PHILADELPHIA – Mayor Jim Kenney today announced the winners of the year-long Energy Reduction Race, a citywide competition to save energy in nearly forty of Philadelphia’s largest buildings.
Twelve buildings met the Race’s ambitious five percent reduction target, and overall winners were selected in three categories. The winning buildings are the Iroko Pharmacaeutics Building at 150 Rouse Boulevard (at The Navy Yard), Two Logan Square, and the Comcast Center at 1701 JFK Boulevard.
“The Energy Reduction Race is an example of how competition spurs action, and you can see that impact in the results of this program,” said Mayor Kenney. “The Race benefits not just the individual participants but the city as a whole, and we applaud these buildings for their commitment to sustainability.”
The Energy Reduction Race was organized by the Office of Sustainability in partnership with the Delaware Valley Green Building Council (DVGBC) and City Energy Project (CEP), a philanthropically-funded initiative to improve energy performance in buildings across ten U.S. cities, including Philadelphia.
The winning buildings each received $5,000 stipends – contributed by DVGBC and CEP – toward further energy efficiency work in their buildings. All participants in the Race received free one-day building operator training. More details on the competition are available at www.phillybuildingbenchmarking.com.
Laura A. Masapollo with the Brandywine Realty Trust, the property manager for Two Logan Square, said of the Energy Reduction Race: “It’s a real win-win when you can use measures to reduce consumption and save resources and still effectively and efficiently deliver required services to your tenants.”
Liberty Property Trust, winner in two categories, sees the Race as just the beginning: “We will continue to focus on energy efficiency in all of our buildings – it is a core part of Liberty’s commitment to deliver sustainable, high-performing buildings for our tenants,” said Billy Grayson, Director of Sustainability for Liberty.
The Energy Reduction Race builds on the success of Philadelphia’ s commercial energy benchmarking and disclosure program, which helps building owners understand their energy usage and compare their properties’ performance to their peers around the City of Philadelphia and nationwide. The Office of Sustainability has also released a new report on the benchmarking program, which is available at www.phila.gov/benchmarking.
“Through the benchmarking program, our office has helped building owners recognize opportunities for energy savings and connect those owners to utility programs that make those upgrades more affordable,“ said Christine Knapp, Director of Sustainability for the City of Philadelphia. “Benchmarking also provides us with building-level data we can use to help us plan the next set of sustainability goals for Philadelphia.”
The energy benchmarking program and Energy Reduction Race both contribute the Office of Sustainability’s goals to help building owners improve facility performance to lower energy usage, reduce carbon footprints, and save money. The initiatives are part of Greenworks Philadelphia, the city’s comprehensive sustainability plan. The Office of Sustainability will be releasing an updated Greenworks framework later in 2016.