Atlanta, GA, April 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PDM) today announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy have recognized the Company as a 2021 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year.

Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. ENERGY STAR Award Winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to addressing the human impact on climate change.

“Piedmont is honored to receive the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year award, recognizing our accomplishments to date and our ongoing commitment to reduce energy consumption within our buildings.  More and more businesses are focused on their impact on the environment and the communities in which they live and work.  Piedmont is proud to be a leader in real estate sustainability which benefits our tenants by lowering operating expenses as well as reducing their carbon footprint,” said C. Brent Smith, Piedmont’s President and Chief Executive Officer.     

Piedmont’s 2020 accomplishments related to award-winning energy management programs included:

• Earned ENERGY STAR recognition for 41 buildings (12.2 million square feet).
• Benchmarked 100% of managed office assets for energy and water usage, within ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.
• Continued our progress toward achieving our goals of 20% energy, water, and greenhouse gas emissions by 2026, 2028, and 2028, respectively.
• Piloted multiple cutting edge, efficiency technologies and healthy building strategies throughout the portfolio.

“ENERGY STAR award-winning partners are showing the world that delivering real climate solutions makes good business sense and promotes job growth,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Many of them have been doing it for years, inspiring all of us who are committed to tackling the climate crisis and leading the way to a clean energy economy.”

Winners were selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2021 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

About Piedmont Office Realty Trust
Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PDM) is an owner, manager, developer, redeveloper, and operator of high-quality, Class A office properties located primarily in select sub-markets within seven major Eastern U.S. office markets, with the majority of its revenue being generated from the Sunbelt. Its geographically-diversified, approximately $5 billion portfolio is currently comprised of approximately 17 million square feet. The Company is a fully-integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) with local management offices in each of its markets and is investment-grade rated by S&P Global Ratings (BBB) and Moody’s (Baa2). As of March 31, 2021, approximately 74% of the Company’s portfolio was ENERGY STAR certified and approximately 43% was LEED certified. For more information, see www.piedmontreit.com.

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $450 billion in energy costs and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at: https://www.energystar.gov/about and https://www.energystar.gov/about/origins_mission/energy_star_numbers

CONTACT:

Jon Kuskie
Director of Sustainability and National Initiatives
Piedmont Office Realty Trust
Jon.kuskie@piedmontreit.com