Competitors Team Up to Power Down in This Year’s Energy Star Battle of the Buildings

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the EPA Connect blog. See the original post here.

What if the key to driving down energy use in commercial buildings came down to one simple idea: Teamwork. We see the power of teamwork all around us. In sports, individuals come together to push each other, help each other, and find out how to work together for the maximum benefit. At work, we achieve more by working together than we could ever achieve alone. So why not take this concept into the realm of commercial building energy use?

This year, as part of the fifth-annual Energy Star Battle of the Buildings, competitors are harnessing the power of teamwork to reach new heights in energy performance. They’ll build on each other’s successes, learn from each other’s mistakes, and together, find new ways to unlock energy savings.

But how much can one building really save anyway? The answer is, a lot. The buildings we see in our communities every day—offices, schools, hospitals, stores—use nearly 20% of our nation’s energy. And it costs more than $100 billion annually to keep them running. But did you know that the average building wastes 30% of the energy it consumes? People leave lights on. Equipment breaks. Filters go unchanged for months, or years.

That’s about to change for the more than 100 teams and their respective buildings that are participating in this year’s competition. With a little competitive spirit and a lot of teamwork, these buildings are knocking down barriers and building momentum for positive change. See who’s competing near year, watch their progress, and share the excitement at www.energystar.gov/battleofthebuildings.

In the only coast-to-coast competition of its kind, dozens of different types of commercial buildings are facing off in this year’s Energy Star Battle of the Buildings. This year’s theme, “Team Challenge,” features teams of five or more buildings who will work together to reduce their collective energy use as much as possible over the course of a year. For example, “Team Staples” includes 17 Staples stores, while 15 Whole Foods stores will support each other as part of “Team Whole Foods Market.” In a county outside Wilmington, Del., 13 elementary schools will compete as part of a team, and they’re going up against their county’s five middle schools and six high schools. In Hillsborough Country, Fla., fire stations will team up to compete against libraries.

Competitors will measure and track their building’s monthly energy consumption using EPA’s Energy Star online energy measurement and tracking tool, Portfolio Manager. Over the course of the competition, building teams will work to optimize or upgrade equipment, retrofit lighting, and change occupants’ behaviors—all with help from Energy Star. The team that reduces its buildings’ average energy use the most, on a percentage basis, over a 12-month performance period, will be declared the winner. 700 buildings are also competing in a special water reduction category, and will work with EPA’s WaterSense program to apply best practices for commercial building water management.

EPA will maintain a website devoted to the competition, featuring a list of the competitors and their starting, midpoint, and final standings, a live Twitter feed where competitors will post updates on their progress and an interactive map of the competitor’s locations. Midpoint results will be posted in October, with the winner announced in April 2015.

Products, homes, and buildings that earn the Energy Star label prevent greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy efficiency requirements set by the U.S. EPA. From the first Energy Star qualified computer in 1992, the label can now be found on products in more than 70 different categories, with more than 4.5 billion sold over the past 20 years. Over 1.5 million new homes and 23,000 buildings have earned the Energy Star label.