In his State of the Union address, President Obama asked the Congress to pass an energy efficiency bill that will help manufacturers eliminate waste and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. He promised energy savings of $100 billion over the next decade, with less pollution, more manufacturing, and more jobs – with the right legislation.

What energy policy steps could deliver all of these benefits, and maybe more?

Tax credits to encourage energy efficiency programs are a key stimulant to action. However, there are more lasting initiatives the federal government can implement that would encourage the private sector to fund these energy efficiency programs without asking for help from taxpayers and saddling consumers with high energy costs.

Below are four steps that could to be taken to fulfill the goals listed in the State of the Union address.

1. The federal government is the largest energy consumer in the country. It has taken some important steps toward energy efficiency, including the recently announced Better Buildings Challenge. But the biggest change the federal government could bring would be to apply the same principles to energy efficiency that helps to educate consumers on the food they eat and the products they purchase. A Federal mandate that all commercial buildings in the U.S. should be ‘labeled’ to reveal their energy efficiency would dramatically focus attention on how energy is used. This would provide the business community with a sharp focus on the dollars being wasted by how they use energy. That is why the LEED Platinum designation for our Headquarters was so important to Heartland.

   In the same way that a consumer reads the nutrition information on packaged food, building energy labeling would give businesses clear information about the efficiencies of the buildings they select to occupy, the factories they operate and the stores they own. This information would permit tenants to make informed decisions about where to rent, create competition in the building management community to use energy efficiency as a selling point, and drive public pressure to bring low efficiency buildings up to a higher standard. The private sector could develop the measurement and verification standards, but the federal government can move this forward with a building energy labeling mandate based on these standards.

   2.  As the president discussed in his State of the Union, there are trillions of dollars of profits earned by U.S. businesses locked up in foreign countries. Repatriating those dollars would have a major positive impact on our economy, but the debate over how to do that effectively has gone on and on for years with no action. Why not allow businesses to repatriate dollars with zero tax impact, if those dollars are used for energy efficiency investments here at home?

   If energy efficiency is indeed a national priority, as the President suggested, then let’s use dollars which are not serving U.S. interests while locked up overseas to drive this national priority here at home. This could bring billions of dollars back home. – ensuring that those dollars go immediately into programs that help businesses and consumers save energy, and potentially create thousands of new jobs. This simple step would have an immediate impact on the U.S. economy, energy efficiency and move us toward real energy independence.

   3. The Senate and the House should pass the energy efficiency bills being advanced with bipartisan sponsors. These initiatives would strengthen building codes, provide financing options for manufacturers, and require the federal government to improve its own energy management.

   4. There are initiatives the Administration can take that will have a major positive impact on new jobs and energy efficiency that don’t require Congressional action. The Department of Energy should sponsor a new training and awareness program for states and cities on the topic of performance contracting. Performance contracting is the cornerstone of the federal government’s Better Buildings Challenge, upgrading buildings and making them more energy efficient at no cost to taxpayers. Some states and cities have leveraged performance contracting as well, but education and adoption at the state and local level is currently very slow.

These four steps – three that require Congressional action and one that the Administration can implement – would jump-start the U.S. economy with potentially tens of thousands of new jobs, millions of dollars in energy savings that can be used for economic development, and dramatic reductions in pollution and real energy independence. And it can be done without heavy handed, expensive regulations demanding compliance in unrealistic time frames using technology that is not currently available.

There’s a clear case to be made for developing and implementing energy management programs. We’ve seen our energy consumption drop by 50% since occupying our new LEED Platinum headquarters. This building is one-third larger than the one we left behind.

If the Congress, the Administration and the private sector will work together to make it happen, it most assuredly will happen.