Denver ranks 4th in U.S. in energy efficient buildings
136 metro-area Energy Star buildings save money and energy
CONTACT: Richard Mylott, 303-312-6654; Patty Crow,
303-312-6464
(Denver, Colorado – March 23, 2010) The
Denver
area is ranked 4th in the nation on a list of metropolitan
areas with the largest number of energy efficient buildings. The
list, released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
highlights buildings that earned EPA’s Energy Star in 2009.
The top three cities include Los Angeles,
Washington, D.C., and San
Francisco. The City of Fort Collins also
appears on the list, ranked at 24.
“Energy efficiency saves building owners money, reduces air
pollution and fights climate change,” said Patty Crow of
EPA’s Energy Star program in Denver. “Denver continues
to demonstrate that environmental and business performance go
hand-in-hand.”
Through 2009, Denver-area Energy Star commercial buildings include 136
buildings with more than 31 million square-feet of floor space.
Energy-efficiency measures taken at these buildings yielded more than
$29 million in utility bill savings in 2009. These measures also
reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the emissions from more
than 57,000 cars. EPA will continue to work with the City of
Denver, the Denver Metro Building Owners Management Association, and
other partners to bring Energy Star to even more facilities throughout
the metro area over the next several months.
"With the creation of Greenprint Denver, the City began requiring
municipal office buildings to reach Energy Star status to reduce utility
costs," Mayor John Hickenlooper said. "We are proud to see others
throughout Denver follow this example and
make the Mile High City a national leader for energy
efficient buildings. These efforts allow organizations to spend less on
utilities and more on promoting economic growth."
Continuing the impressive growth of the past several years, nearly 3,900
commercial buildings across the nation earned the Energy Star in 2009,
representing annual savings of more than $900 million in utility bills
and more than 4.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Since EPA awarded the first Energy Star to a building in 1999, nearly
9,000 buildings across America have earned the
Energy Star as of the end of 2009, representing more than a 40 percent
increase over last year’s total. Overall annual utility
savings have climbed to nearly $1.6 billion and greenhouse gas emissions
equal to the emissions of more than 1 million homes a year have been
prevented.
Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for 17 percent of
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
at a cost of over $100 billion per year. EPA awards the Energy
Star to commercial buildings that perform in the top 25 percent of
buildings nationwide compared to similar buildings. Thirteen types
of buildings can earn the Energy Star, including schools, hospitals,
office buildings, retail stores and supermarkets.
View a list of
the Top 25 Cities in 2009 with Energy Star labeled buildings
Access
EPA’s real-time registry of all Energy Star labeled buildings
1999-present
Learn
more about earning the Energy Star for commercial buildings
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