OREANDA-NEWS. July 28, 2015. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Alliance recently recognized 18 high-achieving U.S. businesses for leading the way to more energy-efficient outdoor lighting. As participants of its Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) Campaign, the organizations honored have committed to installing high-efficiency lighting across more than 500M square feet of parking space and use a third less energy.

Among the winners are Arby’s Restaurant Group, Denver International Airport, USAA Real Estate, the University of Minnesota, and Zappos.com.

Building owners spend more than \\$16B annually to light their parking lots and garages, but by improving their outdoor lighting by at least 60%, American building owners could save more than \\$9B annually across 215B square feet of parking facilities. The LEEP Campaign is a program offering free guidance, recognition, and support to encourage facility owners interested in implementing energy-efficient lighting solutions in their parking facilities.

“It might only take one person to change a light bulb, but it took dedicated efforts by the many thoughtful leaders of LEEP award winners to demonstrate how much can be gained through advanced, cost-effective lighting technologies in parking lots and garages,” said Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, David Danielson. “These innovative solutions also enhance safety and improve working conditions for customers, tenants, and employees.”

Altogether, 2014 and 2015 LEEP award winners are saving nearly 30M kilowatt-hours (kWh) and \\$3M each year by upgrading to high efficiency exterior metal halide, fluorescent, and LED solutions that last two to five times longer than previously-used technologies, and by using controls to reduce energy use when parking facilities are not in use. Some LEEP award-winning sites have reduced their energy use by as much as 90 percent!

The LEEP Campaign is organized by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, the Green Parking Council, the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), and the International Parking Institute (IPI). The Better Buildings Alliance is the campaign’s technical advisor. To date, more than 140 U.S. businesses and organizations are participating in the campaign and planning or installing energy efficient lighting in their parking lots and garages.

As a cornerstone of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, the Better Buildings Alliance aims to make commercial, public, industrial, and residential buildings 20% more energy efficient over the next decade. Through Better Buildings, public and private sector organizations across the country are working together to share and replicate positive gains in energy efficiency and propel change and investment in energy efficiency.

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This entry was posted on July 25, 2015 at 10:00 am and is filed under Better Buildings Alliance, BOMA, Department of Energy, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Green Parking Council (GPC), IFMA, LEEP Campaign, Lighting, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.