How are Philly’s buildings faring with energy use?

Just like we hinted in our recap of what Philly’s doing to prep for climate change, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability (MOS) released results of Philly’s Energy benchmarking program yesterday.

The Year Two benchmarking results are available online to download.

Don’t feel like reading the whole thing?

Highlights of the 2014 Philly Building Energy Benchmarking Report include:

• Facilities performed above national average
• …but energy efficiency in commercial buildings continues to be a ‘great opportunity’ to save Philadelphia money and city’s carbon footprint. (i.e. they’re slacking compared to what they could do.)
• 58: Average ENERGY STAR score (8 points higher than the national average)
• 1900 buildings participated for over 270 MILLION square feet.
• Majority of buildings over 50,000 sq feet are office and K-12 schools.
• “Universities and hospitals represent nearly half of the carbon emissions represented in the portfolio of properties reported.”

Next Steps for Philly Energy Benchmarking

Fresh off of this report, MOS is debuting the Energy Reduction Race for building veterans of this benchmarking program. Challenging participants of facilities to reduce energy use by 5% by September 2014, the city will give winners ‘cash prizes’ of $5000 based off of greatest total energy reduction, greatest energy reduction by square footage (weather-normalized Site EUI), and greatest increase in ENERGY STAR score. Regardless of their progress, all buildings are ‘winners’ and will receive free training for staff to meet their 5% targets.

However, don’t get too psyched about the $5,000/building: they’re pretty much expected to improve energy efficiency in their buildings with the cash.

Is your building interested? Enter by Halloween 2014. 

Readers, what do you think is interesting from the report?

Photo: MOS

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher