Maryland Recognized at Department of Energy Better Buildings Summit

Emily Soontornsaratool, who represented DGS at the three-day Summit, presents at a workshop on Best Practices in Energy Data Tracking.

Maryland was recognized during the recent three-day (May 27 – 29) Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Summit in Washington, D.C. for reaching three energy milestones, the first state to accomplish this. The state will also be featured as a model state in an upcoming DOE publication on Best Practices in Energy Data Tracking.

“As a Better Buildings partner, Maryland has committed to an ambitious energy reduction goal and to being transparent about state energy usage,” said Emily Soontornsaratool, Energy Database Program Administrator at the Department of General Services (DGS), who led Maryland’s participation, and ultimate success, in the Better Buildings Challenge. “We will continue to share best practices and lessons learned in energy reduction and energy data tracking with our peers.”

The Better Buildings Summit is a national meeting where leading organizations across key sectors showcase solutions to cut energy intensity in their buildings portfolio-wide by 20% over the next ten years. It is designed for partners and stakeholders to exchange best practices and highlight demonstrated market solutions, as well as discuss future opportunities for greater energy efficiency in America’s homes and buildings.

Maryland was showcased as the first state to reach all three of the following energy milestones: sharing detailed energy data for 9 million square feet of state building properties; producing an “Implementation Model” that discusses how DGS used the 16-Agency Energy Competition to motivate state agencies to achieve reductions; and meeting and exceeding the energy reduction goal. (Maryland saw a 21% reduction in the committed portfolio energy intensity in FY2014 from a FY2008 baseline.)

“The Department of General Services is proud to have played a key role in coordinating other state agencies’ initiatives to reduce their energy usage,” said Gail Bassette, DGS Secretary. “Reduced energy use translates into reduced costs, and we’ll be looking for even more savings through greater agency participation in the next Better Buildings Challenge.”

To read more about Maryland’s Implementation Model, visit the Better Buildings Solution Center. To see Maryland’s progress toward its energy reduction goal, visit Energy Performance. And visit the Office of Energy Performance and Conservation to learn more about what it does.