Difference between saving energy and electricity

     I have learned on how our planet needs our effort for saving the energy for the first time in my life, at the age of eleven or twelve in a class called "総合の時間"（the time for the whole knowledge---I might be translating this incorrectly...）. That was the beginning that also the whole society was in consideration on saving energy. Recycle, Eco, global warming and etc became popular terms. And as a kid in elementally school, I was using those words, not exactly knowing what they mean, when writing a small piece of paper, and a research.
    It has been about ten years now. The attitude of people and firms toward the environment did not really change during this time. People who are very serious about the environmental and energy issue scream for saving the energy, but many companies have been ignoring those claims, stating that they do some activities for the environment instead of sacrificing their business. Other people who are not so active on the issue, including me, sometimes tried to save energy, discuss the issues brought up in a conversation, and just "think" about them, not really taking any specific actions.
     I think this was the common behavior in Japanese society until 3.11 happened. Now many companies pay attention on how much energy they are using daily, and struggle to prevent using extra energy, even for a small amount. It seems that if a firm does not take action to save electricity immediately, the firm will be in a big trouble...as a moral issue.
    Looking all the commercials and advertisements on the trains, I feel that many companies understand what to do in this situation. Before 3.11, they did not really know what is expected to save energy and environment. It was too broad area to work on and therefore many consumers did not realize what to expect for them either, while saving electricity is more specific and thanks for the technology improvement, now it is easy to see how much electricity they are actually using.