Title
Resolution Recommending Ann Arbor City Council Direct the Development of a Commercial Building Energy
Benchmarking and Disclosure Ordinance
Memorandum
At its February 2014 meeting, the Ann Arbor Energy Commission unanimously approved the following resolution to initiate development of a commercial building energy
benchmarking and disclosure ordinance. In order to meet community-wide goals set in the 2012 Climate Action Plan (R-12-572), the Commission is recommending commercial buildings annually report energy consumption in a format consistent with the free online energy
benchmarking system, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager(c), provided by the U.S. EPA. Streamlined services like Portfolio Manager are built into the annual disclosure process to allow simple reporting of annual energy usage. This resolution requests a stakeholder group be convened to develop and present a draft ordinance by the start of 2015. Several cities across the U.S. have adopted
benchmarking ordinances similar to what would be considered for Ann Arbor and a portion of these municipalities are listed in the resolution, most being similarly motivated by their respective Climate Action Plan greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. These ordinances are intended to facilitate the free-flow of information that enables the market to respond to building energy performance, evidenced in a number of studies indicating higher occupancy and faster leasing of energy efficient buildings.
Much like "Miles per Gallon (MPG)" or "Nutritional Facts" labeling for vehicles and food products, these ordinances set in place the ability to compare and rate the performance of various commercial buildings, while driving awareness among building users, pointing to the benefits of energy efficiency improvements. Awareness of energy consumption has been shown to drive building-owners to pursue energy audits which lead to energy efficiency upgrades that result in cost savings, reduced emissions associated with ener...
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