Super Bowl II: Atlanta-Boston in energy efficiency "reality show" battle

Team ATL for the Department of Energy's SWAP 3 challenge. The members are (from left) Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, Kishia Powell and Tim Keane.

Team ATL for the Department of Energy's SWAP 3 challenge. The members are (from left) Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, Kishia Powell and Tim Keane.

No it wasn’t a Super Bowl rematch, but an energy savings challenge this month pitted the southern know-how of Atlanta against the northern chutzpah of Boston.

The two cities traded municipal officials who lead their towns’ sustainability efforts in a friendly Department of Energy competition to see if switching places can yield energy efficiency dividends.

And they did it reality style. Think “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” or “America’s Got Talent,” without the fighting, name-calling, dancing, acrobatics or Simon Cowell.

Over the three episodes, the leaders investigate the good, bad and ugly of the two cities efforts to be energy efficient. In true reality-show style, there’s slow motion walking, quick cuts, talking directly to the camera and the obligatory shot of the teams posing with arms folded and determined looks.

The program, SWAP 3, is an initiative created through the DOE's Better Buildings Challenge. That competition, launched in 2011, seeks to increase energy by 20 percent or more in the next decade in American commercial, institutional, multi-family and industrial plant buildings.

The teams faced different challenges, including solving issues of losing heating and cooling, creating solutions on solar power and what to do when you have ornate, historic buildings with energy inefficient windows.

Some of recommendations for the ATL included adjusting ventilation at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to better mix heating and cooling, doing quarterly energy walks in the city and not running the heat and the air simultaneously in the same room.

The Atlanta SWAP 3 team included Atlanta Chief Resilience Officer Stephanie Stuckey, Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Kishia Powell and Department of Planning & Community Development Commissioner Tim Keane.

The Boston players included Boston Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space Austin Blackmon, Budget Director Public Works Ann Carbone and Energy Manager/EEMS Administrator Adam Jacobs.

The Boston team included (from left) Austin Blackmon, Ann Carbone and Adam Jacobs.

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