EPA names BOMA Energy Star Partner of the Year

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized BOMA International with a 2008 Energy Star Partner of the Year award for Excellence in Program Delivery for its outstanding contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by promoting energy management in commercial buildings through the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), offered through the BOMA Foundation. BOMA International, the only real estate association to receive this honor, was first awarded the Partner of the Year award in 2007. BOMA's achievement will be recognized at an awards ceremony on April . BOMA, an Energy Star partner since 2005, is being honored for helping building owners and managers reduce energy use by promoting energy management practices through BEEP, an innovative operational excellence program that teaches commercial real estate professionals how to reduce energy consumption and costs with proven no and low-cost strategies for optimizing equipment, people and practices. To date, 10,000 commercial real estate professionals have participated in the BEEP seminars. "BOMA International's leadership role in helping the commercial real estate industry improve energy efficiency is a response to an urgent fiscal and environmental need," said BOMA chairman and chief elected officer Brenna Walraven, RPA, CPM, executive managing director, national property management, USAA Real Estate Co. "We are honored to receive the Energy Star Partner of the Year award for the second consecutive year and plan to continue leading the efforts on the business case for market transformation, including educating real estate professionals through BEEP, Energy Star tools and other programs on how reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a tremendous benefit to the bottom line and is quickly becoming compulsory to stay competitive in the global marketplace." BEEP is part of BOMA's overall Market Transformation Plan and 7-Point Challenge to reduce energy consumption by 30% by 2012 across real estate portfolios, as measured against an average building measuring a 50 on the Energy Star benchmarking tool. The 7-Point Challenge also asks property professionals to benchmark energy performance and water usage through Energy Star.