Spring 2009 ENERGY STAR News

EPA Recognizes Leaders in New Report

This year's ENERGY STAR Award winners are showcased in a new report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. The report, "Profiles in Leadership, 2009 ENERGY STAR Award Winners," highlights the 89 award-winning organizations that represent many sectors of the U.S. economy, including schools, hospitals, real estate, manufacturing, chemicals, and home building.

This year's Award winners were selected from more than 15,000 organizations that partner with EPA in the ENERGY STAR program. Through their pioneering efforts, the winners have made substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through greater energy efficiency. The winners include large and small organizations and those with long track records of success as well as those that are quickly excelling in their partnership.

In 2008, Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved $19 billion on their energy bills and avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from 29 million vehicles.

Other 2008 ENERGY STAR Program Highlights

• Despite downturn in the new housing market, more than 100,000 new homes were constructed to meet ENERGY STAR guidelines, bringing the total number of ENERGY STAR certified homes to nearly 940,000.
• More than 50,000 homeowners are saving energy, saving money, and enjoying greater comfort in their homes thanks to state and locally sponsored Home Performance with ENERGY STAR programs—a whole-home retrofit program with growing support across the country. In 2008, four new sponsors launched this program to bring the total to 27 sponsors. EPA also debuted the ENERGY STAR HVAC Quality Installation program to increase the number of properly installed HVAC systems.
• In 2008, EPA introduced the first Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR Tour, stopping in six cities around the country—including San Francisco, CA, Atlanta, GA, and Plano, TX to name a few—to challenge Americans to pledge to make energy-efficient choices at home that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the 2008 campaign reached 28 million people and generated nearly 500,000 pledges.
• Three new ENERGY STAR product specifications were developed.
  • New ENERGY STAR requirements for televisions went into effect, and for the first time they addressed "phantom energy use"—the use of energy by televisions even when not in use, but in standby/off mode.
  • EPA established a new specification for set-top boxes which included requirements for active-mode energy use and also introduced a new ENERGY STAR partnership for the service providers who bring the cable, satellite, and telecommunications boxes into people's homes.
  • The ENERGY STAR computer requirements were expanded by EPA to include thin clients and small-scale servers, made requirements for desktops and notebooks more rigorous, and raised the efficiency bar once again for qualified imaging equipment.
• In 2008, more than twice as many commercial buildings earned the ENERGY STAR compared to 2007. Overall, more than 6,200 buildings—representing over one billion square feet—and 45 plants have been recognized for top performance.
• Seventy-eight buildings achieved Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR, more than doubling the number of buildings that have received this distinction.
• More than 2,400 organizations and individuals—including more than 300 local governments—have joined EPA's ENERGY STAR Challenge to improve the efficiency of the nation's buildings by 10 percent or more as measured by EPA's energy performance rating system.

View the list of Award winners.

Read the Profiles in Leadership (5.58MB) — including a description of each winner's key accomplishments and the approaches used to increase energy efficiency.

EPA Recognizes Top 25 U.S. Cities with Most ENERGY STAR Buildings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a list of U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest number of energy-efficient buildings in 2008 that have earned EPA's ENERGY STAR.

Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle are among the top cities whose schools, hospitals, office buildings, courthouses, grocery stores, retail centers and auto assembly plants have earned the EPA's ENERGY STAR.

In 2008, more than 3,300 commercial buildings and manufacturing plants earned the ENERGY STAR—EPA's label for high efficiency—representing savings of more than $1 billion in utility bills and more than 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. For more than a decade, EPA has worked with businesses and organizations through this voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. The total number of ENERGY STAR qualified buildings and plants in America is now more than 6,200 with overall annual utility savings of more than $1.7 billion and the prevention of the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 2 million cars a year.

View a list of ENERGY STAR buildings and plants, including those in the 2008 Top 25 Cities.

Learn more about the ENERGY STAR for buildings and plants.

Four Pharmaceutical Plants Earn EPA'S ENERGY STAR

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is recognizing the first four pharmaceutical plants to earn the ENERGY STAR for performing in the top 25 percent in energy performance nationwide. Compared to similar pharmaceutical plants across the country, these facilities on average use nearly 35 percent less energy and together prevent the equivalent of 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

The following plants have earned the ENERGY STAR:

• Allergan — Waco, TX
• AstraZeneca — Worcester, MA
• AstraZeneca — Newark, DE and
• Schering-Plough — Cleveland, TN

EPA worked in partnership with pharmaceutical companies across the United States to develop the Energy Performance Indicator, which is available to all pharmaceutical companies and enables companies to benchmark their energy performance against others in the industry.

Learn more about ENERGY STAR's partnership with pharmaceutical facilities.