Being surrounded as I am by all sorts of Europeans, I can't help but compare what I know to what I am now experiencing. G reminds me all the time that comparisons will kill me, but here I go: (with a "point" after each item...I'll total up the score at the end)

1. Toilets here have an awesome feature - you can stop the flush partway through by toggling (? can't figure out how to describe it) the lever to "stop" to save water. The toilets in Prague even had a small and larger flush button to also conserve water. Europeans +1, Americans, 0.
2. At our hotel in Munich, we had to insert the key-card in a card reader on the wall to use the electricity. Almost all public places - hallways, bathrooms, etc, have switches that are always turned off when the area isn't in use. Many places have motion-activated lights, as well. Europeans +1, Americans 0.
3. The automobiles are smaller and get better gas mileage. We rented a silly little French thing with TONS of headroom that runs on deisel. AND, we filled up with biodeisel at a normal pump in Germany. Europeans +2, Americans 0.
4. In Prague, beer was cheaper than water. (which is great if you want to drink beer all the time. I don't)  If you want water with a meal, you have to pay for it, and it isn't cheap. Don't even think of getting free refills. Europeans 0, Americans +1.
5. Public transit is good and cheap in Europe. Europeans +1, Americans 0.
6. Back to traffic - Europeans know how to parallel park, and they do it well. Europeans +1, Americans 0.
7. I've found lots of chocolate, but it's really sugary. No semi-sweet chocolate to be found. Europeans 0, Americans +1

And the score is:

Europeans=6
Americans=2

Hmmmmmmm, tricky. Now, how much of the energy/resource saving has communist-regimes to thank, I'm uncertain. But, we could learn something from how they do things over here.