Energy efficiency and high performance building are the quickest and most cost-effective practices to save everyday families and businesses money on monthly utility bills, reduce our overall energy usage, improve comfort in homes and buildings, and make sensible use of Utah’s energy resources. In turn, this strengthens local economies and creates new clean energy careers.

To dramatically improve energy efficiency in the building sector, Utah Clean Energy helped create a public-private initiative, along with several state agencies, to launch a new program: Utah Building Energy Efficiency Strategies (UBEES). UBEES is designed to increase energy efficiency, high performance building strategies, and on-site renewable energy in state and local government, commercial, and residential buildings.

The UBEES project has two primary goals:

• Create the market and workforce to position Utah at the forefront for the social and economic prosperity through continued investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy;
• Play a significant role in meeting Utah’s energy efficiency and renewable energy goals. These include a 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2015 and meeting 20% of Utah’s electricity generation with renewable sources by 2025.

To reach these goals, UBEES will design and implement an energy efficiency best practices model for Utah state government - with its 44.47 million square feet of building space, currently consuming $60 million in energy costs annually. The best practice model will be shared with Utah’s private sector businesses, industrial facilities, and homes, thus creating enormous energy savings potential across Utah’s entire economy.

WHO IS UBEES?
After participating in the 2008 National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices Policy Academy, the UBEES team was established, consisting of:

• Division of Facilities Construction and Management, Department of Administrative Services
• Governor’s Energy Advisor and staff
• State Energy Program in the Utah Geological Survey, Department of Natural Resources
• Utah Clean Energy