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Aug 30

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Salt Lake City Passes Ordinance to Reduce Air Pollution from Buildings by Improving Energy Use

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 30, 2017

Buildings SLC

Salt Lake City buildings. photo by Peter Nelson

At their August 29, 2017 Public Hearing, the Salt Lake City Council passed an ordinance proposed by Mayor Jackie Biskupski and the Sustainability Department aimed at cutting energy costs, improving local air quality, and reducing the city’s carbon footprint.

With one dissenting vote, the Council approved the “Energy Benchmarking & Transparency Ordinance,” which is projected to save local buildings owners $15.8 million in annual energy costs and eliminate over 29 tons of criteria pollutants from Salt Lake City’s air each year.

The market-based ordinance works by phasing-in new requirements for buildings over 25,000 square feet to “benchmark” or measure their energy usage annually.

“This ordinance has been in the works for over a year,” said Mayor Biskupski. “Over that time, it’s been a case study in collaborative policy making and I want to thank all the stakeholders involved. I’m proud that we ended up with a policy that will help clear the air, save building owners’ money, improve transparency, and reduce Salt Lake City’s carbon footprint.” Read more

Nov 2

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Renters in Salt Lake City: Tell your Property Manager about the New Recycling Ordinance

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Do you live in an apartment in Salt Lake City that does not offer recycling?

We’re currently in an education-phase of bringing recycling to more properties and residents in Salt Lake City, based on a new business and multi-family recycling ordinance passed in December 2015 by the Salt Lake City Council.

Can you help us spread the word?

If you don’t have recycling at your complex, point your landlord toward to our list of online resources available at www.slcgreen.com/business-recycling

They can also attend an upcoming workshop on November 10 to learn more!

Read more

Dec 9

Council Passes New Business & Multi-Family Recycling Ordinance

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Last night, the Salt Lake City Council passed the Business & Multi-Family Recycling Ordinance! The new ordinance will require large businesses and apartments (multi-family housing complexes) that produce 4+ cubic yards of waste per week to subscribe to recycling services from an authorized waste hauler. The ordinance also stipulates that recycling must be as easy to use as garbage service for tenants and customers.

This is an exciting step forward to reduce waste in Salt Lake City. Businesses and multi-family units produce 50% of all waste in the city, but only 10-15% of that waste is currently recycled. When widespread business and multi-family recycling goes into effect, more than 20,000 tons of material will be kept out of the landfill.

Once the ordinance is recorded (anticipated January 2016), waste haulers will have six months to become authorized. Businesses and multi-family complexes will have a full two years from the effective date to comply.

To learn more about the requirements of the ordinance, visit SLCgreen.com.

Aug 26

City Saves Energy with Electronic Building Plans

Salt Lake City’s Building Services Division has moved to completely electronic building plans in favor of energy savings.  Based on 2,500 building plans reviewed per year, Salt Lake City and its customers will save approximately 360,000 miles driven, 512,000 pounds of paper and prevent 2,300 pounds of hydrocarbons from being released into the atmosphere annually.  Additionally, with all plans now available online for viewing by staff, there have been substantial savings in time and resources tracking down archived files, which were previously located in an offsite storage facility.

Although electronic plan review submissions were only made mandatory a few months ago, the City has been using the electronic plan program for four full years.  It’s estimated that on a voluntary basis, about 35% of reviews have been paperless over the past four years.  This has saved 504,000 miles driven, 716,000 pounds of paper and prevented 3,220 pounds of hydrocarbons from being released into the atmosphere.  Way to go, Building Services!

Credit: Orion Goff, CBO, Building Official, Director, Building Services and Civil Enforcement, Salt Lake City Corporation

Jul 20

Buildings are Key to Salt Lake City’s Clean Air Future

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Buildings represent a large and growing part of our local air quality problem.  A new infographic, released at the Mayor’s Project Skyline Awards Ceremony, presents statistics on building energy efficiency and economic benefits. For example, buildings contribute nearly 40% of pollutants on a typical winter day. By making buildings more energy efficient, we can conserve enough resources to power up to 37,000 homes every year. If Salt Lake City were to adopt energy savings best practices, building owners across the city could save up to $48 million dollars annually.

As many know, Salt Lake City has significantly poor air quality, especially during the winter months; however, fewer know how dramatically we can improve our air quality by improving the energy efficiency of our buildings.  By making large buildings in Salt Lake City more energy efficient, we could remove one million pounds of pollutants, which equates to taking 32,000 vehicles off the road for one year. Additionally, we would prevent 650 million pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year! View the complete infographic for additional facts.

