BOMA International honored with 2008 Green Leadership Award from Bisnow

Bisnow on Business, a Washington, D.C.-based electronic news publisher, awarded the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International the 2008 Green Leadership Award in recognition of BOMA's commitment to promoting sustainability and energy efficiency to its members. The first annual award was given to 20 organizations in five categories—real estate, legal, tech, medical and trade association—that have implemented impressive green initiatives and are leading the way on sustainability. BOMA is a leader in energy efficiency and sustainable initiatives that have helped BOMA member organizations lower energy consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save on energy costs. The BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), an operational excellence program developed in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star, teaches property managers no and low-cost strategies for reducing energy usage in commercial buildings. To date, more than 10,000 commercial real estate professionals have been trained through BEEP. BOMA was also recognized by Bisnow for its successful Market Transformation Energy Plan and 7-Point Challenge, a challenge to the industry to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings by 30% by 2012. Through the challenge, BOMA has called upon its members to work in coordination with building management, ownership and tenants to achieve the goals of the challenge - including benchmarking energy performance, providing education to property professionals to ensure equipment is properly maintained, performing energy audits and leading community efforts to reduce commercial real estate's role in global warming. 100 BOMA member companies and local associations have endorsed the challenge. "We are honored to have been recognized by Bisnow for our commitment to sustainability," remarked BOMA chair and chief elected officer Richard Purtell, portfolio manager, Grubb & Ellis Management Services, Inc. "We continue to strive to provide our members and the commercial real estate industry with innovative sustainability solutions that will take the marketplace to the next level." Other green achievements include the publication of the industry's first green lease, the premier resource on "greening" a commercial real estate lease; the launch of the Sustainable Operations Series (SOS) program, a new education program which builds on BEEP and includes additional practical ways to green building operations; a collaboration with the Clinton Climate Initiative to develop a ground-breaking energy performance contract model to help building owners perform major energy retrofits to the existing building marketplace; and a partnership with the Department of Energy in the newly established Commercial Real Estate Energy Alliance (CREEA), which will pursue energy efficiency technologies that will transform energy use in the commercial building market. BOMA's achievement was recognized at an awards ceremony in Rockville, Md. on Oct. 28.