Fact sheet supporting Chicago's energy benchmarking program.

This fifth annual report details the energy performance of 468 San Francisco municipal facilities encompassing nearly 49 million square feet of building area during calendar year 2015. San Francisco began to benchmark its properties in 2011, when the San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance was approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Edwin M. Lee. This ordinance requires owners of non-residential buildings over 10,000 square feet to annually benchmark and disclose the energy performance of their buildings, using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Portfolio Manager tool to obtain ENERGY STAR ratings when possible.

An overview of Municipal and State green building benchmarking laws including Austion, Boston, California, Chicago, Washington, DC, Minneapolic, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington.

An overview of Municipal and State green building benchmarking laws including Austin, Boston, California, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington.

It is relatively easy to make the connection that tracking and disclosing a building's energy usage will promote energy savings, but in fact, there are many other benefits that go far beyond simply kilowatt hours. While benchmarking brings building owners' attention to energy efficiency, resulting in behavioral and operational changes that spur immediate and low-cost reductions in energy consumption, these policies also provide the opportunity for increased government efficiency, job creation, and economic and environmental health.

Governments everywhere are looking for ways to create new, quality jobs, despite restricted budgets. Although many have enacted programs that facilitate energy efficiency retrofits for the residential and commercial sectors, retrofit of public buildings has garnered little policy attention.

As states and cities seek to meet their energy savings and carbon emissions reduction goals, new and innovative solutions are needed to improve energy efficiency in the stock of existing homes and buildings. One key tool-building energy rating and disclosure (BER&D) -seeks to ensure that real estate markets value energy efficiency by requiring information about building energy performance be disclosed to potential buyers, renters and the public. These policies range from simple checklists for new home efficiency features to comprehensive regulations that require new and existing homes and commercial buildings to undergo an energy audit. BER&D policies are often linked with improved building energy codes, and in some cases poor rating results can trigger mandatory efficiency upgrades for poorly performing buildings.

As states and cities seek to meet their energy savings and carbon emissions reduction goals, new and innovative solutions are needed to improve energy efficiency in the stock of existing homes and buildings. One key tool - building energy rating and disclosure (BER&D) - seeks to ensure that real estate markets value energy efficiency by requiring information about building energy performance be disclosed to potential buyers, renters and the public. These policies range from simple checklists for new home efficiency features to comprehensive regulations that require new and existing homes and commercial buildings to undergo an energy audit. BER&D policies are often linked with improved building energy codes, and in some cases poor rating results can trigger mandatory efficiency upgrades for poorly performing buildings.

According to an EPA sponsored report, the city saw a cumulative energy savings of 5.7% during the first four years of the policy (2010-2013), which resulted in total dollar savings of $267 million. An input-output analysis estimated that operations and maintenance upgrades and capital improvements associated with the policy induced the creation of 3,132 jobs during the period.

It is relatively easy to make the connection that tracking and disclosing a building's energy usage will promote energy savings, but in fact, there are many other benefits that go far beyond simply kilowatt hours. While benchmarking brings building owners' attention to energy efficiency, resulting in behavioral and operational changes that spur immediate and low-cost reductions in energy consumption, these policies also provide the opportunity for increased government efficiency, job creation, and economic and environmental health.