5 Groups Honored for Energy Efficiency in Salt Lake City

In May 2014, Salt Lake City launched a yearly competition - Project Skyline - that challenges building owners to proactively meet and exceed the energy-saving targets of the Mayor’s Sustainable Salt Lake Plan 2015 and reduce citywide building energy use by 15 percent by 2020.

The 2015 Award Winners are:

1. Energy Innovator Award: Basic Research, a distributor of cosmetic, fitness, and weight-loss products, undertook energy efficiency improvements for major building components such as lighting and HVAC systems and installed a 1.4 MW solar project.
2. Sustained Excellence Award: Fidelity Investments is pursuing LEED certification for 65 percent of its North American corporate real estate portfolio. Its Salt Lake City office has achieved LEED Silver certification under the existing buildings operation and management system. Projects such as the addition of LED lighting and lighting controls, along with rooftop PV panels, have helped to drive down energy use and boost the building’s ENERGY STAR score, raising it to 96 in 2014.
3. Most-Improved Energy Star Score Award: The private McGillis School increased energy efficiency with a successful retro-commissioning project. In 2014, the school reported an ENERGY STAR score of 97, up 17 points from 2013.
4. Energy Efficiency Leadership Award: Employees of Newmark Grubb ACRES, a real estate and property management company, participated in all of the Project Skyline workshops and presented at several of them, as well. Company leadership also participates on BOMA Utah’s Energy and Sustainability Committee and helped launch the BOMA Utah Kilowatt Crackdown.
5. Benchmarking Champion Award: Salt Lake School District, representing over 40 buildings, has a consistent track record of taking full advantage of benchmarking to monitor energy consumption across its portfolio. Not only are 72 percent of the district’s schools benchmarked, but they are also certified ENERGY STAR buildings. In addition, the district’s portfolio shows an overall trend toward improvement, with ENERGY STAR scores improving 18 percent across the all buildings.