The Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh is one of 5 winners of the 2016 Dominion, PA Environmental Council Western PA Environmental Awards.
Award winners will be honored at a special awards ceremony on May 26 at the Westin Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh.
Green Building Alliance is a nonprofit organization that inspires the creation of healthy, high-performing places.
In Pittsburgh, 47 percent of greenhouse gas emissions originate from commercial buildings and 30 percent of the energy used by the average commercial building is wasted.
GBA created the Pittsburgh 2030 District, a nationally recognized and locally-driven, voluntary community of buildings working in collaboration towards inspirational, but measurable performance goals.
Existing buildings participating in the Pittsburgh 2030 District are committed to 50 percent reductions in energy use, water consumption, and transportation- related emissions by 2030.
The Pittsburgh 2030 District aims to create a stronger downtown by helping property owners work collaboratively together and with a set of stated common goals to improve indoor air quality, reduce resources used, increase asset value, and create solid returns on investment.
Through this program, Pittsburgh’s existing buildings are able to voluntarily join the green building conversation in a way that recognizes past efforts to create efficient properties while striving towards the future with ongoing peer-to-peer education that is driving the region’s economic competitiveness today, in the year 2030, and beyond.
Energy demand reduction targets for new construction and major renovations are more aggressive, with a goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. District partners make a simple pledge – commit to the goals of The 2030 Challenge and work together with other Pittsburgh 2030 District property, community, and resource partners to reach those targets.
In just three years, GBA launched and has fostered Pittsburgh’s District to be the largest 2030 District in the world to date.
Through December 2014, the Pittsburgh 2030 District included 436 buildings with over 65.5 million square feet of real estate in Downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland–all actively working towards 50 percent reductions in energy consumption, water use, and transportation emissions by the year 2030, with new construction reaching carbon neutrality by 2030.
As a testament to the ongoing growth of the District, at the end of 2015 the total square footage increased to 67.6 million square feet.
For 2015, 380 properties (87 percent of those participating) saved 503,295,273 kBtu’s, or the equivalent energy use of 5,562 homes.
Additionally, 96 downtown buildings (representing 80 percent of downtown’s square footage) achieved a 10 percent reduction in water use, putting Downtown Pittsburgh at its 2015 goal, representing almost 53 million gallons of water—or 362 homes’ annual water usage.
Information on training and other initiatives is available on the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh website. Click Here to sign up for regular updates from the Alliance.
For more information on programs, initiatives and special events, visit the PA Environmental Council website, visit the PEC Blog, follow PEC on Twitter or Like PEC on Facebook. Click Here to receive regular updates from PEC.
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