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ENERGY STAR Program Recognizes Record Number of Energy-Efficient Building Designs

Release Date: 04/30/2009
Contact Information: Mary Simms, 415-947-4270, [email protected]

Latest commercial building design projects to be unveiled today in San Francisco, see details below

(San Francisco, Calif. – April 30, 2009) Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will unveil the latest group of commercial building design projects that have been recognized as Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR. Together with representatives from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), EPA will recognize 75 new commercial building design projects for their energy efficiency, representing a 60 percent increase in the number of qualifying projects over the last year.

“By designing buildings to be energy efficient, these architectural and engineering firms are leading the way in the fight against global warming,” said Deborah Jordan, the EPA’s Air Division director for the Pacific Southwest. “We congratulate this year’s Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR recipients for their commitment to energy reductions in the built environment.”

EPA’s Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR connects the energy design intent of a building with its operating performance, ensuring energy efficiency throughout the building’s life cycle. Projects that qualify for this designation are designed to create fewer greenhouse gas emissions and save money on energy bills over the lifetime of the building. Once built, this year’s 75 new projects are estimated to save nearly 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and more than $6 million in energy costs annually across more than 14 million square feet. On average, these projects are estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent, which meets AIA’s goal for a 50 percent CO2 reduction on newly constructed buildings by 2010.

An architecture firm can receive EPA’s Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR by comparing the project’s intended energy use against the energy use of comparable operating buildings by using EPA’s no-cost online tool, Target Finder. Once built, building owners are then able to benchmark the actual performance of completed projects using another online EPA tool, Portfolio Manager. In this way, they can verify that the building is operating as intended.

Since the program’s inception in 2004, nearly 170 building design projects submitted by 84 firms have achieved EPA’s Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR. These projects—totaling nearly 28 million square feet of space—were designed to prevent more than 180,000 metric tons of CO 2 emissions per year, a 46% reduction over average similar buildings, and save more than $12 million in annual energy costs.

ENERGY STAR was introduced by EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. In 2008, Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved about $19 billion on their energy bills while reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 29 million vehicles.

For more information on EPA’s Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR visit: www.energystar.gov/commercialbuildingdesign.

Link to AIA Press release: The American Institute of Architects and Mayor Newsom Partner to Select “San Francisco’s Greenest” - http://www.aia.org/press/releases/AIAB079710

The U.S. EPA will host a recognition ceremony today to highlight this latest group of commercial building design projects at 3:30pm. If you would like to attend, please email your request to [email protected] and include your name, media affiliation, and contact information in your request. Subject matter experts will also be on-hand and available for interviews throughout the day. The recognition ceremony will take place as a part of AIA’s 2009 National Convention and Design Expo, at San Francisco’s Moscone Center (Energy Star Gallery).
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