Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Houston, Dallas, Austin All Place On Green Building List

Houston, Dallas, and Austin all placed on a list released Tuesday by the EPA, ranking the top 25 cities with ENERGY STAR labeled buildings. The list, which ranked cities by the number of "green" buildings they have labeled under the EPA's ENERGY STAR program, found that Houston was ranked number 6, with 133 ENERGY STAR buildings, and around 64 million square feet of floorspace; Dallas-Fort Worth was not far behind, at number 8, with 113 ENERGY STAR buildings and around 33.1 million square feet of space; Austin was number 18, with 55 ENERGY STAR buildings and 8.0 million square feeet. The EPA's ENERGY STAR program for buildings certifies buildings according to how much energy they save, via energy efficiency and design efforts. The EPA certifies those buildings based on their energy performance standards and greenhouse gas emissions.