BuildingGreen, Inc. has teamed up with Google and the Department of Energy to build a very cool feature into Google Earth…the ability to see buildings that have achieved a High Performance Energy rating. (Which means that it has met certain benchmarks for energy performance.)

There isn’t that many buildings in the middle of the country but the coasts have tons of dots. You can even download the 3D Sketchup model for each particular building.

From the Google Earth Outreach Showcase:

“This KML showcases buildings across the United States that are included in the Department of Energy’s High Performance Buildings Database, which features buildings that meet certain energy and environmental performance guidelines. Be sure to click the “View 3D model in Google Earth” link to see a 3D virtual representation of the building.”