Help Consumers Do More With Their Money: An Open Letter to Retailers

An open letter from RMI to hard goods retailers arguing that promoting and procuring energy-efficient electronics and appliances can unlock significant financial savings for consumers and reduce overall energy consumption.

• Consumer electronics and appliances are primary drivers of residential electricity spending in the United States. In 2011, the average American home used 11,280 kWh of electricity, costing over $1,300 annually, with half of that expenditure attributed to appliances and consumer products. Electronics such as cell phones, computers, and TVs accounted for more than 60 percent of the $650 spent on these products.
• Significant energy efficiency gains are possible at very low costs. For instance, computer electricity use could be cut by approximately one-third using existing technology. Specific examples include a $0.10 part to make an $18 beard trimmer 40 percent more efficient, and a $0.65 part to make a $60 cordless drill 50 percent more efficient. Additionally, measures for battery charger devices could reduce energy consumption by over 60 percent for a retail price increase of about $1.80, resulting in $14 of electricity savings over the product's life.
• There is a substantial economic opportunity for retailers to influence the market by demanding more efficient products. If appliances and electronics consumed 30 percent less electricity, it could unlock $25 billion in savings immediately, potentially reaching over $34 billion by 2040. The document notes that California has already achieved over $37 billion in cost-effective savings since 1975 through aggressive product efficiency standards.
• The barriers to efficiency are not technical or economic but are caused by poor information flow and broken market signals. Retailers can overcome this by teaming with experts to create procurement specifications for suppliers, which the document suggests could be more effective and faster than government-mandated standards or voluntary specifications.

APA

RMI (2013). Help Consumers Do More With Their Money: An Open Letter to Retailers. https://rmi.org/resources/blog_2013_10_15_help_consumers_do_more_with_their_money/

Chicago

RMI. Help Consumers Do More With Their Money: An Open Letter to Retailers. 2013. https://rmi.org/resources/blog_2013_10_15_help_consumers_do_more_with_their_money/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=RMI |title=Help Consumers Do More With Their Money: An Open Letter to Retailers |date=15 October 2013 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/blog_2013_10_15_help_consumers_do_more_with_their_money/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rmi2013help, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Help Consumers Do More With Their Money: An Open Letter to Retailers}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2013}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/blog_2013_10_15_help_consumers_do_more_with_their_money/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }