This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

March 13, 2013

DOE Announces Winners of Student Energy-Efficiency Building Competition

The Energy Department on March 8 announced the winners of the second annual Better Buildings Case Competition, which challenges university teams to develop and present real-world solutions to cut energy waste and improve the efficiency of commercial buildings. The winners included the Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Chicago, and Yale University. The Better Buildings Case Competition supports President Obama's goal of cutting energy waste from homes and businesses in half over the next two decades.

This year, 14 university teams analyzed case studies focusing on a range of challenges faced by private-sector organizations and state and local governments that are looking to improve the energy efficiency of their operations. The case studies consisted of real scenarios, background information, and data provided by organizations that included partners in the Better Buildings Challenge program—a broad public-private partnership working to make U.S. commercial and industrial buildings 20% more efficient by 2020.

Student teams competed to find the best solutions to energy efficiency challenges presented in real-world case studies for the City of Fort Worth, Texas; the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub; the U.S. General Services Administration; and the "Everything Store," representative of several retail stores including Kohl's, Staples, and Target. These teams presented their ideas and written proposals to a panel of commercial real estate and energy experts at the White House. See the Energy Department Progress Alert and the Better Buildings case studies website.