If civic leaders get their way, 20 significant buildings in downtown Atlanta will be renovated for better water and energy efficiency, putting Atlantans to work and eventually saving businesses money.
The "Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge" was designed to encourage the owners of downtown buildings to renovate for better energy efficiency. The owners of several huge buildings -- including AmericasMart Atlanta, the Georgia Dome, the Georgia World Congress Center and the General Services Administration's Peachtree Summit Building -- have already signed up.
The flagship project is The Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, which is being renovated and is scheduled to get an estimated $228,000 return on investment each year from changes to its lighting and heating and air conditioning systems.
The Better Buildings Challenge is part of an initiative that President Barack Obama launched in February to encourage the private sector to invest in commercial building upgrades and clean energy technologies. In July, the administration chose Atlanta as one of the first major metropolitan areas, along with Seattle and Los Angeles, to sign up for the initiative.
Even with eventual savings, expensive renovation projects are not necessarily an easy sell in these cash-strapped times. A survey last year by Johnson Controls and the International Facility Management Association said a lack of capital budgets was a barrier to retrofitting buildings for 38 percent of the 1,400 executives surveyed. The program offers access to financing, but not much in the way of outright awards.
The program lines up with Mayor Kasim Reed's goal to make Atlanta known for its environmental chops, including water and energy conservation, reductions in solid waste and carbon emissions, and higher recycling rates.
In Atlanta, the goal is to reduce energy and water usage in participating buildings by 20 percent by 2020 -- and possibly much sooner -- focusing primarily on the city's downtown central business district. Participating buildings could include universities, hospitals, commercial buildings and city properties.
"Businesses will save money that, at the end of the day, will go to their bottom lines," Reed said Thursday at a breakfast for more than 1,000 businesspeople at the Hyatt Regency.
The renovation challenge is a way to spur projects as the buildings and construction trades have slumped, said attorney John Rutherford Seydel II.
"Even though there aren't very many cranes in our city, or any at all, we can work inside these buildings," Seydel said.
Through a public-private partnership that includes Georgia Power, the Department of Energy and the General Service Administration, building owners can get incentives including building assessments, training for staff and energy interval data. And then there is the public relations benefit, said attorney Clark Wisenbaker.
"We are significantly going to wave the flag if those who sign up," he told participants in a breakout session. "You all will be leaders in our city."
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