NEWS
RELEASE
Buffalo
Bill Historical Center
Celebrating
the Spirit of the American West
For
immediate release: May 2, 2011
Contact: Nancy
McClure, nancym@bbhc.org
or 307.578.4102
Phil Anthony, phila@bbhc.org
or 307.578.4118
- Cody, Wyoming -
Buffalo Bill Historical Center competes in 2011 Energy Star National
Building Competition
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center has been selected to participate in
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s)
Energy Star National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings to
help improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and protect
the environment. In the spirit of popular weight-loss competitions, the
Historical Center will battle it out against hundreds of other teams
from buildings across the country to work off the waste through
improvements in energy efficiency with help from EPA’s Energy
Star program.
“The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is honored to be a part
of this competition,” says Phil Anthony, operating engineer
at the Center and a leader of its sustainability program. “We
are committed to continuing to improve our energy efficiency and we
look forward to seeing how we measure up against other buildings across
the nation.”
The 2011 competition includes 245 teams from 26 different types of
commercial buildings—such as retail stores, schools, hotels,
a library, and one other museum—that hail from 33 states and
the District of Columbia. Eleven buildings are 100 years old or older,
the smallest building is just over 6,000 square feet, and fifteen
buildings cover more than 1 million square feet of floor space with the
largest totaling nearly 3 million square feet.
As this year’s Energy Star National Building Competition
spokesperson, actor John Corbett will provide energy saving tips and
encouragement through videos posted on the competition website. The
spokesperson is provided by J.C. Penney Corporation, EPA’s
co-sponsor for these events. The competition Web site will also feature
a flash media wall with photos of all of the competitors, a live
Twitter feed, and a Competitor Forum for exchanging ideas and
strategies.
“Buildings of all shapes and sizes are saving money and
energy with help from EPA and Energy Star,” says Jean
Lupinacci, Director of EPA’s Energy Star Commercial Buildings
Program. “We applaud the contestants of EPA’s
Energy Star National Building Competition for taking action to protect
the environment and save energy in the buildings where we work, play
and learn.”
Competitors will measure and track their building’s monthly
energy consumption using EPA’s Energy Star online energy
tracking tool, Portfolio Manager; make improvements to their
building’s energy performance; and share their progress. Of
the initial pool of 245 competitors, a small group of buildings will be
selected as finalists in July. Among the finalists, the building that
demonstrates the greatest percentage-based reduction in energy use
intensity will be recognized as the winner on November 2, 2011.
To reduce the amount of energy being used in its 300,000 square-foot
building, the Historical Center has already taken the following steps,
among others:
·
Analyzed and reconfigured heating and air conditioning strategies to
improve performance.
·
Removed aging and inefficient components of the heating, ventilating,
and air conditioning systems.
·
Replaced less efficient lamps with longer-lasting LED equivalent lamps.
·
Improved insulation in areas identified as inadequate in energy audits.
According to EPA, energy use in commercial buildings accounts for
nearly 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and energy use
at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. On average, 30 percent of
the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted. Thousands of
businesses and organizations work with EPA’s Energy Star
program and are saving billions of dollars and preventing millions of
tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering our atmosphere each year.
To watch the competition unfold, visit
www.energystar.gov/BattleOfTheBuildings. More information on the
Buffalo Bill Historical Center can be found by exploring www.bbhc.org.
Committed to connecting people with the Spirit of the American West,
the Buffalo Bill Historical Center weaves the varied threads of the
western experience—history and myth, art and Native culture,
firearms technology and Yellowstone natural history—into the
rich panorama that is the American West. The Center, an Affiliate of
the Smithsonian Institution, is currently open 8 a.m. – 6
p.m. daily. For general information, visit www.bbhc.org, or call
307.587.4771.
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