The Energy Department recognized the city of Fort Worth, Texas, for its leadership in advancing energy efficiency. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, Fort Worth has achieved 8 percent energy savings across 19 million square feet of public and private sector buildings since 2009. The city is on-track to meet a 10-year goal to improve energy use by 20 percent by 2020.
Fort Worth launched its own citywide Better Buildings Challenge, which encourages city businesses and communities to save energy in their buildings. The Fort Worth Better Buildings Challenge also built a network of partners and allies including local energy and water utilities.
As one example of its efforts, the city invested $35 million in energy-saving upgrades at the Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility, reducing electricity consumption by 39 percent and cutting electricity bills by $2.5 million each year. The plant’s anaerobic digester captures and recycles methane gas to generate 75 percent of the facility’s needed electricity onsite; HVAC improvements and lighting retrofits also contribute to the plant’s energy savings. The city is planning additional improvements, with the goal of making the Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility a zero energy facility.
