B2.1 Commercial energy benchmarking and disclosure *
Require energy performance ratings for commercial structures so that owners, tenants and prospective buyers are informed before making purchasing or rental decisions. BuildingRating.org is “an international exchange for information on building rating policies and programs.”
Current State Requirements
Legislation passed in 2009 requires owners of nonresidential buildings larger than 10,000 SF to rate their buildings’ energy and water use for the previous year with Energy Star Portfolio Manager software, and to disclose that information to prospective buyers, lessees and lenders prior to the closing of a transaction (RCW 19.27A.170). State agencies and public campuses are also required to benchmark their energy use in buildings over 10,000 sq. ft., and are required to get audits and any cost effective efficiency upgrades done by owners before renewing leases (RCW 19.27A.190). PSE and other utilities with more than 25,000 customers are required to provide the managers of these buildings with data about their energy use in a format the software can import, and HB 1257 (2019) requires smaller utilities to do that for the commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet that its efficiency targets apply to. The Department of Enterprise Services publishes a biannual report on benchmarking the State’s facilities. (The 2020 report includes an account of the State’s ten year history using the Portfolio Manager software and the many small problems that have severely limited their ability to develop energy use intensities and Energy Star Scores comparing the efficiency of their facilities with that of similar buildings. They have many buildings on campuses that are not separately monitored, but they also actually only have an EUI or ESS for 22% of the stand alone buildings the law covers.)
Local Requirements
Seattle’s Energy Benchmarking Program (SMC 22.920) requires owners of non-residential and multifamily buildings of 20,000 sf or larger to track energy performance and annually report to the City of Seattle, which makes the results publicly available, and to disclose them to various parties upon request. To date the program has over 99 percent compliance.
The City and the University of Washington collaborated on a project researching strategies for a benchmarking program in downtown Bellevue.
The City of Portland adopted a Commercial Building Energy Reporting policy in 2015. The policy requires commercial buildings of 20,000 square feet or more to annually report energy usage. As of 2018, over 93 percent of the 1,018 eligible buildings reported energy use. The city has a detailed guide about how to do the reporting, and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council maintains a list of consultants that building owners can hire to do their reporting.
Around the Country
The number of energy and water disclosure and benchmarking programs for commercial and multifamily buildings is increasing around the country. According to the ACEEE, 77 cities have Benchmarking, Rating & Disclosure policies. A 2017 study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that these programs reduce energy use between 3 and 8 percent, among other energy and non-energy benefits. Between 2008 and 2011, the 35,000 commercial buildings using the EPA’s Portfolio Manager software to monitor their energy use reduced their weather-normalized energy use an average of 2.4%/year, or 7% over the three year period. Chicago’s program reports pretty much the same reductions for buildings in its benchmarking program between 2016 and 2019, but also reports a 15% reduction in GHG emissions/sq.ft. for those buildings.
The Institute for Market Transformation maintains an updated Comparison of U.S. Building Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policies. (Many cities also require benchmarking of multi-family properties.) The Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization’s Model Laws website has link to 23 auditing and benchmarking programs around the country.
California implemented a statewide program that requires large commercial over 50,000 square feet and multifamily over 16 units to report energy use through a benchmarking program. Owners are to use ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and data is publicly disclosed.
New York, which has had a mandatory reporting and disclosure policy for buildings above 50,000 square feet since 2010, found that multi-unit residential buildings in the top 95th percentile of energy use 3.3 times the energy per square meter than the bottom 5th percentile. Such large differences illustrate that certain buildings constitute low-hanging fruit where incentives could lead to increased energy savings. High performance office buildings were seven times as efficient as the lowest performing ones.
Salt Lake City requires annual benchmarking for commercial buildings over 25,000 sq. ft., and publicizes the above average performers each year. Denver has a similar program, and an elegant web display of the data. Austin requires owners of commercial buildings over 10,000 sq. ft. to benchmark and report their energy use rating annually.