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Des Moines Public Schools and Principal Real Estate Investors LLC in Iowa Honored as ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year for Cost-Saving, Energy-Efficient Solutions

04/01/2020
Contact Information: 
David W. Bryan, APR (bryan.david@epa.gov)
913-551-7433

Environmental News
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Energy Star Logo(Lenexa, Kan., April 1, 2020) - Des Moines Public Schools and Des Moines-based Principal Real Estate Investors LLC are being honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 and U.S. Department of Energy as ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year for their outstanding contributions to public health and the environment. These enterprises have earned ENERGY STAR Awards for demonstrating national leadership in cost-saving, energy-efficient solutions. They are among the 191 ENERGY STAR Award winners honored nationwide this year.

Des Moines Public Schools participates in ENERGY STAR’s commercial building owners sector. The school district was first recognized more than a decade ago for their energy efficiency program. This year’s award continues that legacy of recognition with the district benchmarking 100% of its facilities in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®, totaling over 6.1 million square feet, to achieve an average ENERGY STAR score of 79.5.

Principal Real Estate Investors (REI) LLC is the dedicated real estate investment group of Principal Global Investors, based in Des Moines. Principal REI is also in the commercial building owners sector and is being recognized for their energy management program. Principal REI earned its award for integrating ENERGY STAR programs and resources into its energy management and investment strategies and continuing its corporate commitment to energy conservation.

“I salute the 2020 ENERGY STAR Award winners,” said EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Anne Idsal. “These leaders demonstrate how energy efficiency drives economic competitiveness in tandem with environmental protection.”

“To earn these two spots as ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year, Des Moines Public Schools and Principal REI had to first create a business model based on the sound principle that economic viability, energy efficiency, and environmental protection work well together. These organizations and their employees, as well as the American people and the environment, are all beneficiaries,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford.

For more than 25 years, EPA’s ENERGY STAR program has been America’s resource for saving energy and protecting the environment. ENERGY STAR and its thousands of partners have helped American families and businesses save more than 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity and achieve over 3.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. In 2018 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans avoid nearly $35 billion in energy costs.

Learn more about the ENERGY STAR Awards and the Award winners’ achievements.

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations – including more than 40% of the Fortune 500® – rely on their partnership with EPA to deliver cost-saving, energy-efficiency solutions.

More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at www.energystar.gov/about and www.energystar.gov/numbers.

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