More Cities Adopt Building Benchmarking

March 11, 2013 - The city of Minneapolis recently joined a growing list of cities that aim to improve buildings’ energy efficiency by requiring the benchmarking and disclosure of energy and water usage for public and commercial properties. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) supports benchmarking initiatives and applauds the city’s move.

The ordinance, which passed the Minneapolis City Council on Feb. 8, phases in the benchmarking and disclosure requirements for buildings over the next four years. Public buildings larger than 25,000 square feet will start disclosing the information starting in 2013. Minneapolis becomes the seventh American city to adopt benchmarking requirements. Philadelphia was the last city to pass a similar ordinance following the lead of New York, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Only California and Washington State mandate it at a statewide level.

As more city governments look to improve their buildings’ performance through benchmarking policies, property owners can run into challenges when they need to track energy and water usage. Sometimes, building owners don’t have full access to information on their building’s total energy consumption. USGBC recently led a discussion between Minneapolis building industry stakeholders, Minnesota utilities, and government officials on how to better share energy and water utility data under its Improve Energy Data Access Campaign.

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