The electricity bill for Parking Garage C was cut by more than half in the EPA’s ENERGY STAR National Building Competition, which challenged 245 commercial buildings to save energy, reduce costs and protect Americans’ health and the environment. The results were announced today.

Parking Garage C is the only stand-alone parking structure to take part in the two-year-old competition. The garage is located on the east side of UCF’s main campus, near the engineering buildings.

“These types of initiatives allow us to further demonstrate UCF’s commitment to sustainability,” said David Norvell, UCF’s director of Sustainability & Energy Management. “A parking garage winning the competition also shows that there are ways of using energy more efficiently in all types of facilities.”

The EPA competition included 26 types of commercial buildings from 33 states and the District of Columbia. Participants included schools, hotels and museums.

The competition compared buildings’ energy use between two yearlong periods by measuring their energy use intensity (EUI), which represents the energy consumed by a building relative to its size. Parking Garage C won for demonstrating the greatest percentage reduction in EUI from Sept. 1, 2010, through Aug. 31, 2011.

At UCF, the Department of Sustainability & Energy Management worked with Parking and Transportation Services to make Garage C as efficient as possible by performing retrofits of older equipment.

All of the garage’s interior lights were replaced with T5 fluorescent bulbs that use less energy and improve light quality. New low-maintenance, energy-efficient LED lighting fixtures are anticipated to require little to no service for about 14 years.

“On our campus, all six parking structures now maintain the same lighting, resulting in a friendlier environment, reduction in pollution and longer-lasting bulbs,” said Kris Singh, director of UCF Parking and Transportation Services.

According to the EPA, energy use in commercial buildings accounts for nearly 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. An average of 30 percent of energy used by commercial properties is wasted, the agency says.

From improvements in operations and maintenance to upgrades in equipment and technology, this year’s “Battle of the Buildings” competitors together saved more than $5.2 million on annual utility bills. They also prevented greenhouse gas emissions equal to the electricity used by more than 3,600 homes per year.

To learn more about “Battle of the Buildings,” go to .

UCF members pay a $35 annual fee to participate in the program. Members can reserve cars for as little as an hour or for multiple days. Rates on all Zipcars start as low as $8 per hour and $66 per day. Gas, insurance, reserved parking spots, up to 180 miles of driving per day and roadside assistance are included in the hourly and daily rates.

“We are continuously seeking ways to improve campus life, and by bringing Zipcar to campus we are able to provide more options for safe, reliable and low-cost transportation to students and the community,” said Kris Singh, director of UCF Parking & Transportation Services. “In addition, car sharing helps us lower our community’s carbon footprint and impact on the environment.”

Four vehicles will be available, including two hybrid Honda Insights and two MAZDA3’s. Two cars will be located in parking lot B9 across from the Recreation and Wellness Center, while the other two vehicles will be located in parking lot H4 near the Visual Arts Building.

Zipcars are self-service and can be easily reserved and accessed 24-hours a day. Participating members with smartphones, including iPhone and Android devices, may download the Zipcar mobile application to make reservations, lock and unlock the vehicles, as well as honk the horn to help locate the vehicle.  Reservations can also be made over the phone or by using the Zipcar website.

“Bringing Zipcar to UCF will help reduce congestion and the demand for parking on campus, in addition to providing convenience, flexibility and cost savings to members,” said Mark Norman, Zipcar’s president and COO. “Zipcar also offers environmental benefits to the campus as well.  National studies have shown that each car shared takes 15 privately owned vehicles off the road, and that vehicle miles traveled per driver is reduced almost 50 percent when car owners switch to car sharing.”

Zipcar has established partnerships with more than 230 universities, including University of Florida and Georgia State University. For more information, including how to become a member of Zipcar at UCF, visit or call 1.800.4ZIPCAR.

Zimride uses Facebook and Google Maps to help UCF commuters seek out or offer rides. ��AV is the first university in Florida and the largest in the nation to utilize the service.

“Ů��AV is such a technologically and socially oriented campus,” said Taylor Lochrane, Student Government Association vice president. “Zimride is one way that we can make campus commuting work better for everyone.

“This partnership will also mark a significant step in improving campus sustainability practices and reducing emissions,” he added.

SGA and UCF Parking and Transportation Services are offering the service for free to the entire UCF community. About 200 people had already signed up by the official June 29 launch date.

Here’s how it works: Users can log in at with their university e-mail address, create profiles and view others’ profiles. They can share details of their commutes, including music preferences and driving styles. Drivers have the option of charging riders and posting the prices on their profiles.

Users can limit how much information ride seekers see. Security settings allow only the university community to sign up on the UCF-Zimride Web site.

Zimride directly links with users’ Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and other social media networks, enabling them to quickly contact riders or drivers. Users are able to rate other drivers and find out how much money they’re saving in gas and how much they’re reducing their own carbon footprint by carpooling.

The university also can calculate how much its community is reducing emissions through carpooling. The initiative is part of a larger effort to help UCF become climate neutral by 2050.

Zimride is the largest online social rideshare community in North America with more than 350,000 users. Other schools using the service include Stanford University, UCLA and the University of Michigan.

Organizers hope at least 10 percent of UCF’s population will sign up for Zimride within the first year.

While adding the new carpooling service, UCF continues to operate a free shuttle system that connects the campus with 17 nearby apartment complexes, Central Florida Research Park, Rosen College of Hospitality Management and the College of Medicine in Lake Nona.

With 34 buses, the shuttle system has served more than 2 million riders since it started in 2002.

“We think Zimride will work well here,” said Kris Singh, director of UCF Parking and Transportation Services. “Along with our successful shuttles, carpooling makes getting to and from campus more convenient, helps our students save money and has a sizeable impact on campus traffic and parking.”