The Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge honored four buildings and property portfolios last week at its annual event. The Better Buildings Challenge honors commercial properties that are pioneering green building efforts by addressing the California drought, an aging power grid and Los Angeles' growing population. This year—the fifth annual event—the Better Buildings Challenge received twice the number of submissions as it did in 2018, an illustration of increasing green and energy-efficient practices. "Turn out was great. It was completely full, and the response was awesome," says David Hodgins, executive director at the L.A. Better Buildings Challenge, tells Globest.com. "Owners are competing year after year, and it continues to grow. I'm especially proud of the way we bring together different organizations to support the event—BOMA, IREM, and CCIM, but also USGBC, UCLA and other advocacy groups. So there's this exchange of ideas and learning that happens." The challenge honors six projects. This year, 10 Universal City Plaza won the award for Energy Efficiency Project of the Year because of its use of smart commissioning and integrated performance analytics with HVAC plant system operations; Westin Bonaventure won the award for Water Efficiency Project of the Year for its upgrades to hotels heating plant and laundry facilities that improved both energy and water efficiency; Brookfield Properties won for Portfolio Project of the Year, which won last year in the same category; Los Angeles Convention Center won Energy Efficiency Project of the Year for the sustainability features integrated throughout the center, including the addition of 2.21 megawatts of capacity to its solar array; County of Los Angeles won the award for Water Efficiency Project of the Year for setting a goal of reducing water use 20% by 2020; and Los Angeles Unified School District won for Portfolio Project of the Year for overhaul its lighting systems and leveraging proposed critical repair projects to incorporate sustainable design features to reduce their carbon footprint.. These four projects and owners are leaders in green practices, and are encouraging other owners to adopt similar practices. "We got dozens of submissions this year, more than two-times previous years, so competition was very tough," said Hodgins. "The categories and criteria were the same for the private buildings, but we added two more categories for public buildings, because we got a huge response there as well." Hodgins expects the program to continue to grow. For owners looking to make upgrades to increase efficiency—and ultimately save on utility costs—LABBC has outlined energy and water efficient goals, which include best practices and guidance. To get a sneak peak inside the fourth annual awards ceremony, scroll through the photo gallery above.