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Last Wednesday, on June 19, 2013, the 2nd annual EBies were held at the Hard Rock Café Theater in New York City’s famed Times Square with an “Oscar-style” awards show. The Urban Green Council (www.UrbanGreenCouncil.org) created the EBie Awards™ in 2012 to celebrate the people working in Existing Buildings (EBies) who have made great strides in improving environmental performance, but whose accomplishments may otherwise go unheralded. The Urban Green Council is the New York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (www.USGBC.org).
Out of the multiple categories, lighting shined bright, since the winning facility has over two miles of installed LED tubes, making it the largest single facility LED tube retrofit in the U.S. with the most efficient lighting in watts per square foot. This win for LED tubes may serve as an industry tipping point for main stream adoption over the less efficient incumbent fluorescent tubes. Since lighting accounts for approximately 30% of commercial building electricity consumption, according the U.S. Department of Energy, this is a key category in the “green” energy sector. LED tubes cut the cost by more than 50% over fluorescent tubes, but concerns over quality of light and longevity from imported tubes have stalled many decision makers from making retrofits to date. For the Urban Green Council, the EBie Award’s core criteria for the Best Lighting Retrofit "Shine a Light on Me" was the greatest percentage reduction in building lighting energy consumption or lighting power density with key metrics including light quality.
The American Made LED tubes may have set a precedent by pulling away from the crowd as the winner. U.S. Manufacturer Independence LED’s (www.IndependenceLED.com) winning project was the retrofit of the Davis & Warshow's Distribution Center in Mashpeth, NY. GREENandSAVE initially covered the LED tube and LED fixture retrofit in August 2012: See the article: (www.greenandsave.com/green_news/green-science-technology/davis-warshow-retrofits-led-tubes-us-led-tube-manufacturer-10008)
"In our eyes, the Urban Green Council earns an A+ for the Jury selection and overall EBie Award event,” said Charlie Szoradi, CEO of Independence LED. “We see this win for LED tubes as a benchmark in the American Energy Revolution since it is the first comprehensive LED tube retrofit to earn recognition at such a major level. We applaud the dedication of the account team, the leadership from Davis & Warshow, and the vision from Urban Green Council to recognizing existing buildings that do not typically received as much attention as new construction projects.”
NEW $10 Million in Energy Incentives>
The Best Lighting Retrofit at the EBie Awards™ win inspired Independence LED to launch a $10 million energy incentive program. For more information on the energy incentives and the media coverage, see: (www.independenceled.com/best-lighting-retrofit) $10 Million Energy Incentive
2013 USGBC Urban Green EBie JURY
The EBie Jurors will select EBie Award Finalists as well as Winners.
Dana L. Bourland, AICP, Vice President JPB Foundation
Fiona Cousins, Principal, Arup
Duane J. Desiderio, Vice President and Counsel, The Real Estate Roundtable
Dr. Constantine E. Kontokosta, PE, AICP, LEED AP, Director and Clinical Associate Professor of Real Estate, NYU Center for the Sustainable Built Environment
Nadav Malin, President, BuildingGreen
Sukanya Paciorek, Vice President, Corporate Sustainability, Vornado Realty Trust
Chrissa Pagitsas, Green Initiative Program Manager, Multifamily Risk, Fannie Mae
Rafael Pelli, Partner, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Paul Rode, Senior Vice President of Energy and Engineering Related Management Company
Mike Zatz, Chief, Market Sectors Group, ENERGY STAR Commercial & Industrial Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency
