (Office of Science and Technology Policy website, Oct. 7, 2011)

White House Pushes Green Button To Liberate Your Energy Data (TechCrunch, Feb. 5, 2012)

Empowering Customers With a Green Button (Office of Science and Technology Policy website, Nov. 21 2011)

How Broadband Will Benefit a Green Economy (Speed Matters, June 30, 2010)

Networking the Green Economy: How Broadband and Related Technologies Can Build a Green Economic Future (Blue Green Alliance, Communications Workers of America, Sierra Club, and Natural Resources Defense Counsel, 2010)