5 Key Solutions to Transform the Built Environment

The document highlights the inefficiency of the United States' building stock, which consumes 42 percent of the nation's total energy, and promotes five strategic solutions—technology adoption, integrative design, policy updates, low-cost financing, and valuing non-energy benefits—to achieve deep energy retrofits and support a cleaner electricity grid.

• Buildings in the United States are highly energy-intensive, with 120 million buildings accounting for 42 percent of total national energy consumption and 72 percent of electricity use, costing $400 billion annually to power and fuel.
• RMI identifies five primary solutions to transform the built environment: the wide adoption of energy-efficiency technologies, integrative design, next-generation building policies, easy to access and low-cost financing, and the valuation of non-energy benefits.
• The transition to superefficient, intelligent buildings is presented as essential for a transformed electricity system that can provide cleaner, more secure, and more reliable power, while also functioning as hubs for energy production and storage, even with the addition of millions of electric cars to the grid.

APA

RMI (2011). 5 Key Solutions to Transform the Built Environment. https://rmi.org/resources/5_key_solutions_transform_built_environment/

Chicago

RMI. 5 Key Solutions to Transform the Built Environment. 2011. https://rmi.org/resources/5_key_solutions_transform_built_environment/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=5 Key Solutions to Transform the Built Environment |date=13 December 2011 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/5_key_solutions_transform_built_environment/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2011key, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{5 Key Solutions to Transform the Built Environment}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2011}, month = dec, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/5_key_solutions_transform_built_environment/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }