|
|
Mayor Menino Announces Filing of Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance
Large Commercial and Residential Buildings Would Disclose Energy Usage in Order to Encourage Investment in Energy Efficiency
February 22, 2013
 Mayor
Thomas M. Menino announced today the filing of the Building Energy
Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance with the Boston City Council. The
proposed ordinance has two goals:
- Encourage building owners to
participate in local utility energy efficiency programs
- Educate
tenants on building performance
Mayor Menino has established greenhouse gas reduction goals and this
ordinance is one of the components of the City's climate action
plan. The ordinance would require all large and medium
sized-buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the City
of Boston.
"In order for Boston to continue to be a sustainability leader, our
buildings must aggressively invest in energy efficiency," Mayor Menino
said. "Bostonians demand buildings with high performance and this
ordinance will encourage building owners to meet that demand."
Lessons from Other Cities
Major cities across the country have already adopted similar ordinances including
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Minneapolis
Lessons learned from these cities have informed the Ordinance proposed by Mayor Menino.
All large and medium sized buildings must report measures tracked by
the Energy Star Portfolio Manager to the City of Boston Environment
Department including.
- annual energy use
- water use
- greenhouse gas emissions
The City would then make energy and water use per square foot, Energy
Star ratings, greenhouse gas emissions, and other identifying and
contextual information for individual buildings available online.
The Principle of: Measurement Spurs Management
"The Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance follows the
principal of what gets measured gets managed," says Brian Swett, Chief
of Environment and Energy. "Through measurement and transparency
the Ordinance will encourage cost effective building investments in
energy and water efficiency that will improve building performance,
save money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Since fall of 2012, the City has been conducting extensive outreach to
a wide variety of building owners, industry organizations, and other
stakeholders to craft the Ordinance. In particular, Environment and
Energy Services is working with local utilities to help develop a
process that simplifies whole building data collection and reporting.
City to Make Public Disclosure of Building Energy Measures
Leading by example, Boston would annually disclose its energy and water
use in all of its facilities starting with 2012 building data. In
following years, the ordinance would apply to non-residential buildings
greater than 25,000 square feet and residential buildings 25 units or
more. The proposed roll out schedule for reporting requirements is as
follows:
2014
|
Non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet or more |
| 2015 |
Residential buildings with 50 units or more in
|
| 2016 |
Non-residential buildings 25,000 square feet or more |
| 2017 |
Residential buildings with 25 units or more |
In addition to reporting
energy and water use, buildings may be required to conduct energy
audits or other evaluations every five years to identify opportunities
for energy efficiency investments. Buildings in the top tier of
energy performance or already taking significant efficiency actions
will be exempted from this requirement.
Climate Action Plan Highlights
- The largest component of the Mayor's Climate Action
Plan is reducing greenhouse gas emissions through investments in energy
efficiency.
- Mayor Menino has established Boston as a national
leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a clean
energy economy through initiatives
- Renew Boston
- First in the nation green building standards for private developments
- To further inspire action, Mayor Menino has launched
Greenovate Boston, a new sustainability movement to ensure a greener,
healthier and more prosperous future for the City.
|
|
|
Posted: February 23, 2013
Nancy J Conrad
|
Your comments will be posted here and in the Letters to the Editor after processing.
|
|
|
