It’s not hard to catch glimpses of “green” throughout Austin. City policies, development planning and business models have gone green all over Central Texas, giving Austin a nationwide reputation as a green energy leader.

A key part of the city of Austin’s strategy to become green is to benchmark Austin’s commercial real estate through Energy Star, in partnership with BOMA Austin, said John Sutton, assistant vice president of TG Corporate Services and BOMA Austin chairman of the Austin Sustainability Task Force. Energy Star rates the energy efficiency of buildings on a scale of one to 100; a building is Energy Star certified when it achieves a score of 75.

As the focus moves from new construction to existing buildings, the burden of sustainability is shifting from architects and developers who oversee the creation of newly constructed, high-efficiency and LEED-certified buildings to building owners and managers who are tasked with increasing the performance of their buildings, Sutton said. (link)