The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has honored Liberty Property Trust in Malvern, Chester County, with an Energy Star Partner of the Year designation for the third consecutive year – and in doing so has also given it the organization’s highest honor: the Sustained Excellence Award.

Other Energy Star Award winners in Pennsylvania include: Air King Limited, West Chester; Brandywine Realty Trust, Radnor; EnergyCAP, Inc., State College; North Penn School District, Lansdale; Ricoh Americas Corporation, Malvern;  and Saint-Gobain, Valley Forge.

The Sustained Excellence Award highlights Liberty’s continued leadership in protecting the environment through superior energy efficiency.

“Receiving the Sustained Excellence Award is a wonderful confirmation of what hundreds of our tenants already know: sustainable design and property management save measurable amounts of energy which translates into measurable savings on their bottom lines,” said Marla Thalheimer, director of sustainability for Liberty.  “During the past six years, our tenants have saved millions of dollars on energy bills. Each day we come to work looking for the ‘next’ thing that will help tenants control energy costs, and we look forward to moving even further forward in the coming year.”

For more than a decade, Liberty Property Trust has led the commercial real estate industry in the development, management and operations of sustainable buildings. The company has certified 118 buildings with Energy Star and developed (or has in development) 69 LEED commercial buildings.

Some of the other reasons the EPA presented the Sustained Excellence Award to Liberty include:

-- Liberty has increased its average Energy Star score from 55 to 75 since 2008 with more than a 20 percent energy savings.

-- The company is completing a smart grid research and development project with PECO Energy that implemented advanced lighting and HVAC controls, advanced metering, and a three-tiered demand response system in multi-tenanted office buildings.

-- While completing the Building Owners and Manager’s Association’s 7-Point Challenge, Liberty has received recognition as the “Most Innovative” for its development of the Liberty Energy Efficiency Partnership (LEEP) Program.

-- Educating tenants, the company is committed to distributing monthly progress reports to property managers and upper management highlighting current ENERGY STAR scores and changes in energy use percentages for each city and region and for the portfolio as a whole.

-- Communicating with the community about the importance of ENERGY STAR, Liberty has established and maintained the Liberty Green Guide website, which serves as a resource for office and industrial tenants, and for the general public. In 2013, page views increased by more than 70 percent over the previous year.

The 2014 Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence Awards are given to a variety of organizations to recognize their contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through superior energy efficiency.

These winners have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by setting and achieving aggressive goals, and employing innovative energy efficiency approaches. These awards recognize ongoing leadership across the Energy Star program, including energy-efficient products, services, new homes, and buildings in the commercial, industrial, and public sectors. Award winners are selected from the 16,000 organizations that participate in the Energy Star program.

Awards will be presented in Washington, D.C. on April 29.

For more information, visit the Liberty Property Trust Sustainability webpage.

4/7/2014