Building Owners and Managers to “Turn off the Lights” in Support of 2013 Earth Hour
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 21, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — March 20, 2013) The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International is encouraging its members to participate in the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s 2013 Earth Hour. WWF’s global initiative asks that individuals, businesses, organizations and governments turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour, from 8:30-9:30 pm local time on Saturday, March 23, 2013. The aim of Earth Hour is to visibly demonstrate global concern about climate change and a commitment to find solutions that minimize negative human impact on the Earth.
“As an energy efficiency marketplace leader, BOMA International is proud to continue to support Earth Hour,” commented BOMA International Chair Joe Markling, managing director of Strategic Accounts with CBRE. “BOMA members are committed to strong energy management practices and will be ‘turning off the lights’ during Earth Hour to demonstrate that commitment.”
BOMA International has been a leader in energy efficiency for years, launching the 7-Point Challenge in 2007, which asked members to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2012. The 7-Point Challenge was 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. BOMA has also developed educational programming that teaches industry practitioners no- and low-cost strategies for sustainability and energy efficiency.
The BOMA STARS initiative was launched in January 2011 to promote the importance of benchmarking energy consumption in commercial buildings through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Portfolio Manager and sharing that data with BOMA’s Master Account. This effort highlighted the effectiveness of the voluntary marketplace in reducing energy consumption without costly new mandates. Since its launch, more than 3,400 buildings representing 861 million square feet have benchmarked and shared their data with BOMA International.
BOMA published the industry’s first green lease guide, which includes enforceable lease language to ensure tenants comply with a building’s green priorities. BOMA also partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative to release the groundbreaking BOMA Energy Performance Contract (BEPC) model, which allows building owners to perform major energy retrofits to existing buildings by removing key barriers.
The EPA awarded BOMA International with the 2013 ENERGY STAR® Sustained Excellence Award in recognition of its continued leadership in protecting the environment through energy efficiency. First recognized with the Partner of the Year Award in 2007, BOMA is the only real estate association to receive this honor six times. BOMA was also the recipient of EPA’s Climate Protection Award in 2009, the agency’s highest recognition.
This is the fourth consecutive year that BOMA International has supported Earth Hour, which started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. A year later, Earth Hour became a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries and territories participating. Earth Hour 2012 took place in more than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories across all seven continents. Hundreds of millions of people switched their lights off for an hour. For more information, visit www.earthhour.org.
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About BOMA International
The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International is a federation of 93 BOMA U.S. associations, BOMA Canada and its 11 regional associations and 13 BOMA international affiliates. Founded in 1907, BOMA represents the owners and managers of all commercial property types, including nearly 10 billion square feet of U.S. office space that supports 3.7 million jobs and contributes $205 billion to the U.S. GDP. Its mission is to advance the interests of the entire commercial real estate industry through advocacy, education, research, standards and information. Find BOMA online at www.boma.org.
Contact
Laura Horsley
Director of Communications
(202) 326-6315
