Efficient Building Challenge in Mexico City supported by USAID/Mexico and LBNL achieves energy savings and emission reductions

LBNL and USAID/Mexico delivered technical assistance to the 2022-2023 Mexico City Efficient Building Challenge, an initiative aimed at reducing energy use and GHG emissions in public and private buildings. The project, led by WRI Mexico and the Mexico City Secretariat of the Environment (SEDEMA), achieved the reduction of energy usage and GHG emissions by 6% in five months among participating companies across Mexico.

The technical assistance delivered by LBNL with USAID/Mexico is part of the Energy Efficiency for Development program (EE4D) and consisted in the use of the BETTER toolkit to assess energy usage in private buildings and recommend low- or no-cost energy efficiency measures that result in economic and environmental benefits. Representatives of the private companies that participated in the Challenge, which seeks to cut energy use and emissions by 10% annually, avoiding emission of 825 Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e) each year, recognized the impact of BETTER and committed to continuing implementation of energy efficiency interventions.

As part of the closing event of the Challenge, LBNL launched the BETTER | Mexico toolkit, which adds a building energy database specific to Mexico and customized building electricity and fossil energy consumption statistics to deliver accurate and precise benchmarking and net zero retrofit analysis of buildings in Mexico. The development of BETTER | Mexico, a web-based application that is available in Spanish and English, is supported by USAID/Mexico and was made possible by input and building data provided by partners in the public and private sectors.

Watch this video to hear testimonials by Challenge participants (in Spanish).