Utah County is one of 1,500 counties whose officials are under increased pressure to improve energy efficiency in courthouses and office buildings.

The National Association of Counties has partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency to challenge counties to meet the standards of the Energy Star Courthouse Campaign for superior performance.

"[Energy Star] is designed to help any organization that uses energy to do it more effectively," said Cindy Jacobs, section chief in commercial and industrial section of Energy Star.

Energy Star is a program backed by the EPA that teaches businesses how to save energy and improve operations. A rating system evaluates businesses, and those in the top 25 percent of the scale receive the Energy Star award.

County buildings are now able to apply for the program because the EPA developed a scale for such buildings.

Energy Star was first created by the EPA in the early 1990s to label computers that were in the top percentage of energy efficiency and has now expanded to 12,000 partners across the country, Jacobs said.

Buildings that earn the Energy Star use about 40 percent less energy than average buildings, according to Beth Bleil, community services associate and energy efficiency program coordinator at The National Association of Counties.

Bleil said governments across the country spend $10 billion per year in energy costs. One third of those costs are for the government buildings.

Monday morning, Director of the EPA Mike Leavitt encouraged counties to get involved.

Jacobs said he hoped Leavitt's announcement, along with realizing the benefits of financial and environmental aid, would promote a good response from county officials.

One of Energy Star's current partners is Intermountain Health Care.

Daron Cowley, spokesman for IHC, said they got involved in Energy Star when IHC changed the lighting system. He said they retrofitted the system to produce the same amount of light at a 45 percent reduction in the power needed.

Cowley said during the summer, when there are high demands for energy, e-mails are sent to members of the organization to encourage them to turn off lights as much as possible, as part of the Utah Power Forward program.

Cowley said IHC benefits from the energy conservation program because they are recognized for their efforts and for being a good citizen and good member of the community. He said because the hospitals now use less power for lighting they have also reduced costs.

The University of Utah retrofitted 87 buildings, about half of the square footage of the campus, to improve efficiency and to partner with Energy Star, said Orfeo Kostrencich, associate director of plant operations at the University.

Kostrencich said 58 percent of the energy conserved comes from building controls that have been redesigned to be more energy efficient.

He said the University of Utah is beginning a behavioral program that monitors buildings on campus for how resources are used.
Copyright Brigham Young University 2 Mar 2004