Overview:

Summary: Benchmarking is a tool that allows municipalities to track progress on building energy performance over time as well as make comparisons to surrounding and similar buildings.

Implementation: Conduct regular energy efficiency audits on buildings and assess overall performance in the geography.

Considerations for Use: Partnerships with utility providers can support data collection. Municipalities typically target larger buildings for reporting requirements.

• Policy Levers:
  
  
  MandateMandates are government regulations that require stakeholders to meet standards through building codes, ordinances, zoning policies, or other regulatory tools.
• Trigger Points:
  
  
  No-regrets actions (low cost/low effort but substantial benefit)Interventions that are relatively low-cost and low effort (in terms of requisite dependencies) but have substantial environmental and/or social benefits.
• Intervention Type:
  Buildings and Built Form
• Sectors:
  Buildings, Public Works

Impact:

• Target Beneficiaries:
  Property owners, Residents
• Phase of Impact:
  Risk reduction and mitigation
• Metrics:
  Energy use by area, building, and use

Case Studies:

• Vancouver Energy Audit (UNEP, Pg 131)
• Austin Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure Ordinance
• Hong Kong's Energy Audit code

Implementation:

• Intervention Scale:
  City
• Authority and Governance:
  City government
• Implementation Timeline:
  Medium-term (3-9 Years)
• Implementation Stakeholders:
  City government, Industry, Private developers, Property owners and managers
• Funding Sources:
  Public investment
• Capacity to Act:
  High, Medium

Benefits:

• Cost-Benefit:
  Low
• Public Good:
  N/A
• GHG Reduction:
  Medium
• Co-benefits (Climate/Environmental):
  Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Co-benefits (Social):
  N/A