"We're committed to making these changes and institutionalizing best sustainability practices in the way the city of Houston operates," says Mayor Bill White. "It will improve our quality of life, protect the environment, save us money, and it's simply the right thing to do."
"Siemens applauds Houston's effort in partnership with CCI," says George Nolen, president of Siemens USA. "We are committed to bringing the full depth of our experience, project management and technology to help Houston attain its goals in environmental protection. Siemens is proud of all of the work that we have done -- and will continue to do -- in order to help this great city attain long-term sustainability for its infrastructure."
The first phase of this performance contract has been assigned with Siemens poised to retrofit some 5,500,000 square feet of city facilities. "Our first priority will be to consider what improvements can be made to the City of Houston's 271 facilities, addressing energy efficiency, conservation and operational cost reductions," explains Issa Dadoush, P.E., Director for the City of Houston's General Services Department.
Local Siemens engineers and technicians will analyze a multitude of sustainable and green initiatives to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gases. Not only will the project focus on energy and water conservation, but also making certain emergency response facilities disaster-resistant and "passively survivable." When completed, the energy efficiency improvements are projected to save enough electricity annually to create millions of dollars in savings and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Siemens and the City of Houston have had a long-standing and successful relationship when it comes to large-scale energy management projects. Recently, Siemens and the General Services Department finished the third phase of an extensive multi-million dollar demand-side interior lighting retrofit program which helped the City avoid using some 5,320,000 kWh of electricity annually, allowing Houston officials to receive more than $250,000 in rebate dollars from the local utility, CenterPoint Energy.
This program alone resulted in enough annual electricity savings to avoid the equivalent of emitting approximately 2,642 tons per year of greenhouse gases into the local environment.
Siemens was also recently chosen by the Public Works & Engineering Department to retrofit the majority of the City of Houston's traffic signals with energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lamps.
"We are doing many things throughout the City to manage our costs and save energy," explains Mayor White. "Replacing traffic signals with LED lights, for example, will end up saving us millions of dollars. In the 2007 State of the City address, I challenged the business community to join us in slowing energy consumption in the next three years," he emphasizes, "Our goal is to make Houston the energy conservation capital of the world. It makes good business sense."
As a leading provider of energy and environmental solutions, building controls, fire safety and security systems solutions, Siemens Building Technologies, Inc., makes buildings comfortable, safe, secure and less costly to operate. With U.S. headquarters in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Siemens Building Technologies employs 7,400 people and provides a full range of services and solutions from more than 100 locations coast-to-coast. Worldwide, the company has 28,000 employees and operates from more than 500 locations in 51 countries.
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