Introducing BuildingRating.org

We are proud to announce (drumroll, please…) the official launch of the new one-stop-shop for everything you ever needed or wanted to know about the rating and disclosure of energy performance in buildings… BuildingRating.org.

There are many of us who feel that perfect-storm type conditions are fast approaching for the widespread adoption and implementation energy efficiency strategies; and, in particular, rating and disclosure policies.  Obama dubbed insulation to be sexy; I, for one, couldn’t agree more.  Many states and local jurisdictions are creating climate action plans and carbon reduction strategies, with energy efficiency as a key weapon in the arsenal.  Many are also realizing that benchmarking and labeling energy performance in buildings is an low-to-no-cost, low-hanging, energy-saving fruit which can be utilized to help meet those carbon reduction goals.  Other energy efficiency stakeholders have begun to understand that rating and disclosure polices have the ability to jump-start the market’s valuation of energy efficiency and begin an ever more awesome and self perpetuating cycle of rating → disclosing → market recognizes, values and selects for higher efficiency → encourages investments in retrofits and retrocommissioning in existing buildings → leading to improved efficiency → resulting in an improved disclosed rating → well, you get the idea.  Globally, Europe, Australia, Canada, China and Russia, among others, are paving the way and helping to hammer out best and most effective rating and disclosure practices (as well as what not to do!), and in the United States, there’s New York City, Seattle (and state of Washington), Austin, the District of Columbia and California, doing much the same, with Massachusetts, Portland, and San Francisco not far behind.

With the current, unprecedented momentum and public support (not to mention awareness) for energy efficiency, and the growing interest in rating and disclosure policies as a tool to get there, the need for a website like BuildingRating.org seemed imminent.  We hope you agree, and that you find the resources here helpful, informative, and expansive.  If you don’t, we hope you’ll let us know what we are missing – or what we could do to better improve the site.  This will be an ongoing process, keeping abreast of all the fabulous rating-and-disclosure-related developments all over the world – one that we hope will get more challenging with time as more and more countries, cities and jurisdictions develop, adopt, and implement rating and disclosure policies.

From all of us – WELCOME to BuildingRating.org!