Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge Announces Major Achievements and New Partners

August 20,2015

During the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge (Atlanta BBC) 2015 Expo and Building Efficiency Spotlight at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed provided details about new Atlanta BBC partnerships and major program accomplishments.  Approximately 150 local business leaders, elected officials, notable commercial real estate owners and property managers were in attendance.

“For the past three years, the Better Buildings Challenge has positioned Atlanta as a national leader in energy and water efficiency best practices.  Thanks to strong public-private partnerships, we continue to meet our energy and water use reduction goals in our commercial buildings and the country has taken notice. Over the coming years, we will strengthen our focus on benchmarking and implementation to ensure that the Atlanta portfolio exceeds the 2020 goals for the Challenge.” said Mayor Reed.

As part of a federal program managed by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Atlanta BBC has a goal to reduce energy and water consumption by at least 20 percent in participating buildings across Atlanta by 2020. Mayor  Reed announced Wednesday that the Atlanta BBC has already achieved 20% water savings with a 2010 baseline, and 11% energy savings with a 2009 baseline.  He added that the program now boasts 100 million square feet of committed building space in the City of Atlanta, which represents the largest commitment of any local partner at the national level with DOE. 

The impressive roster of new program partners includes the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta and MARTA, adding to some other significantly large existing portfolios such as Fulton County Schools and Emory University. A new dashboard was also unveiled at the event that displays the data gathered from the program in aggregate form.  More information can be found at www.abbcdata.com.

To help contribute to the City’s goals to reduce energy and water consumption by 2020, the 2015 Expo featured building efficiency spotlights with presentations by 9 industry experts on innovative new approaches to saving energy and water in commercial spaces.

The Atlanta BBC is made possible thanks to generous support from its sponsors, which this year include the program’s Presenting sponsor Georgia Power; Gold sponsors McKenney’s and TOTO USA; Silver sponsors Brogdon Group, Recycling Management Resources, ALB Energy Solutions, AGL Resources, The University Financing Foundation; and Bronze sponsors Bes-Tech, Llumar Window Film, and Mingledorff’s.