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Politics & Government

Palo Alto Businesses Earn "Green" Recognition

Palo Alto took another step down the road towards a more sustainable future at Monday night's Council Meeting when Mayor Yiaway Yeh honored seven local companies with the Green Business Leader Award for having highly energy-efficient buildings.

 

Mayor Yiaway Yeh announced seven companies, with a total of 25 different building locations, were awarded the new City of Palo Alto “Green Leader” Business Recognition Award.

The annual awards program honors and promotes Palo Alto companies who have made major strides in improving building energy efficiency. Mayor Yeh presented the awards to the winning companies at Monday night’s Palo Alto City Council meeting.  

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“We have many local businesses who are already leading the way down a “greener path” and as a community we want to recognize their significant efforts,” Mayor Yeh said. “We are also hoping this awards program will help send a message to all companies in Palo Alto that saving money through improved energy efficiency is simply smart business.”  

The criteria for receiving this award come from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® benchmarking process. The City recognizes all businesses with an ENERGY STAR®‐certified benchmark score of 75 or higher within the past two years and gives the “gold award” to those facilities achieving scores of 90 and above.

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Businesses that achieve the higher scores received a special plaque from the Mayor and will be featured in paid advertisements and on the City website. Of course, all these companies, just like any business that implements energy efficiency improvements, will get a reward on their bottom line.  

“Palo Alto is a town that highly values sustainability, so we are committed to assisting local businesses to upgrade their buildings and reap the rewards of greater energy efficiency," City Manager James Keene said. "If a business earns a Green Leader business recognition award that is icing on the cake.”  

The business owners and companies who received the Green Leader Business Recognition Awards for their ENERGY STAR rated buildings, include:

SAP for its building at 3412 Hillview Avenue. This is the first time this building has received an ENERGY STAR rating and its current score is an 87.

Stanford Real Estate for its property at 3210 Porter Drive. This is also their first time receiving an Energy Star rating with a score of 87.

The following three recipients all have two buildings each that have qualified:  

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati is recognized for its buildings at 601 California and 650 Page Mill Road. 601 California is a five times Energy Star rated building and has a current score of 87. 650 Page Mill Road has received an Energy Star rating six times and has a current rating of 93 which qualifies them for the Gold Level status. 

The Tasso Street Building at 435 Tasso Street and the Palo Alto Office Center at 525 University. Both buildings have received their Energy Star rating 5 times, with the Tasso Street Building receiving a score of 88. The Palo Alto Office Center received a score of 90, which qualifies it for the Gold Level status.

Stevens Development Company is recognized for two buildings: one building has the double address of 101 University/444 High and is a first time Energy Star‐rated building with a score of 76. This building also received an award for being a Certified Carbon Free building. The second building is located at 125 University and is a first time ENERGY STAR rated building with a score of 98, which qualifies it for the Gold Level rating.  

The following two award winners both have their applications in with the EPA at this moment, and the City is confident that they will be certified in the next few days. They are being recognized in advance of the ENERGY STAR rating.  

The International School of the Peninsula is located at 151 Laura Lane and will be receiving an Energy Star rating for the first time with an expected score of 76.

The Palo Alto Unified School District has submitted an application with the EPA for 16 sites. Ten of these sites are expected to receive ratings above 90 points, and 2 sites have been submitted to the EPA with scores of 100.

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