Building Owners and Managers Help “Mobilize the Earth” on Earth Day

BOMA San Francisco:

The Earth Day theme this year is “Mobilize the Earth” and the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and BOMA San Francisco are helping to mobilize the commercial real estate industry by encouraging its members to benchmark their buildings’ energy performance.

In January 2011, BOMA International launched BOMA STARS, an initiative that promotes the importance of benchmarking energy consumption in commercial buildings through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager and sharing that data with BOMA’s Master Account. To date, more than 3,000 facilities, representing more than 830 million sq. ft. of space, have shared their energy management data with BOMA. 

BOMA STARS is part of BOMA’s larger Market Transformation Energy Plan, also known as the 7-Point Challenge, which calls on BOMA members and the commercial real estate industry to reduce the use of natural resources, non-renewable energy sources and waste production. Since its introduction in 2007, the 7-Point Challenge has been widely embraced throughout the marketplace, with endorsements from more than 130 member companies and BOMA local associations, representing more than three billion sq. ft. of office space.

Almost 60 percent of properties that benchmarked and shared data with BOMA have an ENERGY STAR rating of 75 or greater; this represents 70 percent of the total square footage of benchmarked buildings. Since baseline, BOMA-benchmarked buildings have shown greenhouse gas emission reductions equaling the carbon dioxide emissions from 171,272 passenger vehicles or from 2,031,364 barrels of oil consumed.

This past March, BOMA International received its fifth ENERGY STAR award and in 2009 BOMA was honored with the EPA’s Climate Protection Award, the agency’s highest honor. 

Resources:

• For more information about BOMA’s green initiatives, visit BOMA’s Ever-Green site;
• For more information on BOMA San Francisco's green initiatives, please visit our Energy & Environment Committee website.