BioStar Projects Honored by US Green Building Council & DOE
Annual LEEP awards honors organizations for cutting energy use in parking facilities
(Kansas City, MO and Los Angeles, CA) – Oct. 26, 2016 – Today, MC Realty announced its a recipient of two 2016 Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) campaign awards for “Highest Percentage Energy Savings in a Retrofit at a Single Parking Structure” and “Exemplary Office Sector Parking Facility”. The Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), International Facility Management Organization (IFMA), International Parking Institute (IPI) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), in conjunction with the Department of Energy Better Buildings Alliance, collaborate on this annual recognition of real estate owners that have achieved exceptional performance in parking facility energy reduction through high-efficiency lighting and controls. MC Realty accepted their award alongside other corporations that are actively working to reduce their energy use such as Arby’s Restaurant Group and MGM Resorts International.
MC Realty has been a leader in commercial building energy efficiency, especially in downtown Kansas City. A regular attendee and workshop sponsor for organizations such as the US Green Building Council, City Energy Project and BOMA, MC Realty has done more than just promote energy efficiency in 2016. They have implemented energy efficiency aggressively in their buildings. BioStar Lighting and MC Realty have partnered on 9 LED lighting projects, mainly retrofitting parking garages and stairwells with energy efficient LEDs. Notable projects include the garage at the Marriott Downtown and the Broadway Square Building. At Broadway Square, BioStar retrofitted the parking garage and common area lighting including the main lobby and restrooms on each floor.
BioStar’s design team achieved 83% energy savings at Poindexter Garage, the project that won Highest Percentage Energy Savings. In total, MC Realty’s upgrades will save an estimated 2,000,000 kWh per year which is equivalent to the electricity use in 208 US homes. This will reduce lighting costs for electricity and maintenance by more than 80%, saving more than $265,000 annually. By simply upgrading their lighting, MC Realty has prevented 1,400 metric tons of greenhouse gasses per year and made an impact on Kansas City’s energy demand.
The 2016 LEEP campaign participants and award winners added nearly 65 million square feet of additional high-performance lighting in parking facilities and achieved an estimated 60 percent in energy savings compared to existing or baseline numbers.
“MC Realty & BioStar’s project represents one of the best-in-class retrofit parking lot facility lighting projects in the United States,” said Paul Wessel, director, USGBC. “By implementing high-performance energy-efficient lighting systems, companies like MC Realty are not only cutting energy use and maintenance costs, but helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global electricity consumption.”
The 2016 LEEP awards winners were acknowledged at the 2016 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Los Angeles. Since its launch in 2012, the LEEP campaign has added more than 550 million square feet of parking structure or lot space, which correlates to annual energy savings of 137 kilowatts or $14 million, enough to power 12,000 homes in the United States annually.