Overview:

Summary: Reporting on building energy performance allows governments to understand the current energy efficiency status of the existing building stock. This sets a baseline for measuring progress and reveals opportunities and priorities.

Implementation: Adopt an ordinance to require buildings, based on characteristics such as size and use, to report annual energy and water use. Governments can make this information publicly-available.

Considerations for Use: Building Management Systems (BMS) can automate collection of this data at the building scale and require minimal maintenance once installed.

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

Case Studies:

• Boston Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (UNEP, Pg 131)

Implementation:

• Intervention Scale:
  City, State/Province
• Authority and Governance:
  City government, State/provincial government
• Implementation Timeline:
  Medium-term (3-9 Years)
• Implementation Stakeholders:
  City government, Property owners and managers
• Funding Sources:
  N/A
• Capacity to Act:
  High

Benefits:

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