Mar 04 2010

Cracking Down on Kilowatts

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Americans love a good competitive challenge, from the Olympcs and Survivor on down to kiddie soccer games. So what better way to promote energy efficiency than to turn it into a contest?

The EPA’s Energy Star program has been doing just that since 2008, promoting fun but fierce competition among building owners for recognition as the top energy saver in their city.

The San Francisco Earth Hour 24x7 Energy Challenge, co-sponsored by PG&E, promises to “identify—and shower kudos upon—the most energy efficient buildings in the city, as well as the properties that make the greatest gains in performance” over the period March 2008 to February 2010. (Contestants are using PG&E’s automated benchmarking service to track their monthy energy use data.) The Kilowatt Cup for “superior achievement in energy management” is scheduled to be awarded this April.

Such contests are being held around the country by EPA in partnership with the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), nonprofit organizations and utilities like PG&E.

And for good reason: building energy use is low-hanging fruit in the fight against climate change.

“Roughly 40 percent of all humanity's greenhouse gas emissions from energy come from the building sector," said Evan Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "I would rank it one of the very first, if not the first thing to do."

In Seattle’s Kilowatt Crackdown last year, 53 buildings fought for recognition as greenest of them all. Together they saved enough energy to serve 1,000 homes for a year, according to the local BOMA president.

The Seattle contest, now in its second year, awards a Kilowatt Cup made of recycled materials, including nails, wing nuts and brass hinges. I guess it’s the thought that counts.

In 2008, 150 school buildings entered Louisville’s contest along with more than 30 commercial buildings. Said Mayor Jerry Abramson, “The Kilowatt Crackdown is designed to show businesses that thoughtful changes in a building’s energy use can make a big difference in the budget. Improving efficiency isn’t just the right thing to do for the environment; it’s often the right thing to do for the ledger sheet.”

And not to be outdone, Central Florida’s Kilowatt Crackdown Challenge, launched late last year, hopes to slash electricity use in major buildings 30 percent by 2012, reducing carbon emissions equal to those produced by more than 400,000 typical cars.

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