Commercial Green Building News and Analysis!

Commercial Energy Bills in the Public Record: A Good Choice?

Question:


Do you believe the energy bills for commercial buildings should be made public to encourage greater efficiency?

Answer:


Over time it will become more common for individual states to require building owners to disclose their energy and electricity consumption levels. The theory is that it is possible that by making the information public, irresponsible building owners/operators would be forced to become more efficient or face consumer backlash. The result is that the release of Co2, methane and other greenhouse gases would then be reduced.

Automatically making utility bills a matter of public record as part of public watchdog effort is under way in some states.

The District of Columbia and California have already passed legislation that will require certain buildings to report their energy consumption to the EPA and/or make commercial building energy consumption a matter of public record. Commercial buildings must be benchmarked against the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool. In Washington D.C., starting in 2010, energy bills for buildings 200,000 square feet and greater will be required to make their energy bills a matter of public record.

The challenge in creating a nation of high-efficiency buildings is not building LEED certified, ENERGY STAR certified buildings from the ground up, but retrofitting and greening the the estimated 850,000-950,000 "brown" commercial buildings that currently exist in the United States.

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