Top Cities for Energy Star, D.C. Does It!

The U.S. EPA has released its yearly ranking of the top metro areas with the most Energy Star certifications, and for the first time in years, we have a new champ: Washington, D.C. For six years running, Los Angeles had been the top dog with D.C. finishing second five times in a row, but in 2014 the nation’s capital finally took top honors with 480 Energy Star certifications. LA was once again no slouch, finishing the year a close second with 475 Energy Star certifications.

The EPA’s top 10 metro areas for Energy Star in 2014 were:

Washington, DC (480 certifications)
Los Angeles, CA (475)
Atlanta, GA (328)
New York, NY (299)
San Francisco, CA (292)
Chicago, IL (251)
Dallas–Ft.Worth, TX (248)
Houston, TX (235)
Denver, CO (195)
Boston, MA (176)

It’s worth noting that these 10 cities totaled more than 2900 certifications in 2014, representing nearly 43% of total Energy Star certified buildings for the year. In total, 6937 buildings earned this coveted label in 2014, covering more than 1.4 billion square feet. Impressive.

Follow the links above to visit GBIG Place Profiles for each top ranked city.* GBIG Place Profiles provide a snapshot of green building activity within a geographic location, including LEED and Energy Star certification statistics, metrics for walkability, transit access, operational energy efficiency, and more.

*GBIG Place Pages include counts of projects in a given city; EPA’s yearly ranking is based on counts of projects in a metropolitan statistical area.