Tower Companies' 1828 L, 1909 K and Tower Building Certified ENERGY STAR By EPA

Washington, DC's largest builder of USGBC LEED  Certified buildings, The Tower Companies, recently announced that three of their existing buildings have now been certified by the EPA as ENERGY STAR buildings.

The Tower Building is a 265,000 SF, multi-tenant commercial office building that was completed ten years ago as the first new construction green building in the DC Metro region. It received an Energy Star score of 90. In a release, Tower's chief sustainability officer, David Borchardt said that “two factors contributed to the high rating: their 134,000 SF GSA (News - Alert) tenant, Health and Human Services already met the new GSA standards for Energy Conservation. Furthermore, Tower replaced all garage lighting, which must be on 24/7, with more efficient lighting, realizing an energy savings of nearly 35%”.

1828 L Street is currently under review with USGBC for LEED Gold certification. A 313,603 SF commercial office building that was constructed in 1968, The Tower Companies recently installed the markets first next generation production version of the Daikin McQuay Magnitude frictionless centrifugal chiller, which contributed to an ENERGY STAR (News - Alert) score of 79. 1828 L also currently exceeds outside air requirements by at least 50 percent.

1909 K Street, LEED Certified under Existing Buildings, is a 236,000 SF commercial office building. Known as The Millennium Building for delivering Washington DC's first green building through a renovation completed in 1999, this building received a score of 77. 

The Tower Companies recently committed to greening their entire portfolio of properties and is currently focused on working towards LEED certifications on two downtown office buildings and three high-rise apartment buildings. They currently have six LEED certified projects in their portfolio and also have one of the most comprehensive green leases in the country. 

Borchardt also went on to say that Tower continues to educate tenants and building employees about their greening initiatives to help everyone conserve energy. Some of these current efforts include Tower working with clients to create more energy efficient build outs, including lighting and temperature control of spaces, taking advantage of utility rebates and installing more energy efficient motor control devices, allowing heating and cooling systems to run more efficiently.