July 1, 2010- Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Chicago Department of Environment, in collaboration with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA, announced the winners of Chicago’s first Green Office Challenge, a friendly competition among downtown Chicago businesses and property managers to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Office Challenge presented an opportunity for business to gain a competitive advantage in green innovations and to cut costs, while saving money and resources. “We set these goals to make sure that our city does its part to help reduce the impacts of global climate change,” said Mayor Daley.
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Rest of content hereAlmost 150 property managers and tenant companies participated in the Challenge, which set goals for participants over the course of one year. Participating tenants were evaluated through a “Green Office Scorecard” based on 50 green strategies that related to five key office-related sectors: waste, energy, transportation, outreach and property manager engagement. Property managers utilized the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and other tools to demonstrate their achievement in four key sectors: energy, water, and waste, as well as tenant engagement.
Some of the most noteworthy achievements of this year’s Challenge include:
- a reduction of more than 70 million kilowatt-hours of electricity – equivalent to the energy used by 45,000 homes or using 125,000 barrels of oil
- keeping more than 54,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – equal to removing more than 10,000 cars off Chicago streets
- a reduction of more than 5% in water usage
- diversion of more than 1,200 tons of materials from landfills
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