Join us and become a part of Project Skyline to save money, improve property values, and clean our air.

Jul 13

Salt Lake City Announces Project Skyline Challenge Award Winners

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Today, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, Kathleen Hogan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency for the U.S. Department of Energy, and Matthew Dalbey, Director of the Office of Sustainable Communities for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, joined City leaders and building owners in honoring the winners of the Project Skyline Mayor’s Challenge 2015 Awards. Project Skyline, a multi-year challenge to reduce building energy use in buildings across the city, was launched in May 2014. The goal is to challenge building owners across Salt Lake City to proactively meet – and exceed – the air quality and energy-saving targets of the Sustainable Salt Lake – Plan 2015 by 15 percent by 2020. Throughout its first year, Project Skyline has been overwhelmingly successful, hosting educational and networking workshops, providing resources for evaluating the building’s energy use, and helping establish energy-saving goals for each business involved.

At the 2015 Project Skyline Awards Luncheon, five winners were recognized for their leadership in Challenge efforts over the past year.

This year, the Energy Innovator Award goes to Basic Research. Basic Research has improved the efficiency of their 230,000-square-foot facility by improving the lighting, HVAC systems, and installing the largest privately owned solar photovoltaic project in the state of Utah. By making these improvements, Basic Research has improved their ENERGY STAR score from 10 to 99.

The Sustained Excellence Award goes to Fidelity Investments. Across the country, Fidelity Investments is working to obtain LEED certification in 65 percent of their buildings and their location on 49 N 400 W is no exception. The building falls under LEED Silver certification, and recently, they added LED lighting and lighting controls and photovoltaic panels to improve the building’s ENERGYSTAR score to 96.

The McGillis School, a private co-ed school located on the Northeast bench of the Salt Lake Valley, has earned the Most-Improved EnergyStar Score Award. In 2014, the school reported an ENERYSTAR score of 97, which marks a 17 point improvement from 2013.

The Energy Efficiency Leadership Award goes to Newmark Grubb ACRES. Throughout the past year, Newmark Grubb ACRES has helped tremendously attending and presenting at multiple workshops. Company leadership also participates on BOMA Utah’s Energy and Sustainability committee and helped launch the BOMA Utah Kilowatt Crackdown. Additionally, the company is working on energy efficiency in several of its properties and are continuing to improve their ENERGYSTAR scores.

Lastly, the Benchmarking Champion Award goes to the Salt Lake City School District. Since 2009, the Salt Lake City School District has begun benchmarking to monitor energy consumption in over 40 buildings. Not only are 72 percent of the district’s schools benchmarked, but they are also certified ENERGY STAR buildings. They have seen an an 18 percent improvement in ENERGY STAR scores in all of their buildings.

Congratulations to these businesses.  For more information on Project Skyline and the Mayor’s Challenge, visit our website.

 

May 22

SLC Debuts on National City Scorecard for Energy Efficiency

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Mayors and local lawmakers in America’s largest cities continue to take innovative steps to lower energy costs for consumers and businesses, increase their resilience, and reduce pollution through increased energy efficiency, according to the 2nd edition of the City Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Salt Lake City makes its debut on the list this year, coming in #19 on the city scorecard. Check out the summary below for all the details! You can also explore the entire ACEE City Scorecard.

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Apr 13

1 Comment

Should businesses & apartments be required to recycle in SLC?

Square-Tile-Promo

The Salt Lake City Council is currently accepting comments on the proposed Business & Multi-Family Recycling Ordinance on Open City Hall. 

Do you think businesses and apartments should be required to recycle? Comment today!

A proposal that would increase recycling requirements is coming before the City Council for review and approval. Although the topic has appeared on Open City Hall before, the Council may consider some changes and would like to know what you think of the proposal.

The Council supports diverting as much waste from the landfill as possible, and commercial and multi-family buildings generate a significant amount of waste that is needlessly thrown out when it could be recycled.  Currently, the City provides recycling service automatically to single family and duplex residences.  However, over the years, the Council has received many requests from residents of multi-unit buildings and business employees for recycling services, too.

For people who live in multi-unit condo or apartment complexes, recycling service is harder to come by. The same goes for businesses – although businesses and apartment owners can contract for recycling collection, there is currently no requirement for them to participate.

An update to City law would change that, making it mandatory for businesses, apartment complex owners, and condominium home owners associations to provide recycling service – with some exceptions.

