Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge Expands into Buckhead

Mayor Kasim Reed and Denise Starling, executive director of Livable Buckhead, announced today a major expansion of the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge (Atlanta BBC), bringing 41 Buckhead buildings- half of the Buckhead office market- into the energy and water efficiency program, which is administered by the U.S Department of Energy. The Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge now encompasses more than 120 buildings in the city’s three major submarkets, with a total of more than 65 million square feet. The newly added Buckhead buildings represent a 50 percent increase in participation, further building upon Atlanta’s role as the national leader for the program, which is supported by the Department of Energy.

“The Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge is a great demonstration of what can be accomplished when businesses and government unite around a single goal,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. “The program’s expansion to Buckhead solidifies Atlanta’s position as a sustainability leader, and demonstrates the strength of our commitment to energy efficiency.”

The announcement comes on the heels of a major milestone within the Challenge.  On July 16, the Atlanta BBC recognized more than 20 participants that have reached the 20 percent reduction goal since 2009 in either energy or water consumption. The list of top performers is comprised of a variety of properties located in Downtown, Midtown and at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The properties are also mixed between private office space, city-owned facilities and special use properties such as churches and hotels. The existing Atlanta BBC portfolio has reached an aggregated 9 percent energy savings over the 2009 baseline, drawing ever closer to the 20 percent goal. The full list of top performers is included below. 

Livable Buckhead (LBI), a nonprofit organization focused on sustainability, identified the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge as an opportunity to build Buckhead’s reputation for high quality, energy efficient facilities and set out to recruit its partners to participate in the program. The 15 million square feet that LBI has secured surpasses participating square footage of many cities including Denver, Co. and Fort Worth, Tex.

 “Buckhead is more known for Class A office space and high end retail, but we’ve also got an impressive list of ‘green’ credentials,” said Starling. “Nearly half of Buckhead’s office space is Energy Star certified which means they are more energy efficient than 75 percent of their peers, more than a fifth of it is LEED certified and there are  300 EarthCraft homes in the area. Joining the Atlanta BBC gives us the opportunity to build on those sustainability efforts and encourage other buildings to join in.” 

Livable Buckhead partnered with Ecometrix, a locally based full-service sustainability consulting company, to analyze data regarding the buildings’ energy use and to establish a 2009 baseline.

“Much of the Buckhead inventory has been built within the past 15 years, which means they have a much lower baseline for energy use,” said Starling. “That will make it challenging to meet the 20 percent reduction target by 2020, but I am confident that they are up to the challenge.”

Expanding Atlanta BBC to Buckhead also adds a variety of program participants, with at least one nonprofit, two regional shopping centers and two schools among the 41 buildings coming into the program. Collectively, the Buckhead participants account for 55 percent of the square footage in the Buckhead office market. Participating buildings include:

Office Buildings

·      3344 Peachtree

·      3630 Peachtree

·      Atlanta Financial Center – East Tower

·      Atlanta Financial Center – North Tower

·      Atlanta Financial Center – South Tower

·      Atlanta Tech Village

·      AT&T - 2180 Building

·      AT&T - 1025 Building

·      AT&T - 1055 Building

·      AT&T - 1057 Building

·      AT&T - 1277 Building

·      Buckhead Tower

·      Monarch Plaza

·      Monarch Tower

·      One Alliance Center

·      One Buckhead Plaza

·      One Capital City Plaza

·      One Live Oak

·      Piedmont 14

·      Piedmont Center building 1

·      Piedmont Center building 2

·      Piedmont Center building 3

·      Piedmont Center building 4

·      Piedmont Center building 15

·      Prominence in Buckhead

·      Terminus 100

·      Terminus 200

·      The Plaza

·      The Pinnacle

·      Tower Place 100

·      Tower Place 200

·      Two Alliance Center

·      Two Buckhead Plaza

·      Two Live Oak Center

·      Peachtree/Lenox Building

Schools

·      Westminster School

·      Lovett School

Retail Developments

·      Lenox Square Mall

·      Phipps Plaza

Hotels

·      Grand Hyatt

Nonprofit Organizations

·      Atlanta History Center

Livable Buckhead will continue to identify and recruit additional buildings in Buckhead that can benefit by participating in the Atlanta BBC. One of the biggest advantages for participating buildings is the audit conducted by Ecometrix that identifies strategies for improving energy efficiency. Property management companies are also motivated by the increasing demand for energy efficient buildings.

“There are many reasons to reduce energy consumption – to reduce costs for our tenants, to attract businesses that are looking for a ‘green’ building, and to be more competitive in a highly competitive office market,” said John Heagy, senior managing director for Hines.  “But the main reason is because we’ve reached the point where it is simply expected that Class A office space will be green and energy conscious.”

Atlanta BBC is a nation-leading public/private initiative that has been praised as a model for the rest of the country by the director of the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge. Led locally by the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and initially spearheaded by Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, the goal of the Atlanta BBC is to reduce energy and water consumption by at least 20 percent in participating buildings across Atlanta by 2020.

“We’re grateful for all the work that the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Central Atlanta Progress have done to get Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge off the ground,” said Starling. “Participating in this program is a fantastic opportunity for Livable Buckhead and our partners, and we are looking forward to contributing to building Atlanta’s reputation as an innovative, sustainable city.”