ENERGY STAR Labeled Building Profile

Orange County, Mercy Drive
800 Mercy Drive
Orlando, FL 32808
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The Orange County, Mercy Drive building is a shared space with Orange County Environmental Protection Division (EPD), Headstart, and Marine Patrol, as well as the Department of Health's Women, Infants, and Children and Environmental Health divisions.  The building's age, which dates back to 1963, has made energy efficiency a challenge due to outdated design and materials such as the HVAC system and windows.  Nonetheless, with help from other tenants, the EPD office has achieved significant energy savings through a combination of technology and behavioral changes. 

 

Technology changes have played a significant role in achieving energy efficiency goals at the Orange County, Mercy Drive building.  To reduce lighting costs in the EPD office, motion sensors have been installed on the soda vending machines to turn off the machines' lights when no one is present, and exit signs were retrofitted with LED lights.  Energy use for the HVAC systems was reduced by replacing two A/C units with more efficient models and installing new programmable thermostats.  As the Orange County, Mercy Drive building is in large part an office building, there is high IT energy demand.  To address this sector of energy use, the EPD office has also activated power management features on all computers to automatically power down all workstations in the evening.  Also, ENERGY STAR qualified purchasing has been implemented, including a refrigerator in the Environmental Health office and photocopiers in the EPD office.  Additionally, the temperature on the water heater was reduced.

 

Behavioral changes have also been critical in improving energy efficiency at this facility.  The EPD office instituted an energy competition among the individual suites to foster new modes of reducing energy demand.  Employees turned off lights behind themselves, unplugged infrequently used equipment, and encouraged their colleagues to undertake similar actions.

 

In less than 2 years, EPD has made significant energy efficiency improvements, reaching a score of 91 in EPA's Portfolio Manager.  This gain represents an energy efficiency improvement of 20 percent.  The Orange County, Mercy Drive building as a whole achieved nearly 6 percent energy efficiency improvement to reach a score of 89 in EPA's Portfolio Manager.

Orange County's participation in the ENERGY STAR program has successfully reduced energy costs and also contributed to the County's greenhouse gas reduction goals.  The demonstrated success at the Orange County, Mercy Drive building serves as an example to be emulated by other county divisions.

Communications:

The ENERGY STAR efforts at the Orange County, Mercy Drive building are part of the Mayor's Orange To Green initiative working to "green" county government and reduce greenhouse gasses in accordance with the Mayor's Climate Change Plan.  The county's green efforts are promoted on the Orange To Green Web site, http://www.orangecountyfl.net/cms/AWARE/environment/orangetogreen/default.htm

Testimonial:

"ENERGY STAR has been a powerful tool for us to get a handle on our energy consumption. Portfolio Manager has acted as a catalyst to implement energy conservation measures, and it has provided the data tracking to demonstrate our successes. We will definitely be recommending this program to others."

-- Lori Cunniff, Manager, Environmental Protection Division

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The narrative information in this profile has been provided by Newman Properties LLC or a representative of this facility.

* Building owners and managers may periodically change. The owner/manager displayed reflects information known at the time the most recent label was earned.