Facility Manager Receives Award from U.S. Energy Association

John Sugrue, director of facilities for City Colleges of Chicago, received an Energy Leadership Award/Public Service Category at the 17th Annual Energy Efficiency Forum in Washington, D.C. yesterday. The Forum is a nonpartisan event sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association (USEA) and Johnson Controls, Inc. designed to raise awareness of the technical, economic, and political solutions available to improve energy efficiency. This year’s event is titled “Energy Efficiency: The Path Toward Independence,” highlighting the growing awareness of energy’s impact on the U.S. economy and security in today’s world.

Four years ago, Sugrue became facility manager of 4.5 million square feet of the City Colleges facilities spread across Chicago. Though spending on academic resources is any educational institution’s priority, Sugrue made a strong case to the colleges’ chancellor and board of directors that underperforming facilities would be a detriment to the future growth of the institution. With their support he has undertaken a variety of retrofits and upgrades to the facilities’ infrastructures to create energy and operational savings as well as better learning environments.

Today, additional Energy Leadership Awards are being given in conjunction with the Forum. Recipients being honored for their efforts to promote energy awareness and conservation include New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, and Cheng Lianyuan, bureau director at the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industrial Development.

A diverse executive council selects the award recipients.

In all, 12 individual are receiving the awards this year. The others are: Sen. Diane Feinstein, D.-Calif.; former senator Timothy Wirth, now president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund; former U.S. Navy Secretary John Dalton, now board member of the National Center for Community Renewal; Jacqueline Schafer, assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for economic growth, agriculture and trade; Matthew Driscoll, mayor of Syracuse, N.Y.; Bill Kennemer, chair of the Clackamas County (Oregon) Commission; Diane Munns, president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and a member of the Iowa Utilities Board; and Robert Koger, president and executive director of Advanced Energy Corp.

The Congressional Energy Leadership Awards (Sens. Clinton, Feinstein and former Sen. Worth), the International Leadership Awards (Cheng Lianyuan and Schafer) and the Governor’s Energy Leadership Award (Rendell) are being presented today at the National Press Club.

The Public Service Energy Leadership Awards (Dalton, Kennemer, Munns, Sugrue, and Koger) and the Mayor’s Award (Driscoll) were presented yesterday during a reception at the Rayburn House Office Building.

For more information on the Energy Efficiency Forum, visit www.eeforum.net.