Southern Energy Management (SEM), a sustainable energy company based in North Carolina, has received the 2012 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
SEM has been recognized for its ongoing commitment in protecting the environment via energy efficiency. This is the second Sustained Excellence award earned by the company. The award ceremony, which is to be held on March 15, 2012 in Washington, D.C., also marks the ENERGY STAR’s 20th anniversary. The 2012 Sustained Excellence Awards recognizes the continuing leadership all through the ENERGY STAR program, which includes energy-efficient technologies and services and new houses and buildings in the public, commercial and industrial sectors.
Recently, SEM has achieved a major milestone by certifying its 10,000th ENERGY STAR house. The company has collaborated with 150 home builders and has helped them to build over 2,500 green-certified and ENERGY STAR homes in 2011. The construction is equivalent to removing a minimum of 16 million lbs of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the air.
In the past 20 years, businesses and families in America have made about $230 billion savings on their utility bills with the support from the ENERGY STAR program. In addition, they have eliminated greenhouse gas emissions, which are equivalent to emissions from over 350 million vehicles.