ENERGY STAR News: Business and Industry Edition

Spring 2011

• Shifting the Curve: Cement Industry Improves Its Energy Performance!
• Energy Use Reporting Milestones Approaching for Many DC and NYC Commercial Buildings
• 2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition: Snapshot of Applicants
• ENERGY STAR Award Winners
• New Senior Care Facility ENERGY STAR Score and Improvements in Portfolio Manager
• Planning Summer Travel?
• Top 25 Cities with ENERGY STAR Certified Buildings

Shifting the Curve: Cement Industry Improves Its Energy Performance!

A primary goal of the ENERGY STAR Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Buildings program is to enable the C&I markets to improve energy performance using EPA's tools and resources for strategic energy management and benchmarking. EPA is pleased to announce that a new report released by Duke University reveals the U.S. cement manufacturing industry has shifted its energy performance curve to achieve substantial energy savings. Over a 10-year period of working with EPA, this energy-intensive industry has reduced its energy use by over 60 trillion Btu, equivalent to a nearly 13 percent reduction in energy intensity! Annually, this represents a reduction of almost 1.5 million metric tons of energy-related carbon, equivalent to the electricity use of more than 655,000 homes for a year.

Upon founding the ENERGY STAR program in the late 1990s, EPA began a focused effort to assist cement manufacturers across the nation to build energy management programs, identify energy efficiency opportunities in their plants, and use EPA's unique cement plant energy performance indicator (EPI) to rate the energy performance of their plants. The industry's recent success in improving its ENERGY STAR energy performance scores necessitated an update to the model. An analysis of the underlying data for the newly updated EPI reveals the cement industry's success in managing energy.

Stay tuned for our next newsletter to learn how the cement industry is working with ENERGY STAR and its downstream customer industry, concrete, to improve the energy efficiency of U.S. ready-mix concrete plants!

Back to Top

---

Energy Use Reporting Milestones Approaching for Many DC and NYC Commercial Buildings

This spring, many commercial buildings in the District of Columbia and New York City, NY will need to meet energy performance reporting deadlines, as established by legislation in each jurisdiction. In both cities, this legislation requires the use of EPA's online ENERGY STAR measurement and tracking tool, Portfolio Manager, to benchmark and report energy use information.

In New York City, all buildings with more than 50,000 square feet of space were required to benchmark energy use in Portfolio Manager by May 1, 2011. Reporting for city-owned buildings began last year, but this important legislative milestone is the first reporting deadline for private-sector buildings. In New York City, buildings are responsible for 75 percent of carbon emissions. This reporting requirement is part of a suite of four laws known as the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP) that focuses on the city's 24,000 largest buildings, which make up half of the city's square footage and are responsible for 45 percent of citywide greenhouse gas emissions. Once implemented, the plan is expected to reduce emissions by almost 5 percent, reduce citywide energy costs by $700 million annually by 2030, and create roughly 17,800 construction-related jobs over 10 years.

The District of Columbia will reach its second reporting milestone on July 1, 2011, by which buildings of 200,000 square feet or more must benchmark their energy use. A citywide emissions inventory found that buildings are responsible for 74 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the District, and that energy costs make up a large portion of building operating budgets. Benchmarking for all DC public buildings with 10,000 square feet or more began in 2008. For more information, see DC's Green Building Act of 2006 and the Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 .

Back to Top

---

2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition: Snapshot of Applicants

On May 2, 2011, EPA launched the 2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings. Building off the successes of last year's competition, teams from 245 buildings of all shapes and sizes from across the country will battle it out to see who can reduce their energy use the most.

EPA's Battle of the Buildings is designed to raise awareness among Americans that the buildings where we work, play, and learn are responsible for a significant portion of our overall energy use and greenhouse gas emissions—about 20 percent at a cost of more than $100 billion annually.

This year, the energy use (or "weight") of every competitor will be measured at the start of the competition and again at the midpoint when the field of 245 competitors will be narrowed down to a smaller group of 10 to 15 finalists. Among the finalists, the building that demonstrates the greatest percentage-based reduction in energy use intensity (EUI) will be declared the winner on November 2, 2011.

The 2011 competition includes a substantially expanded field of participants. This year's competitors include 26 different types of commercial buildings, such as retail stores, schools, hotels, and museums, and hail from 33 states and the District of Columbia. Eleven buildings are 100 years old or greater, the smallest building is just over 6,000 square feet, and 15 buildings cover more than 1 million square feet of floor space, with the largest totaling nearly 3 million square feet!

Follow along and watch this year's competitors battle it out at www.energystar.gov/battleofthebuildings. See how small actions can add up to big energy savings, and learn a few tips to use in your own building.

