Championing Energy Efficient Buildings

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The DowntownDC BID accepted the White House Better Buildings Challenge (BBC) in partnership with the District of Columbia this month, leading the way to reduce energy consumption in BID-based buildings by a minimum of 20% by 2020.

The BBC is the public-private partnership component of President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative launched last February. Its goal: catalyze private sector investment in commercial and industrial building energy upgrades. The strategy: make the nation’s buildings 20% more efficient by the end of the decade. This will reduce energy costs for American businesses and garner commitments from community leaders to support innovative ideas with action, share successes and create solutions for others to follow.

“The BID is excited to be a featured part of Mayor Vincent Gray’s commitment to this Challenge,” said Richard H. Bradley, the DowntownDC BID’s executive director. “We’re using our DowntownDC ecoDistrict framework to support the Mayor’s goal of making Washington DC the most sustainable city in the country. We are recruiting local properties and portfolios to participate in the BBC and identifying partners with resources and services to assist them in achieving the reduction goal.”

Ten companies within the BID area with a large footprint in DC and the DowntownDC ecoDistrict have made national commitments to participate in the BBC. They are: CBRE, Forest City Enterprises, HEI Hotels and Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, Jones Lang LaSalle, RREEF Real Estate, Shorenstein Properties, TIAA-CREF, Transwestern, and USAA Real Estate. In addition, the AFL-CIO has pledged to retrofit its national headquarters at 815 16th Street. 

Both the BID and the District will embrace a multi-pronged action plan to reduce energy consumption in office, hotel, retail, government, residential, civic and cultural institution spaces in the downtown core. In fact, as part of the BBC, the BID will host a 2012 Building Energy Summit on February 16, 2012. The Summit will provide businesses with information and resources they need to help make the 2020 goal a reality. Stay tuned.

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