The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) has been honored with the 2023 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy for demonstrating exemplary commitment and dedication to leadership in energy efficiency and the ENERGY STAR program. “As we accelerate historic efforts to address climate change, public-private partnerships will be essential to realizing the scale of our ambition,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I applaud this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for working with EPA to deliver a clean energy future that saves American consumers and businesses money and creates jobs.”
NAPA is working in partnership with EPA ENERGY STAR to develop resources to enable asphalt mixture producers and paving contractors to better understand their energy performance and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from their facilities. Such efforts include:
- Promoting ENERGY STAR partnership among NAPA members, with six becoming ENERGY STAR partners in 2022;
- Developing an Asphalt Plant Energy Performance Peer Exchange (APEX) programto share best practices and develop resources supporting energy management at asphalt plants;
- Publishing The Road Forward, an industry-wide vision for producing and constructing net zero carbon emission asphalt pavements by 2050;
- Supporting the development of an ENERGY STAR asphalt pavement plant energy performance indicator tool to assist asphalt mix producers measure and benchmark the energy performance of their plants; and
- Including a provision in the Product Category Rules for Asphalt Mixtures that allows Environmental Product Declarations for Asphalt Mixtures to include information about a company’s ENERGY STAR accomplishments (section 8.3.2).
“NAPA’s commitment to sustainability has taken on new prevalence with The Road Forward, and the APEX Program will be a key component for achieving those goals,” said President & CEO Audrey Copeland, PhD, PE. “Already, our partnership with ENERGY STAR is providing value by enabling NAPA members to learn best practices for managing and reducing energy consumption at asphalt plants throughout the country.”
Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a select group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions in the transition to a clean energy economy. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to fighting the climate crisis, protecting public health, and creating a clean energy future for everyone. Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners.