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Benaroya’s Park Place Building Earns EPA Energy Efficiency Award

Release Date: 11/4/2004
Contact Information: Robert Fallis
fallis.robert@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-8293

November 4, 2004


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today presented the Benaroya Companies with the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Award for company’s efforts to make its Park Place Building in Seattle more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Fittingly, the EPA maintains its regional headquarters in the building.

The Park Place Building uses about 40 percent less energy and thus costs about 40 percent less to heat, cool, and light than the average office building. To date, over 1,700 of the nation's most energy efficient buildings have earned EPA's ENERGY STAR® designation for superior energy performance.

In 2002 alone, ENERGY STAR® qualifying buildings spent $130 million less in energy bills and reduced carbon dioxide by 2.6 billion pounds compared to average buildings. Among the top performing buildings are 871 office properties; 383 public schools and 471 hospitals, hotels and supermarkets.

In addition, there is mounting evidence that many of these energy-efficiency upgrades will produce improvements in the indoor environment of their buildings as well. These in turn have been shown to improve the health and productivity of building occupants and to also provide other benefits.

Andrea Benvenuto, Chief Engineer for the Benaroya Companies, and Glenn Wallace a Professional Engineer evaluated the building for its energy consumption, climate, square footage, building use, and indoor air quality, a potential concern in inefficient buildings. When they compared their finding to the criteria in the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Buildings program, they found that the building’s efficiency placed it in the top 25 percent when compared to the other office buildings in the country..

“We are excited to provide this award to The Park Place Building, and we’re pleased to be tenants of an ENERGY STAR® building,” said Ron Kreizenbeck, EPA’s Regional Administrator in Seattle. “The Benaroya Companies should be proud that through their energy conservation efforts they’ve been able to reach this level of efficiency.”

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Related Links:

Energy Star (www.energystar.gov/)
Energy Star Business Improvement (www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=business.bus_index)
The Benaroya Companies (www.benaroya.com/)

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