Atlanta

The Commercial Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance (No. 15-O-1101) was unanimously passed by the Atlanta City Council on April 21, 2015. Authored by the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, the ordinance aims to reduce the city’s energy footprint while creating jobs. The City projects that the ordinance will drive a 20 percent reduction in commercial energy consumption by the year 2030, spur the creation of more than 1,000 jobs a year in the first few years, and reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent from 2013 levels by 2030.

Atlanta’s Commercial Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance addresses energy use in private and City-owned buildings over 25,000 square feet in size - 2,350 buildings that, as a whole, currently represent 80 percent of the city’s commercial sector. Participating buildings will be phased in, beginning with municipal buildings in 2015 and expanding to include private buildings in 2016.

Under the legislation, building owners of the designated buildings are required to benchmark and report to the City their properties’ energy use annually. Utilizing the data collected, building owners will complete an energy audit once every 10 years. An energy audit is a detailed assessment of how a building could improve its performance through upgrading its equipment and systems. In addition, building performance data collected under the benchmarking initiative will be made transparent to the public to allow the market to recognize, reward, and drive increased demand for high-performing buildings.