Energy-Use Reporting Mandated in California
A law requiring annual energy-use reporting for all of California's nonresidential buildings takes effect in January 2009, and the state Department of General Services has been working closely with utilities to streamline the reporting process. Beginning in 2010, owners of commercial buildings must disclose their energy usage and Energy Star rating to potential buyers, leasers, and financiers. The legislation, which is similar to a European Union (EU) requirement that took effect in 2006-7, was signed into law in October 2007.
While this law does not directly require public disclosure of the energy performance of individual buildings, as mandated by Washington, D.C.'s new Clean and Affordable Energy Act, real-estate listing services are likely to include it.
The California regulation differs from the EU law because it looks only at actual energy use, while the EU also requires a computer-modeling estimate of projected use based on the efficiency of the building's systems, which gives potential buyers more data to work with. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and elsewhere are exploring the potential of a more robust benchmarking system that would provide guidance on energy use by specific systems within the building, which would help identify conservation opportunities. Even without that additional detail, however, just having to publicly report energy performance numbers should encourage facility managers to pay closer attention to their bills because real estate valuation has the potential to magnify the effect of higher energy costs.
For more details, view the Environmental Building News update from BuildingGreen.com.
For more California code status information, please consult the BCAP California Code Status page.