Certain elements of the corporate world may be pushing for more fossil fuels consumption, but more than 20 new organizations officially committed this week to slashing power consumption by 20% across their building portfolios over the next decade.
Those signing pledges under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge include Facebook, which is focusing on 10 data centers; and two fast-food restaurant companies, Arby’s and CKE (which owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s brand).
These latest pledges represent more than 50 million square feet of manufacturing, corporate, data center, government and restaurant facilities, according to the DOE. Overall, there are more than 250 universities, municipal governments, businesses and other organizations participating in the program, representing more than 9,000 buildings of some sort.
The new partners actually include several companies putting up money to help finance projects, notably a whopping $1.5 billion from Bank of America. Other new financing partners are Commercial Power Partners ($50 million), Community Investment Corp. ($25 million), PACE Equity ($25 million), Rockwell Finance ($25 million), and Structured Finance ($150 million).
The food service commitments, in particular, are significant considering that facilities from this sector cover roughly 1.7 billion square feet across the United States. In aggregate, they consume 400 trillion British thermal units of energy per year.
That’s roughly the same amount of energy used by 2 million average American homes; interestingly, it’s also the amount of power that the DOE said a few years ago could be saved by making data centers more energy-efficient.
Speaking of which, Facebook's focus on energy efficiency is nothing really new—this DOE commitment simply puts a number on the goal. (The company isn't listed yet in the data center partner section, so that 20% by 10 years is the number we'll need to use for now.) Facebook has been pretty proactive about this for several years, after bearing the brunt of a Greenpeace campaign unhappy with its heavy reliance on coal-generated electricity.
Since then, Facebook has made a 100% renewable energy pledge to power its data centers—along with Amazon, Apple, Box, Google, Rackspace and Salesforce. Its Prineville, Oregon, facility is already one of the most efficient in the world; it was originally benchmarked as using 38% less energy than similar sites, although I haven't seen the latest update on that number.
Other significant corporate commitments disclosed this week:
- Chemicals company Celanese is aiming for a 15% reduction across eight manufacturing plants (representing 21 million square feet). This is a big deal, considering that the company has already cut energy intensity at its plants by more than 25% against a 2007 baseline year.
- Cement manufacturer Holcim is working on a 30% reduction in energy intensity by 2018 (compared with a 2008 baseline), for 12 plants.
- Commercial real estate investment trust Parkway Properties, has committed 18 million square feet including buildings like the Hearst and Nascar towers in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Real estate developer JBG Companies is working on 12.5 million square feet of commercial space, including offices, hotel and retail locations.
