Rebates Help Salvation Army Achieve LEED Certification

The Salvation Army’s new Hospitality House in Tucson, a 33,000-square-foot facility with space for emergency shelter, transitional housing and offices, was designed and built to meet high energy-efficiency standards under a Tucson Electric Power rebate program for commercial customers.

The new LEED Silver-certified building on Main Avenue just south of Speedway Boulevard replaces a 50-year-old facility and will assist the agency in providing more than 50,000 meals annually in Tucson.

TEP provided energy-efficiency guidance to the Salvation Army, its architect and construction contractor, in addition to the rebates. TEP will make a donation to the nonprofit matching its rebate amount, and employee volunteers will help plant trees and landscape around the new facility.

The TEP New Construction program offers rebates to help commercial building owners and developers incorporate energy efficiency into their designs for new construction and major renovations.

“We pay rebates based on the projected energy savings over the first year,” said Randy Altergott, TEP’s Supervisor of Commercial Demand Side Management. “This encourages our customers to build new facilities that use less energy.”

Since the rebate program launched in 2008, it has helped about 20 new buildings meet higher efficiency standards, giving back to commercial customers 10 cents per kilowatt hour saved over the course of the first year of operation.

Fire stations, Wal-Mart stores, schools, University of Arizona residence halls and the UA’s new Lowell-Stevens football facility have been built using the rebate program.

For-profit businesses can use the savings to help grow their businesses, hire more workers and expand. Nonprofits like the Salvation Army can use the money saved from utility costs to extend their mission.

“One of the reasons we have this program is to help our customers strengthen and grow their businesses and services,” Altergott said. “Our entire community benefits as a result.”

For more information about the TEP New Construction program, call 520-495-6333 or email saveenergy@tep.com.

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