{"id":16467,"date":"2014-05-16T13:12:19","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T19:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=16467"},"modified":"2014-05-16T13:12:19","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T19:12:19","slug":"better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Better Buildings Challenge: Harnessing Competition to Save Energy [Infographic]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2011\/07\/energy-efficiency-lighting\/\">Energy efficiency<\/a> ain&#8217;t sexy: I&#8217;ve uttered this phrase more times than I care to count. I found out just how unsexy earlier this week as I culled through a year&#8217;s worth of electricity, gas, and water bills for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.towergrovechurch.org\/\">St. John&#8217;s Episcopal Church<\/a> (where I&#8217;m a member). \u00a0Yeah, not the most exciting of tasks, but an important one for beginning to examine the church&#8217;s climate and <a href=\"http:\/\/eatdrinkbetter.com\/2009\/07\/04\/how-food-choices-affect-your-water-footprint\/\">water footprints<\/a>&#8230; and for putting together our entry into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.energystar.gov\/buildings\/about-us\/how-can-we-help-you\/communicate\/energy-star-communications-toolkit\/motivate-competition-6\">Energy Star&#8217;s Battle of the Buildings<\/a>.\u00a0<span style=\"color: #222222;\">This particular competition is just one of several launched by the Obama administration; the biggest of the bunch is the Department of Energy\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www4.eere.energy.gov\/challenge\/home\">Better Buildings Challenge<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Never heard of it? That&#8217;s not surprising if you don&#8217;t work in the field of commercial building management\/maintenance (or if you don&#8217;t contribute to such efforts for an organization to which you belong). But it&#8217;s one thing you can point out to those friends who claim &#8220;the Obama administration&#8217;s done nothing for the environment.&#8221; Each year, building managers enter data on their building&#8217;s energy, and attempt to improve it over the course of the following year. The goal: improve energy efficiency in these buildings by 20% over a ten-year period. Those who succeed get recognized for their success&#8230; and likely save their companies or organizations a sizeable chunk of money.<\/p>\n<p>How sizeable? Take a look at the infographic below for some details; click on it if you need a bigger version. Participating in the Better Buildings Challenge? Tell us about your experience&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2014\/05\/doe-better-buildings-challenge-infographic-e1400609783859.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16490\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2014\/05\/doe-better-buildings-challenge-infographic-e1400609783859.jpg\" alt=\"doe better buildings challenge infographic\" \/><\/a> <strong>Graphic source:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www4.eere.energy.gov\/challenge\/sites\/default\/files\/uploaded-files\/progress-data-graphic-may2014.jpg\">US Department of Energy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Energy&#8217;s Better Buildings Challenge has now run for 3 years. Here are some results we&#8217;re already seeing from this successful program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":16469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13],"tags":[6446,2476,169,156,2937],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Better Buildings Challenge: The Savings So Far [Infographic]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Department of Energy&#039;s Better Buildings Challenge has now run for 3 years. Here are some results we&#039;re already seeing from this successful program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Better Buildings Challenge: The Savings So Far [Infographic]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Energy&#039;s Better Buildings Challenge has now run for 3 years. Here are some results we&#039;re already seeing from this successful program.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-16T19:12:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/better-buildings-challenge-featured.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"The Better Buildings Challenge: Harnessing Competition to Save Energy [Infographic]\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-16T19:12:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-16T19:12:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"better buildings challenge\",\"competition\",\"Department of Energy\",\"energy efficiency\",\"obama administration\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\",\"Sustainability\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/better-buildings-challenge-harnessing-competition-save-energy-infographic\/\",\"name\":\"The Better Buildings Challenge: The Savings So Far [Infographic]\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-16T19:12:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-16T19:12:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge has now run for 3 years. 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