OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 3, 2011 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory has received three Sustainability Awards from the Department of Energy for its achievements in energy efficiency and waste reduction.

Deputy Secretary of Energy and Senior Sustainability Officer Daniel Poneman recognized the award winners today (Nov. 3) at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

"Today's (Nov. 3) Sustainability Award winners are leading by example, showing what's possible when employees bring creativity, innovation and dedication to their efforts to make the Department of Energy more sustainable," said Deputy Secretary Poneman. "The efforts undertaken by these individuals and teams are helping the Department to deliver on President Obama's sustainability goals, while inspiring others both inside and outside of government to start investing in cost-saving clean energy technologies."

ORNL's Green Information Technology initiative received a DOE Energy Management Award in recognition of a team effort to deploy a computer power management software application. The effort reduced the lab's energy consumption by 8.1 billion Btu in less than six months and realized cost savings of $143,043 in fiscal year 2010 alone.

ORNL also received a DOE Environmental Sustainability award (EStar) for documenting the efforts of a planning and design team as they implemented changes to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB), Gold level certification, for lab building 1059.

The building's sustainable features include a network of sensors and controls, roofing upgrade and low flow plumbing upgrades. The manual developed during the certification process will streamline similar efforts in other existing buildings as the lab moves forward to achieve its goal of having at least 10 buildings LEED-EB certified by 2014.

"These awards are a result of our efforts to lead by example through energy efficiency and alternative fuels drawing on our clean energy research," said ORNL Director Thom Mason.

DOE also recognized ORNL's Sustainable Campus Initiative with an EStar honorable mention for the project's overarching structure to integrate sustainability into lab-wide operational and business processes. The initiative's comprehensive efforts include the construction of more than a million square feet of LEED-certified office and laboratory space. The expansion of the lab's fleet to include hybrid, electric and flex-fuel vehicles and the construction of solar-assisted charging stations for electric vehicles has also helped to improve energy efficiency in transportation.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science.