Joint effort builds on need to modernize buildings to reduce carbon emissions
REDWOOD CITY, CA – Peninsula Clean Energy and New Buildings Institute have launched the call for entries for their second joint awards program spotlighting all-electric building innovation across San Mateo County.
The All-Electric Leadership Awards and Directory invites designers, builders, developers and owners of all-electric, high performance residential and commercial buildings in San Mateo County to submit projects for awards. Projects will also be included on an ongoing basis in an online directory that tracks and showcases local projects.
The deadline for 2022 award submissions is November 17, 2021 and more details can be found at PenCleanEnergy.com/all-electric-awards-2022.
This second-annual building electrification competition includes updated award categories from last year’s competition to better emphasize the importance of modernizing buildings. Since the average age of buildings in San Mateo County is more than 52 years, this increases the likelihood of widespread inefficient building envelopes, electrical and mechanical systems.
Greenhouse gasses resulting from the use of methane gas in heating and other applications in buildings represent at least 30 percent of all such heat-trapping emissions in San Mateo County.
“As the impacts from climate change increase, the need to reduce heat-trapping methane emissions from our aging buildings is critical to address,” Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Jan Pepper said. “This year’s suite of awards in particular will showcase innovation that can make lasting emission-reduction improvement and raise the profile of building electrification in our service area and across the state and nation.”
Up to four awards and other public recognition will be given in two categories:
All-Electric Commercial Leader
Spotlights only fully-electric commercial or multi-family residential buildings that are completed, currently under construction or have finalized designs. All buildings must be located or planned to be located in the County of San Mateo. Eligible projects include both renovated buildings and new construction.
All-Electric Residential Leader
Spotlights only fully-electric residential projects that have already been completed within the County of San Mateo. Eligible residential projects may be single family dwellings or accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Eligible projects include both renovated buildings and new construction.
Winners will be selected by a panel of independent state and regional building design and electrification experts. Projects will be evaluated based on leadership, innovation, building energy impact, building design and operations and quality of the application narrative. Find out more about the scoring criteria in the FAQs.
Sustainable San Mateo County (SSMC) is also accepting nominations for its 2022 Sustainability Awards, as well as the Green Building Award, which it co-sponsors with the San Mateo County Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Details are available at https://sustainablesanmateo.org/home/2022-call-for-nominations/.
All of these awards will be presented at The All-Electric Building Leadership Awards hosted by SSMC in spring 2022.
About Peninsula Clean Energy
Peninsula Clean Energy is a Community Choice Aggregation agency. It is the official electricity provider for San Mateo County and, beginning in 2022, for the City of Los Banos. Founded in 2016 with a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the county, the agency serves 295,000 customers by providing more than 3,500 gigawatt hours annually of electricity that is 100 percent carbon-free and at lower cost than PG&E. As a community-led, not-for-profit agency, Peninsula Clean Energy makes significant investments in its communities to expand access to sustainable and affordable energy solutions. Peninsula Clean Energy is on track to deliver electricity that is 100 percent renewable by 2025. The agency has earned investment grade credit ratings from Moody’s and Fitch. Follow us at PenCleanEnergy.com, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
About New Buildings Institute
New Buildings Institute (NBI) is a nonprofit organization working to drive significantly higher levels of energy performance in the built environment resulting in better energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. NBI is administering the Peninsula Clean Energy All-electric Building Leadership Awards program. Learn more at http://www.newbuildings.org
Media Contacts
Connie Umphress
New Buildings Institute
connie@newbuildings.org