Switch Green: Promoting Energy Efficient Appliances

Some appliances use 50% more energy than others to do the same job--there’s no difference in how well they clean clothes or wash dishes.

Efficiency allows us to get the same quality of lifestyle and the same utility from the same amount of energy. It’s a no brainer!

Making it easier to buy energy efficient appliances has many benefits: reductions in greenhouse gases, savings on utility bills, reduced demand for coal fired electrical plants, and less impact on the environment—all in one fell swoop.

Switch Green: Energy Star Appliance Feebate, calls for a simple policy shift to make the most efficient machines more affordable. Following its recommendations would cost government nothing, yet would have dramatic positive implications for the environment, including:

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 275 thousand tonnes per year
• Reducing the pollutants that cause smog
• Reducing household energy costs by $80 million annually
• Reducing water consumption
• Maintaining a revenue neutral outcome for government

In all, this policy would reduce household energy consumption by 1,440 gigawatt-hours—that’s like taking 120,000 homes off the electricity grid.

Download report--(PDF-906kb)

Switch Green has been endorsed by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (Ontario Chapter). This industry group is asking the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet to endorse the policy. Send a letter to the Prime Minister via their website.

Switch Green is one of a series of reports by the David Suzuki Foundation on ecological fiscal reform (EFR). EFR, shifts the burden of tax from good environmental practices onto polluting activities.

This type of economic incentive has been proven in many places around the world. By using economic disincentives to pollution and waste and economic incentives to conserve and protect, Canada can avoid falling further behind in its environmental performance.

Currently, Canada lags behind most other industrialized nations in the use of green economy measures, or ecological fiscal reform. Canada’s slow adoption of this type of policy undermines both the economy and the environment.

According to the OECD, the annual rate of productivity and GDP growth of many OECD countries surpasses Canada’s. And 27 of 30 OECD countries now rank ahead of Canada on environmental performance.

The policy outlined in Switch Green offers a consumer rebate on Energy Star appliances, while levying a modest fee on appliances that do not meet the Energy Star standard. Although the price differential between appliances can be quite small, it is often enough to prompt consumers to select an inefficient product, despite long-term savings. Switch Green eliminates or narrows the price gap between efficient and inefficient appliances, making choices for the consumer less onerous.

Switch Green, prepared by Mark K. Jaccard and Associates for the David Suzuki Foundation, projects economic and environmental impacts over the course of the next 15 years.

It the second in a series of policy proposals from the David Suzuki Foundation designed to help Canada achieve sustainability within a generation.