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Kilowatt Crackdown Winners Announced

A dozen Puget Sound-area office buildings won awards today in the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Seattle King County’s 2011 Kilowatt Crackdown competition, which was sponsored by Seattle City Light, Puget Sound Energy, Tacoma Power, Snohomish PUD and the BetterBricks program of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

The competition honors buildings that have achieved a superior level of energy efficiency. Winners were chosen from among 71 competing properties, representing over 21 million square feet of the Puget Sound office market. Commercial properties in 17 cities across the Puget Sound participated.

“In commercial buildings, the potential energy savings is tremendous, and this event is helping the market realize what is possible,” City Light Conservation Resources Director Glenn Atwood said.

The Kilowatt Crackdown challenges property managers and building owners to demonstrate their leadership in energy efficient building operations in order to identify the most energy efficient buildings in the market and the properties making the greatest gains in performance. Participants assess their building’s energy performance, calculate their ENERGY STAR® rating and work to improve that score over a two-year period.

“The Kilowatt Crackdown inserts energy efficiency practices further into best practices for real estate management,” said Rod Kauffman, president of BOMA Seattle King County. “Each year the competition gains more and more participation from our members, and we are poised to successfully benchmark and reduce energy consumption in 30 percent of the Puget Sound’s entire office market in 2012.”

The winners are:

Highest Performing Large Building (over 100,000 square feet)

  • First place: Federal Office Building, U.S. General Services Administration
  • Second place: Second and Seneca, managed by Tishman Speyer
  • Third place (tie): Symetra Financial Center, managed by CBRE
  • Third place (tie): Westlake Terry West, managed by CBRE

Highest Performing Small Building (40,000 – 100,000 square feet)

  • First place: One Newport, managed by Bentall Kennedy
  • Second place: Building 2000, U.S. Navy
  • Third place: Quad I-5 A, managed by Kidder Matthews

Most Improved Performance

  • First place: FAA Building, managed by Unico
  • Second place: 110 Atrium Place, managed by CBRE
  • Third place: PSE Building, managed by Bentall Kennedy

The Climate Leader Award, recognizing the building that made significant strides in tracking and managing their carbon footprint, as measured by the City of Seattle’s Carbon Footprint calculator, was awarded to the 4th & Madison building, managed by Hines.

The Grand Prize Winner, Wright, Runstad & Company, was selected by jury and awarded the Kilowatt Cup, a unique sculpture made entirely of recycled materials and created by local artist Brian Mock.

In addition to the 12 winners, additional properties qualified for the ENERGY STAR® label by rating in the top 25 percent of energy efficient buildings nationwide. The average ENERGY STAR rating among competing buildings went from 71 (Dec. 2009) to 75 (Dec. 2010). Commercial buildings are rated based on a normalized comparison of energy use with similar types of buildings.http://kilowattcrackdown.betterbricks.com/.

“Compared to the national average ENERGY STAR rating of 50, the Crackdown participants vastly outperformed much of the nation’s building stock,” said Jack Davis, Kilowatt Crackdown project manager for NEEA’s BetterBricks initiative. “This is a wonderful testament to the commitment to sustainability by Northwest building owners and managers.”

Participants, who were required to be BOMA members, set up an account with the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and input monthly energy records from December 2009 through December 2010. This data was used to generate benchmarking scores for each building that evaluated energy performance. The nationwide ENERGY STAR rating system accounts for weather, building location, use and operating characteristics; a score of 75 or higher on the 100-point scale qualifies a property for the ENERGY STAR label.

Participants received an unbiased ranking of their building’s energy efficiency with a private report detailing their overall market ranking. Most importantly, property owners now have greater insight into their operations, and access to resources to reduce energy consumption and lower operating costs.

For more information on the Kilowatt Crackdown, visit