Throughout the country, local and state governments are establishing benchmarking and disclosure policies as a tool to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Together with benchmarking, policies often include periodic audit and/or retro-commissioning requirements.

Miami-Dade County is developing a benchmarking policy that will require benchmarking for non-residential and multi-family buildings that are over 20,000 square feet. As a member of the City Energy Project, the County received a grant that will support its efforts to focus on a stakeholder engagement process to develop and implement a benchmarking policy. The County assembled a working group of local stakeholders that examined and discussed the barriers and solutions to consider when establishing a water and electricity benchmarking policy. The working group helped to develop the policy which is now in the legal review process.

Properties will report their energy and water consumption data to Miami-Dade County through Energy Star Portfolio Manager, a free online tool created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for building owners and managers to benchmark and track the energy and water consumption of their building(s). Energy Star Portfolio Manager is a trusted tool in the industry, 40% of commercial building space in the country is benchmarked in this tool and many municipalities utilize this tool for their benchmarking policies. The County’s proposed policy would require residential and non-residential, public and private buildings 20,000 square feet and over to benchmark annually, perform building retuning every five years, and perform audits every ten years. Reporting deadlines will be staggered by building size with the largest properties starting first.

Depending on the policy, some municipalities disclose the score or energy efficiency of the buildings reporting under a benchmarking policy. The format and breadth of data disclosed varies. Examples of disclosure include: a list of buildings that have benchmarked their energy use, a list of buildings that have benchmarked their energy use along with the score received, a map of buildings with a range of colors depicting energy efficiency, among other formats.

In addition to benchmarking and disclosure, some municipalities also require additional actions such as periodic audits, period retrocommissioning (also called periodic re-tuning), minimum performance scores, among other prescriptive actions meant to improve the efficiency of the benchmarked buildings. Some policies require additional actions for low performing buildings only while others may require those actions for all benchmarked buildings.

In terms of enforcement, some policies outline voluntary benchmarking while others enforce benchmarking through penalties such as fines. For mandatory policies, some municipalities issue a one-time fine while other municipalities issue an accruing fine until a building owner complies. For example, the City of Atlanta (GA) imposes a $1,000 fine each year of non-compliance. The City of Chicago issues a $100 fine for the first violation and $25 per day for continued non-compliance. The City of Philadelphia (PA) issues a $300 fine for the first month of non-compliance and $100 per day for continued non-compliance. The City of Boulder (CO) imposes a fine of $0.0025 per square foot up to $1,000 per day of non-compliance. Some municipalities even enforce through harsher penalties such as Kansas City (MO) which may proceed with a civil suit.

Washington D.C. adopted a benchmarking policy with the support of the Clean Energy and Affordable Energy Act of 2008, which requires all private buildings over 50,000 gross square feet within the District of Columbia to benchmark their energy and water consumption. The benchmarking policy does not include additional requirements but the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) provides online resources to educate building owners and managers on ways to maximize their building’s energy efficiency. The DOEE publishes a spreadsheet of energy and water performance benchmarking results to its website along with a glossary so that anyone form the public can read and understand the data. The D.C. Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU), funded through the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund by a surcharge on all electric and natural utility ratepayers, receives all benchmarking data in a report and uses this data to help its customers improve the energy efficiency of their building(s). The DCSEU also supports the DOEE to operate a benchmarking help center.

Many municipalities and counties that have adopted a benchmarking policy have received the help and feedback from their stakeholders to develop the policies. Stakeholder engagement, community outreach and education are important for the success of these policies. Another factor important for the success of a benchmarking policy is ensuring data quality. Many municipalities have also created a help desk to receive questions and provide guidance regarding their benchmarking policy. It is also important to note that many municipalities collaborate with their utilities which assist with the data compilation process. For example, Eversource, a utility that serves the Boston (MA) area, provides whole-building energy data to building owners as long as there are four or more separate tenants and no single tenant uses more than 50% of the building’s total aggregated energy use. Florida Power and Light (FPL) does not currently provide this type of data to building owners.