In 2009, the Assurant corporate real estate (CRE) team embarked on a mission to understand and reduce our impact on the environment as a corporation. At the start of this journey, one of the first steps that we took was to become an Energy Star partner. This partnership with the EPA requires organizations to measure, track, and benchmark energy performance, develop and implement a plan to improve energy performance and educate your staff and the public about your partnership and achievements with Energy Star.
In 2009, our global portfolio consisted of 90 locations totaling just of 3 million square feet. We entered 16 internally managed facilities totaling 2,082,661 square feet into the Energy Star portfolio manager. The measured electrical energy consumption for 2009, our benchmark year, was 55,280,084 kWh. In 2016, our measured electrical energy consumption was 39,268,866 kWh at 14 internally managed buildings totaling 1,940,356 square feet, resulting in a 24 percent reduction based on kWh per square foot. For the 12-month period of 2016 alone, the 24 percent reduction equates to saving 397,102 gallons of gasoline or 1,886 coal tons. Our reduction would also provide 12 months of electricity for 1,377 homes and saved Assurant $1,271,000 on an annual basis.
One of our initial goals was to reduce our electrical energy consumption by 20 percent before 2020, so we are proud that we have exceeded our 20/20 goal by 4 percent three years early. This includes the fact that we were also able to add a primary corporate data center in the Atlanta, Ga, facility, which accounted for an additional 3,076,550 kWh in 2016. That is more electricity than the Commerce, Ga, facility, which is 119,517 square feet consumed during the same 12-month time period. While the corporate real estate team has excelled with meeting our targeted reductions, exceeding the 20 percent reduction by 2020 at the end of 2016 would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of our colleagues.
As an Energy Star partner, when an organization earns a scoring of 75 or higher during the previous 12 months based on data such as energy consumption, hours of operations and a few additional requirements, they are considered an Energy Star site for the 12 month period. In 2009, we received our first Energy Star rating for one of three buildings at our Springfield, Ohio, location. Today, we are proud to state that we have 10 buildings that are listed as Energy Star. Of the five remaining sites, three buildings in Miami and one building in Rapid City are scored above 75 and are awaiting data verification to apply for Energy Star. Our last building in Commerce, Georgia is currently at 73. Our local CRE team is diligently working along with our colleagues in the building to further reduce their consumption.
This aligns with our goal of having each of our domestic buildings where C RE manages the energy reduction program Energy Star listed. In order to meet our goals and commitments on sustainability, with our energy reduction initiative being just one component of our overall program, we have completed numerous projects over the last eight years, such as our lights out challenge, which is to turn off every light in a building during unoccupied times, a total retrofit to LED lighting at our Florence, S.C., facility, new energy management systems that allow for recommissioning and better control of our lighting, heating and cooling equipment, chiller plant and cooling tower replacements with premium efficiency models to standardizing our temperature set points to industry standards.
We are currently looking at additional steps that we can take to conserve Mother Earth’s precious resources, such as clean water and air while reducing our carbon footprint as a leader on environmentally friendly practices in the communities where we work and live. Future/potential initiatives include but are not limited to: Removal of Styrofoam containers from our cafes and break stations. Reducing the number of printed materials on a daily basis. Continue to add electric vehicle charging stations as needed. Standardize and expand our recycling efforts. Standardize and expand our water conservation initiatives. Standardize our data collection and annual reporting criteria to include our supply chain. Expanding the use of refurbished office furniture. Utilize construction materials where possible that is made up with a high level of recycled materials. Carpet is a good example for this. Update our audio/video technologies that will enable live streaming of meetings which will reduce the amount of required business travel.
The 1.9 mWh solar system at our Springfield, Ohio, provided 44 percent of the electricity consumed by the three buildings in 2016. The greenhouse gas emissions reduction for the rated annual production of this system equals the emissions of 335 passenger vehicles driven each year or the burning of 191,669 gallons of gasoline. In addition to our locations being recognized by Energy Star, our Kansas City, Mo., office was awarded the 2016 Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Award.
In-house Participants: Denny Stilwell, Marvin Francisco, Steve Weise, Matt Ertel, Jim Polczynski, John Hall, Sandra Reese, Tony Ring, Todd Miller, Jim Balkowski, Scott Slavens
