New City Hall Achieves 'Designed to Earn the Energy Star' Recognition

The new Virginia Beach City Hall, which is currently being constructed by McKenzie Construction Corporation, has achieved the 'Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR' recognition as a result of their commitment to energy efficient green design. The building's sustainable design, created by Moseley Architects, includes energy efficient strategies such as:modern mechanical system with demand control ventilation and enthalpy wheels large, true cupola that brings light into a three-story lobby space which in turn allows that natural light to filter deeply into the buildingenergy efficient LED lighting fixtures with power adjusting sensors multi-system energy efficiency monitoring and management programenergy efficient building envelope The planned completion of the new City Hall is the summer of 2021 and the facility is anticipated to deliver an estimated 27% energy savings over a baseline building. "The City of Virginia Beach is pleased to accept EPA's ENERGY STAR recognition of this design," said Mayor Robert M. "Bobby" Dyer. "Through this achievement, we have demonstrated our commitment to environmental stewardship while also lowering our energy costs." The City is encouraging the community to celebrate October as Energy Awareness Month by taking the Energy Star Pledge and commit to taking energy saving actions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help protect the planet. To take the online pledge, citizens can visit www.energystar.gov/campaign/takeThePledge. Residents are also encouraged to utilize the My ENERGY STAR webpage which provides energy saving ideas and allows people to track all their energy-saving actions. "Saving energy can be as easy as changing a light bulb," says Lori Herrick Borden, the City's energy manager. "Residential LEDs use approximately 75% less energy, can last 25 times longer than incandescent lighting, and the prices have really come down. We can all easily show our commitment to energy efficiency by purchasing and installing LED bulbs."Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its thousands of partners helped American families and businesses save more than 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity and achieve over 3.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at: www.energystar.gov/about For more information about the City of Virginia Beach's Energy program: www.vbgov.com/energy # # #