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104.8 Million SqFt and Counting!

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       Winner: Gensler
       Runner-Up: HOK

Lights Out Houston

HOUSTON – Just in time for Earth Week, the "Energy Capital of the World" launched a commitment to become the "Energy Conservation Capital" by turning off the lights.

New York Times: Efficiency's Mark: City Glitters a Little Less

Top commercial property owners, managers and their tenants, in conjunction with the Greater Houston Partnership, the City of Houston, Central Houston, Inc. and CenterPoint Energy are pleased to announce that 104.8 million square feet of commercial space in Houston (36.6 million square feet in downtown) have committed to maintaining a sustained reduction in the use of non-essential electricity by implementing energy efficiency measures and developing operating procedures to turn off lights when personnel is not present. As this is an on-going initiative, participants are asked to sign a pledge of their commitment to energy conservation. Preliminary estimates for the Lights Out Houston weekend show a total savings of about $55,000 or 495,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 35 homes for a year.

Participating property owners and managers are adopting varied energy efficiency measures and operating procedures as a result of this initiative including:

• adjusting hours of janitorial staff
• training janitorial staff to turn off lights as work is completed
• resetting lighting control systems
• reviewing lighting schedules
• asking vendors and tenants to turn off lights when not in office
• reducing hours on interior and exterior lighting systems

Security lighting, any obstruction lighting, emergency lighting and lights in occupied offices will remain lit.

Where: Houston's Downtown and other areas of greater Houston

Who: All Class A, B and C office buildings in downtown and all government-owned buildings (excludes hotels, streetlights, etc).

Why:

1. To raise awareness among office building operators and tenants to go LIGHTS OUT when the office is not occupied.
2. To develop operating procedures, by the property owners and tenants, that change today's lighting habits, including working with janitorial service companies and building security to implement procedures to turn off lights when personnel is not present.
3. To establish a sustained reduction in the use of non-essential electricity in commercial buildings. The downtown area has approximately 35 million square feet of office space. It is estimated that by eliminating just 50% of the lights routinely left on overnight and on the weekends, we can save 8.4M KW-Hours annually. That equals to almost $1 million annually. This is enough energy to power more than 600 Houston area homes for a year!
4. To change Houstonians' habits at home by also remembering to turn off lights.

If you are interested in participating, please email us at lightsout@houston.org.