Two City Center in Allentown has received a rating of 93 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Certification program, making it the highest-rated Energy Star rated building in the Lehigh Valley this year, according to its owner. The 10-story building is also the fifth-highest rated building in the state for 2015.
Judy Woosnam, president of City Center Management, said it is a big achievement for the building.
“We were aiming high. Ninety percent would have been fantastic. So the fact that we exceed that is tremendous,” she said.
The designation means the building outperforms 93 percent of similar facilities nationwide on energy efficiency.
City Center jointly announced the honor with H.T. Lyons, the mechanical contracting, engineering, maintenance and energy services company affiliated with Talen Energy, which designed and built Two City Center’s heating, ventilating and air conditioning system.
The system has features such as automated controls, which only heat or cool areas that need it.
Commercial buildings that earn EPA’s Energy Star certification use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and also release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
J.B. Reilly, president and CEO of City Center Investor Corp., owner of the building, said the Energy Star rating is of particular value to tenants.
“Since it focuses on energy savings, it drives more savings and value for the tenant,” Reilly said.
He noted that an audit conducted for the rating showed that the average tenant of the building paid about 65 cents per square foot, per month for heating and energy costs.
By comparison, he said, the average office tenant spends more than $1.75 per square foot, per month on heating and energy costs.
Energy Star was introduced by the EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency.
