April 23, 2008

As part of it's spring 2008 focus on energy and the environment, Meridian partnered with the Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and United Technologies to hold the "20-Now": Financing Green Buildings Action Forum.

The event was designed to promote global and national best practices in financing energy efficiency projects to achieve zero net emission buildings. The audience included over one hundred regional and national building owners, developers, and financial institutions who have expressed an interest and commitment to energy efficiency in their work. Panelists such as Herve Houdre, General Manager of the prestigious and "green" Willard Hotel, described the great strides that have been taken in reducing energy usage in Washington, while emphasizing that much work remains to be done. Energy usage in buildings, particularly old buildings, is one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. This conference aimed to find collaborative solutions to develop better standards to create a healthier world.

The Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington (EEPGW) is a USD500 million project launched in October of 2007 to promote financing solutions, regulatory reform and technology innovations that will encourage building developers, owners, and managers to invest in retrofitting their buildings to ad­dress climate change. Energy efficient buildings represent a significant opportunity to reduce a city's greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time reducing costs.

The EEPGW has an initial goal of identifying 20 large commercial or public buildings (average 750,000 sq ft) for energy efficiency retrofits...now! Using the partnership model, these retrofits pay for themselves over several years through the resulting cost savings on energy bills.

The EEPGW is an initiative of Virginia Tech in partnership with energy efficiency financier, Hannon Arm­strong, who pays for the retrofits and Pepco Energy Services, who provides energy audits, identify technology solutions and materials, and perform retrofits. (www.eep.ncr.vt.edu)

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, led by United Technologies and Lafarge, launched an Energy Efficient Buildings project to review best practices from around the world and is now coming to Washington DC to share the lessons learned with area leaders and construction sector practitio­ners. (www.wbcsd.org)