You can probably imagine that as an electronics editor I regularly get a ton of newsletters in my inbox, more than I can usually deal with, but this one caught my eye. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has published a study which ranks the world’s largest energy consuming nations on their energy efficiency policies and programs. The scoring system awards countries a maximum of 25 points in four categories: National efforts, Buildings, Industry and Transportation.

The result of the study is that Germany achieved first place above Japan, Italy, France and the UK. The surprise for me was that sixth place went to China. Following them was Spain, The USA and South Korea (joint eight), Canada and then The Netherlands.

Congratulations to our German colleagues, they must be as proud as they were when they took home the FIFA World Cup in 2014. The best and most sustainable process of energy consumption is of course zero energy consumption. All renewable energy sources also have their downside; wind turbines are fine by most people’s reckoning as long as they are not sited in their back yard or where they might injure wildlife.

Germany winning the energy championship triggered me to reduce my own energy consumption somewhat. The consumption, I have to admit, is somewhat below the target set for a typical family of four as advised by our national energy portal sites. Henceforth, the stack of computers, sound systems and media devices scattered around my home will be switched off when not in actual use, and I already acquired an energy monitoring meter which helps identify where more savings can be made. Join the initiative!