Tuesday, March 26, 2024

EPA Announces 2024 ENERGY STAR Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Energy Efficiency and a Clean Future

WASHINGTON – Today, March 26, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the winners of the 2024 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Awards. These 211 organizations, which represent the top ENERGY STAR program partners, are making significant contributions in support of the clean energy transition. They come from 38 states and localities, representing multiple economic sectors. The winners will be recognized at an event in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 25. 

“Public-private partnerships such as ENERGY STAR are essential to enabling us to meet the historic opportunity that the President’s Inflation Reduction Act provides,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I congratulate this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for their innovation and leadership, in delivering cost-effective energy efficient solutions that create jobs, protect the climate, and contribute to a healthier environment for everyone.”

Today’s awards recognize leaders among the thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including nearly 40% of the Fortune 500®—that partner with the EPA through the ENERGY STAR program. For every $1 the EPA spends to administer ENERGY STAR, these partners collectively add $230 of their own investment. The result is: millions of ENERGY STAR certified products, homes, apartments, buildings, and industrial plants across the nation; utility rebate programs reaching 95% of American households; 4 billion tons of greenhouse gas reductions; and $500 billion in cost savings. 

Among today’s ENERGY STAR award winners, 160 partners have demonstrated an ongoing, year after year commitment to energy efficiency. These award winners are being recognized through the program’s highest honor: ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award. 

Here are a few examples of how 2024 ENERGY STAR Award Winners are taking action:

•    (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) A.O. Smith, a manufacturer of water heating and water treatment products, launched a new website design that highlights ENERGY STAR products for homeowner and trade professional audiences and features a heat pump water heater product page banner to promote the latest innovations in energy efficiency.  
•    (Charlotte, North Carolina) Atrium Health, a healthcare organization, significantly improved energy efficiency and increased the average ENERGY STAR score of its portfolio of hospitals, medical office buildings and more by almost 5% in 2023. 
•    (Richfield, Minnesota), Best Buy Co. Inc., a seller of electronics and appliances, demonstrated its dedication to ENERGY STAR by holistically using ENERGY STAR as a key strategy to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and drive consumer adoption of efficient products by stocking more than 4,150 different models of ENERGY STAR certified products across stores nationwide. 
•    (Irvine, California) Bosch Home Appliances, a residential kitchen and laundry appliances manufacturer, revamped its offerings of highly efficient appliances to meet new ENERGY STAR requirements and significantly enhanced its marketing and media focus on energy efficiency and ENERGY STAR, earning billions of impressions. 
•    (Southfield, Michigan) Grede Holdings, a manufacturer of ductile, gray and specialty iron castings, built a comprehensive industrial energy program using ENERGY STAR energy management guidance and achieved a 5% reduction in energy intensity over 2022. 
•    (Anaheim, California) Greenlite, a manufacturer of lighting products, expanded its offerings through one utility implementer’s programs by over 15 million ENERGY STAR certified bulbs, resulting in over $60 million in energy savings for consumers.  
•    (Malibu, California) Green Econome, an energy-efficiency consulting and construction firm, helped to benchmark more than 1,200 of its clients’ properties in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®.  
•    (Prescott, Arizona) Mandalay Homes, a regional home builder, constructed nearly 150 ENERGY STAR certified homes in 2023, for a total of over 1,400 since joining the program in 2013, and launched a maintenance program to help new and re-sale buyers ensure that their ENERGY STAR certified homes continue to perform well.  
•    (Greenbelt, Maryland) National Asphalt Pavement Association, a trade association representing asphalt mixture producers and paving contractors, increased the visibility of the ENERGY STAR program and championed energy efficiency as key strategies to reduce the embodied carbon of the industry’s products at industry events and in trade press. 
•    (Boston, Massachusetts) Rockhill Management LLC, a property management company, achieved ENERGY STAR Certification for 17 properties, and demonstrated innovation through its Property Playoff campaign, a friendly competition that trained 100% of property managers on how to benchmark in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and led to a 2% overall energy reduction across its portfolio from September to November.
•    (Streetsboro, Ohio) Softlite Windows & Doors, a window and door manufacturer, demonstrated its strong support of ENERGY STAR by offering 156 product lines, with 100% having an ENERGY STAR certified option, while actively improving the current product lines to meet new, more stringent ENERGY STAR criteria.
•    (Irving, Texas) U.S. EcoLogic, a home energy rating company, certified more than 3,600 homes as ENERGY STAR in 2023, for a total of nearly 60,000 since 2002, and developed new software to enhance its ENERGY STAR certification process with exception reporting to identify data anomalies, reporting archives, photos, timestamps, and geolocations.
•    (Denver, Colorado) Xcel Energy-Colorado, an electric utility and natural gas company, supported the construction of more than 1,800 ENERGY STAR certified homes and hosted meetings with the community, builders, and energy rating companies to answer questions about rebuilding, energy efficiency and available incentives. 

Read more about the ENERGY STAR Awards and Award Winners’ achievements.

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations rely on their partnership with the EPA to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. Please see more background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts.



from EPA News Releases https://ift.tt/GM0wIOC