Back to Top

---

ENERGY STAR Award Winners

On April 12, 2011, 111 ENERGY STAR partners gathered in Washington, DC, to be honored by EPA for demonstrating leadership and commitment in environmental protection through achievements in energy efficiency. Selected from more than 20,000 program partners, winners from a diverse set of organizations were recognized in three award categories: Sustained Excellence, Partner of the Year, and Excellence.

Partners that received the Excellence award were honored for a specific energy efficiency initiative in promoting ENERGY STAR qualified products, homes, or buildings. A total of 21 organizations were recognized, including Canon, DirectTV, Lennox, Menards, and Sharp Electronics.

2011 Partner of the Year award winners included Citi, Hanesbrands, HEI Hotels & Resorts, and Staples—among 44 other organizations. All winners proved their strategic energy management capabilities and their excellence in promoting energy efficiency to consumers and community members.

Lastly, an outstanding group of 46 manufacturers, retailers, public schools, hospitals, real estate companies, and home builders were recognized in the Sustained Excellence category, which honors partners who exhibit exceptional leadership and achievements year after year. 2011 Sustained Excellence winners included 3M, Ford, GE, J.C. Penney, Lowe's, and PepsiCo, among many other industry leaders.

View a full list of award winners and learn more about their achievements.

Back to Top

---

New Senior Care Facility ENERGY STAR Score and Improvements in Portfolio Manager

At the end of March 2011, Portfolio Manager was updated with exciting new improvements. Senior Care communities became eligible to receive an ENERGY STAR score generated in Portfolio Manager, and those facilities that score a 75 or higher are now eligible to earn EPA's ENERGY STAR certification for superior energy performance. There are now 15 commercial building types eligible to receive an ENERGY STAR score in total. The Senior Care scoring methodology will be used for individual buildings and campuses of buildings that house and provide care and assistance for elderly residents.

The first Senior Care facilities to earn EPA's ENERGY STAR certification were honored at the 2011 Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) Conference and Expo in Orlando, FL, this April. Approximately 2,000 conference attendees gathered at this 3-day event where Clark Reed, Director of Healthcare Facilities Division for EPA's ENERGY STAR program, presented "Power Down to Power Up: ENERGY STAR Comes to Senior Living" and announced the first 32 ENERGY STAR certified senior care communities from Sunrise Senior Living and Horizon Bay Retirement Living.

Additional improvements to Portfolio Manager include changes made to the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) tracking section in the tool. This section has been re-named Green Power Purchases and allows for greater flexibility for tracking green power products. With six generation method options and three location options, Portfolio Manager is now able to more accurately compute your Avoided Emissions from green power purchases for improved tracking and measurement.

Learn more about these exciting changes.

Back to Top

---

Planning Summer Travel?

The hospitality industry spends more than $7.5 billion on energy each year. Reducing energy use by 10 percent across the industry could save $750 million, and help reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 6 million tons. Support these efforts by staying at ENERGY STAR certified hotels this summer. While traveling, remember to take the same energy-saving steps as you would at home. Turn off the lights and TV when leaving the hotel room, adjust the thermostat to an energy-saving setting so it doesn't cool an empty room, unplug electronics such as cell phone chargers and laptops when not in use, and re-use linens to save both water and energy. Help reduce your environmental impact with green traveling, and look for the ENERGY STAR to help protect the environment!

Visit the ENERGY STAR Buildings Registry to see which hotels near your destination have earned EPA's ENERGY STAR.

Back to Top

---

Top 25 Cities with ENERGY STAR Certified Buildings

EPA released its third-annual list of U.S. cities with the greatest number of buildings that earned EPA's ENERGY STAR in 2010. The list of 25 cities is led by Los Angeles, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City. The growth in ENERGY STAR certified buildings across the country has prevented greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the emissions from the energy use of nearly 1.3 million homes a year, while protecting people's health and saving more than $1.9 billion in energy costs.

EPA began releasing the list of the 25 cities with the most ENERGY STAR certified buildings in 2008. Los Angeles remains in first place for the third year in a row; the District of Columbia and San Francisco hold second and third respectively for the second year in a row; and Detroit and Sacramento are new to the top 10. New York City climbed five spots to claim fifth in the rankings, and California boasts more cities on EPA’s list than any other state in the country with a total of 2,635 ENERGY STAR certified buildings.

In 2010 alone, more than 6,200 commercial buildings earned the ENERGY STAR, an increase of nearly 60 percent compared to the previous year. Since EPA awarded the first ENERGY STAR to a building in 1999, more than 14,000 buildings across America have earned the ENERGY STAR.

To check out which cities made the list, visit EPA's List of the Top 25 Cities with the Most ENERGY STAR Certified Buildings in 2010 (168KB).

Back to Top