The 2012 ENERGY STAR Awards

The U.S. EPA kicked off the celebration of ENERGY STAR’s 20th anniversary by recognizing the 2012 ENERGY STAR award winners for their leadership and commitment to protecting the nation’s environment through superior energy efficiency. Over the past 20 years, with help from ENERGY STAR partners, households and organizations have saved about $230 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon pollution.

“As we celebrate 20 years of progress through the ENERGY STAR program, EPA is proud to congratulate [these] winners,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Thanks to their innovative thinking and commitment to energy efficiency, these leaders are helping Americans find cost-effective ways to save energy in everything we do, which is good for our environment, our health and our future.”

There were 109 winners, chosen from nearly 20,000 partners from across the nation. Organizations are recognized in one of four ENERGY STAR award categories: Corporate Commitment, Sustained Excellence, Partner of the Year, and Excellence in delivering specific promotions.

Corporate Commitment: Sears Holdings Corporation was recognized with this highest honor, an award reserved for partners whose superior achievements in energy efficiency span the breadth of the Energy Star program.

Sustained Excellence: Fifty-seven sustained excellence winners continue to raise the bar across their respective industries for outstanding achievements in energy efficiency. The winners include:

  • 3M Company (St. Paul , MN)
  • Andersen Corporation (Bayport, MN)
  • Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International (Washington, DC)
  • Ecova, Inc. (Spokane, WA)
  • EnergyLogic (Berthoud, CO)
  • Focus on Energy (Middleton, WI)
  • GE Appliances and Lighting (Louisville, KY)
  • Hobart Corporation, Division of ITW Food Equipment Group, LLC (Troy, OH)
  • Manitowoc Foodservice (New Port Richey, FL)
  • Panasonic Home & Environment Company (Secaucus, NJ)
  • Raytheon Company (Waltham, MA)
  • SCIenergy (Atlanta, GA)
  • Saint-Gobain (Valley Forge, PA)
  • Whirlpool Corporation (Benton Harbor, MI)
  • Xcel Energy (Minneapolis, MN)

Partner of the Year: Thirty-six organizations are receiving partner of the year awards for protecting the environment through energy efficient products, practices, and services. These organizations promote ENERGY STAR products and practices in their own operations, and provide efficient products and services to consumers within their community. The winners include:

  • AEP Ohio (Gahanna, OH)
  • Air-King, Ltd. (Brampton, ON)
  • ComEd (Chicago, IL)
  • Constellation Energy/Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) (Baltimore, MD)
  • DuctTesters, Inc. (Ripon, CA)
  • LG Electronics, Inc. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ)
  • Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Rancho Dominguez, CA)
  • Scotsman Ice Systems (Vernon Hills, IL)
  • Staples, Inc. (Framingham, MA)

Excellence: Fifteen organizations are recognized with an excellence award for advancing energy efficient products, homes, or buildings and helping to expand the reach of the ENERGY STAR program. The winners include:

  • Good Earth Lighting, Inc. (Wheeling, IL)
  • Hoshizaki America, Inc. (Peachtree City, GA)
  • Sea Gull Lighting Products LLC (Riverside, NJ)
  • Sharp Electronics Corporation (Mahwah, NJ)

See the full list of winners here.

Launched in 1992 by EPA, ENERGY STAR is a market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. To date, more than 1.3 million new homes and nearly 16,500 buildings across all 50 states have earned EPA’s ENERGY STAR certification. Today, the ENERGY STAR label can be found on more than 60 different kinds of products with more than five billion sold over the past 20 years.


2 COMMENTS

  1. While I applaud the companies that were recognized, I wonder if all of these companies are working to meet the standards that would make them eligible for this acknowledgement. The benefits to the 109 companies that received awards are great: national exposure and federal recognition as a leader in energy efficiency and customer savings. However, are these not the goals that all companies should have? This begs the question: are there barriers that prevent companies for competing for this? I can think of several factors that may exist: lack of knowledge about this program, no financing available for companies to fund an energy overhaul of their product(s), time constraints on production schedules and little faith in the savings it provides. Are there other possible reasons?

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