For more information on the proposed changes, and how they would be phased in, read the Council Staff  report here, and Mayor’s original proposal here. 

Jan 23

The Power of Technology: Tech 4 Good

Join StartSLC for the largest startup and technology festival in Utah!

The Sustainable Startups Series: Tech 4 Good will be offering a free lunch-time session (lunch included!) to learn about using the power of technology to improve our community. The lunch event will take place January 31st at 12 p.m. at The Gateway.

If you are interested in more than just lunch, attend the entire StartSLC program! It is a free three day event with a festival-like atmosphere, a plethora of speakers, contests, and more. The dates are January 29-31 at The Gateway. Visit the website for more information!

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Jun 6

Nominate Your Business for a P2 Award!

Salt Lake City accepts a 2013 P2 Award for the net zero Public Safety Building.

Salt Lake City accepts a 2013 P2 Award for the net zero Public Safety Building.

Each year, the Utah Pollution Prevention (P2) Association issues “Outstanding Achievement in Pollution Prevention Awards” to organizations for excellence in pollution reduction practices. These awards recognize outstanding efforts that reduce risk to Utah’s environment or to public health. This can be done through practices, projects or activities that reduce pollution at the source or remove materials from the waste cycle.

Pollution prevention uses source reduction techniques to reduce risk to public health, safety, welfare, and the environment. Pollution prevention avoids transferring waste from one environmental medium (air, land, water) to another. Treating existing waste, installing equipment to comply with pollution control regulations, and energy recovery are not considered pollution prevention and will not be eligible for this award. Projects that focus on the environmental benefits of a product or service are not eligible.

The Utah P2 Association is requesting nominations for the 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Pollution Prevention Awards. Large Businesses or industry, small businesses or industry, and community involvement programs are eligible. Special consideration will be given to businesses or organizations demonstrating collaboration with other businesses and organizations, employee involvement, and innovation and initiation of new programs.

To be considered, organizations must be able to demonstrate excellence in pollution prevention practices for the calendar year of 2013. Reductions can be achieved through practices, projects or activities that reduce pollution at the source or remove materials from the waste cycle.

Who is Eligible?

  • Any individual
  • Environmental, community, educational, or non-profit organizations
  • Business
  • Industry
  • Agriculture
  • Trade or professional organizations
  • Local government

Entry Deadline: Friday, July 18, 2014

Awards Banquet: October 2014

Questions? Contact Paul Harding at (801) 536-4108 or pharding@utah.gov. 

P2 Awards Selection Criteria

  • Activities should be true pollution prevention, not pollution control or treatment. Acceptable activities include:
    • Facilities, program-wide and multimedia efforts, or outstanding projects.
    • Projects must reduce waste generation, pollutant emissions or other releases at the source; recycle materials or conserve water or energy.
  • Nominated program should use sound technology, be innovative and cost effective.
  • Environmental benefits should be demonstrated.
  • Applicant’s efforts, both inside and outside their organization, should promote pollution prevention as the preferred approach to protecting the environment and human health.
  • Measurable progress should have occurred during the calendar year of 2013.
  • Efforts should be able to serve as a model for other programs.
  • Efforts should be taken voluntarily (in advance of regulatory requirements), but can be an innovative response to regulatory programs.
  • Nominees should have a good overall environmental compliance record for two years prior to the nomination deadline.

Nomination Form

All nominees should submit a cover sheet, a one-page summary, and a narrative description. Optional supporting documentation, including charts, photographs, news clippings, news releases, publications, or other material may be included.

The cover sheet should include:

  • Nominee’s name, address, and telephone number(s);
  • Name, title and phone numbers(s) of a contact person to answer questions regarding the nomination;
  • Name, title, organization, address, and telephone number(s) of the person/organization submitting the nomination (if not self-nominated, please be sure to notify the nominee).

The summary should include a one-page overview of activities including dates when achievements occurred.

The narrative should include a description of:

  • The nominee: including background information, reasons for the project or program and number of individuals involved and their efforts;
  • Pollution prevention efforts, quantitative results of efforts, technological or managerial innovations, employee involvement, financial impact on operations, and costs and benefits (financial or otherwise). Helpful tools and information.

Submissions must be received by July 18 and sent to:

Pollution Prevention Awards
Utah Pollution Prevention Association
Attn: Paul Harding
P.O. Box 144810
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4810
(801) 536-4108 Fax: (801) 536-4457

Electronic submissions may be sent to pharding@utah.gov.

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