The city of Charlotte, N.C., is continuing to grow its Envision Charlotte initiative and reach its goal of a 20 percent reduction in energy usage.
The program, which was announced in 2010, aims to bring sustainability and efficiency to the city's uptown business district and make green buildings a reality for all companies.
A major part of the project is using an influx of data – available thanks to advances in the smart grid – to monitor building activity. Nearly every building in the central business district is equipped with a kiosk, allowing occupants to view building specific energy use information, as well as aggregate data for the entire business district, according to Lisa Shpritz, a senior vice president at Bank of America.