Six Schools in Northeast Ohio Compete in the 2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition
Posted on 5/9/2011
(Richfield, Ohio) May 2, 2011 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) kicked off its ENERGY STAR National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings this week. Nationally, 245 buildings are participating in the competition with the goal of improving the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and protecting the environment.
Twelve buildings from Ohio will be competing. Of these, six are K-12 schools, all in Northeast Ohio. These include EHOVE Career Center, Polaris Career Center, Twinsburg City School District's Twinsburg High School, and three buildings from the Hudson City School District: East Woods Elementary, Evamere Elementary and Hudson Middle School.
"These buildings have taken the initiative towards increased energy conservation by partnering with CCG. It is a great opportunity to show how utilizing performance based contracting can help schools reduce energy consumption," said Brian Wagner, President of CCG . "We are excited to help them reduce their energy consumption and look forward to seeing how our customers' buildings measure up against other buildings across the nation."
The 2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition includes 245 teams from 26 different types of commercial buildings - such as retail stores, schools, hotels, and museums - that 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.
As the 2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition spokesperson, actor John Corbett will provide energy saving tips and encouragement through videos posted on the competition website. The 2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition spokesperson is provided by jcpenney, EPA's co-sponsor for these events. The competition website also features a flash media wall with photos of all of the competitors, a live Twitter feed, and a Competitor Forum for exchanging ideas and strategies.
"Buildings of all shapes and sizes are saving money and energy with help from EPA and ENERGY STAR," said Jean Lupinacci, Director of EPA's ENERGY STAR Commercial Buildings Program. "We applaud the contestants of EPA's ENERGY STAR National Building Competition for taking action to protect the environment and save energy in the buildings where we work, play and learn."
Competitors will measure and track their building's monthly energy consumption using EPA's ENERGY STAR online energy tracking tool, Portfolio Manager; make improvements to their building's energy performance; and share their progress. Of the initial pool of competitors, a small group of buildings will be selected as finalists in July. Among the finalists, the building that demonstrates the greatest percentage-based reduction in energy use intensity will be recognized as the winner on November 2, 2011.
According to EPA, energy use in commercial buildings accounts for nearly 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and energy use at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. On average, 30 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted.Thousands of businesses and organizations work with EPA's ENERGY STAR program and are saving billions of dollars and preventing millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering our atmosphere each year.
Watch the battle unfold: www.energystar.gov/BattleOfTheBuildings
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