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Denver ranks 4th in U.S. in energy-efficient buildings

Release Date: 03/23/2010
Contact Information: Richard Mylott, 303-312-6654; Patty Crow, 303-312-6464

136 metro-area Energy Star buildings save money and energy
(Denver, Colorado – March 23, 2010) The Denver area ranks 4^th 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 the Energy Star to even more facilities throughout the Denver-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," said Mayor John Hickenlooper.  "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:
http://energystar.gov/TopCities

Access EPA’s real-time registry of all Energy Star-labeled buildings 1999-present:
http://energystar.gov/buildinglist 

Learn more about earning the Energy Star for commercial buildings:
http://energystar.gov/labeledbuildings