Mayor Biskupski Recognizes Business Leadership Enhancing the Salt Lake City Economy and Cutting Pollution

“Head of the class.” “Leaders.” “Innovators.”  They’re called many things.  At Salt Lake City, we call the building owners that go above-and-beyond to cut emissions our “Mayor’s Skyline Challenge Winners”, and it is our pleasure to introduce you to them.

Launched in May 2014, the multi-year Mayor’s Skyline Challenge encourages building owners across Salt Lake City to proactively improve the energy performance of their buildings, reducing emissions and saving money.  On July 15, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski joined business and community leaders to honor the four winners of the second annual Mayor’s Skyline Challenge Awards for their leadership in Project Skyline over the past year.

170 South Main: Industry Leader

The team from Cushman Wakefield/Commerce has implemented a suite of diverse and effective energy management practices, making them a leader in the industry for reducing energy consumption.  Their energy-cutting strategies over the past year included: installing CO2 sensors to minimize air intake that requires heating or cooling; installing motion sensors for lighting; and adjusting HVAC settings for unoccupied spaces in the building. In addition to energy efficiency projects implemented in the building itself, building management created an energy efficiency competition between each floor of the building!

Intermountain Healthcare: Community Leadership

Since the Mayor’s Skyline Challenge launched in 2014, Intermountain Healthcare has been at the head of the class.  The company’s energy management practices include commissioning throughout the lifecycle of all its buildings, energy efficiency design standards for all design and construction projects, and training their facilities staff on energy management best practices.  IHC also benchmarks 70 of its facilities in the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR program’s free Portfolio Manager software.

Rocky Mountain Power: Energy Benchmarking Champion

Information is power, and Rocky Mountain Power just empowered Utah building owners in a big way! According to the ENERGY STAR program, the average commercial building wastes 30% of the energy it consumes through inefficient operations and technologies. Measuring, or benchmarking energy use, is a critical step in saving energy by empowering building and facility managers with information about their building’s energy performance. In Utah, the once arduous process of benchmarking is now streamlined and automated thanks to Rocky Mountain’s Resource Advisor, a fully-functioning whole-building automated data service developed in partnership with Salt Lake City.

Wingcrest: Most Improved Energy Performance

The Wingcrest office building is a 129,000 square foot office space offering a major carrot for prospective tenants – low energy costs.  The property managers have taken the Energy Star rated building to the next level by achieving huge energy savings on the property by completing in-depth energy retrofits. An HVAC control system was installed to monitor the boiling system, air handling units, VAV boxes, and roof exhaust fans. Wingcrest also optimized the combustion efficiency of the boiler, completed an LED-retrofitting project, and added occupancy sensor switches to high-impact areas such as common rooms and offices.  By the end of this top-to-bottom retrofit, Wingcrest saw a significant 30-point improvement in the building’s Energy Star score!

Project Skyline Team and Joan Card, Policy Advisory, EPA Region 8

The Mayor’s Skyline Challenge is part of Salt Lake City’s Project Skyline initiative, an effort to increase energy efficiency of large buildings across Salt Lake City to help achieve the City’s energy, climate, and air quality goals. The initiative is also supported by the City Energy Project, a national initiative of 10 major American cities to cut energy waste in large buildings and make American cities healthier and more prosperous. The third round of the Mayor’s Skyline Challenge will open in the fall of 2016.