Other World Computing announced today its LEED Platinum Certified corporate headquarters was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) prestigious ENERGY STAR rating, the national symbol for protecting the environment through superior energy efficiency. This designation signifies that OWC’s office building operations perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency. On a local level, this achievement places OWC’s building on a list of 634 commercial buildings and industrial plants in Illinois and the first office building in McHenry County to earn the Energy Star rating since 1999.
EPA’s ENERGY STAR energy performance scale helps organizations assess how efficiently their buildings use energy relative to similar buildings nationwide. A building that scores a 75 or higher on EPA’s 1-100 scale is eligible for the ENERGY STAR. Commercial buildings that can earn the ENERGY STAR include offices, bank branches, financial centers, retail stores, courthouses, hospitals, hotels, K-12 schools, medical offices, supermarkets, dormitories, houses of worship, and warehouses.
Commercial buildings that earn the ENERGY STAR use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and also release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. OWC achieved its energy performance by managing energy strategically across organizational operations and by designing and investing in an energy efficient corporate campus.
“Improving the energy efficiency of our nation’s buildings is critical to protecting our environment,” said Jean Lupinacci, Chief of the ENERGY STAR Commercial & Industrial Branch. “From the boiler room to the board room, organizations are leading the way by making their buildings more efficient and earning EPA’s ENERGY STAR.”
“The OWC team is very pleased to accept the EPA’s widely recognized ENERGY STAR label in recognition of our energy efficiency and environmental stewardship efforts,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “More than just utilizing power generated by our on-site 500kW wind turbine, our facility employs leading edge technologies to achieve the highest levels of operational efficiencies, thereby allowing us to place renewable wind-generated energy back onto the local power grid to further reduce non-renewable energy source dependency.”
Earlier in 2010, OWC was recognized by the EPA’s Green Power Partnership program for its leadership role in reducing the risk of climate change. By becoming 100% on-site “green powered” in 2009 via a Vestas V39-500kW wind turbine, OWC became the first U.S. technology manufacturer to be completely on-site wind powered. OWC’s wind turbine can provide up to nearly double the current energy requirements of all OWC operations, including its internet operations datacenter for OWC.net and FasterMac.net.
For more information about ENERGY STAR visit: http://www.energystar.gov/
To view the location and profile of Energy Star labeled commercial buildings, visit:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=labeled_buildings.locator
For more information on OWC’s corporate campus, which is one of less than three hundred worldwide to achieve the Green Building Certification Institute’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum standard since 1998, visit: https://eshop.macsales.com/green/index.html To view a virtual tour of the OWC Platinum LEED campus, visit: https://eshop.macsales.com/green/tour.htm
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