Infographic: From Energy Production to Electricity Consumption

It's Energy month at GOOD, so we've teamed up with Portland, Oregon's Focus the Nation, an organization that's empowering youth to make smart environmental choices in their communities. This infographic is part of a series exploring our use of energy resources.

Powering on your computer is more than just pressing a button. The flow of electricity is made possible from multiple energy sources, whether they're imported and exported fossil fuels, like natural gas, petroleum, and coal, or domestically-produced nuclear electric power and renewable energy. Check out our latest infographic above that shows how the electricity around us flows from source to consumption. You can follow the U.S. electricity flow from production on the left to consumption on the right, with energy's measured in quadrillion British ton units (Btu). With all this electricity wasted, it is clear we need to conserve our energy sources.

What is primarily fueling the activities of our modern economy today are the fossil fuels which have stored the sun's energy over more than a millenium, coupled with nuclear power, which has been around for only the last five decades. If the United States is to prepare for a more sustainable future, it must start turning to renewable energy to meet our energy needs, using sources like hydroelectric power, biomass, geothermal, solar-photovoltaic, and wind.

This month, challenge a neighbor to GOOD's energy smackdown. Find a neighbor with a household of roughly the same square footage and see who can trim their power bill the most. Throughout February, we'll share ideas and resources for shrinking your household carbon footprint, so join the conversation at good.is/energy.