About

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Overview

The Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge (ABBC) was launched in June 2011 at the Clinton Global Initiative as one of the inaugural projects of the Dept. of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge program. Initially, Atlanta competed among six other cities in the challenge: Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Washington, DC, Sacramento and Houston. That list has now grown to include many others. Initiated by Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office of Sustainability and in support of the City’s Power to Change sustainability plan, the ABBC is a nation-leading public-private initiative. The goal of the ABBC is to reduce energy and water consumption by at least 20% in participating buildings across Atlanta by 2020. [/pullquote_right]The ABBC utilizes substantive energy and water efficiency (collectively “EE”) upgrades of municipal, university, hospital, and commercial buildings as a means of freeing up business capital for more productive uses, stimulating growth for communities, fostering new business opportunities, and creating more sustainable footprints.

Atlanta currently leads the nation in the amount of square footage committed to the program, at just over 111 million square feet, representing over 590 participating buildings.

What does an organization commit to?

By joining the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge, building owners and managers pledge to save energy and water 20% by 2020 in their selected buildings. The Atlanta BBC team works with the owners of these buildings to provide incentives such as free building assessments, education and training courses, access to project financing opportunities and more. There are no fees associated with participation in the Atlanta BBC, nor are there third party certification requirements (LEED, Energy Star, etc.)

Building Participants commit to:

  1. Publicly pledge a building-specific energy savings goal and develop a plan and schedule
  2. Identify a building energy savings project (via the building assessment provided by the Atlanta BBC program) and implement the project
  3. Share utility data with the US Department of Energy, as well as information about the tools, technologies, and processes they used implement projects and reach their pledge goal

What will the Atlanta BBC provide?

In accordance with the Department of Energy Better Buildings Challenge, the Atlanta BBC will commit to:

  1. Provide energy efficiency implementation technical assistance to help Participants identify opportunities and achieve their pledge
  2. Establish a marketplace of energy efficiency stakeholders such as government, industry, service providers, financial institutions, and technology resources in order to transform the market and realize the full economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency projects
  3. Publicly recognize Partners and Participants for their progress in achieving milestones and reaching goals through various marketing and PR initiatives
  4. Provide educational resources for building owners, managers and operators