San Francisco to Benchmark Building Energy Efficiency

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, U.S. buildings account for 36 percent of total energy use and 65 percent (or more than half) of all electricity consumption. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory puts the figures even higher.

This is a problem for two reasons: excessive energy use threatens our nation’s energy security; and burning fossil fuels create carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most implicated in global warming. In fact, if we don’t cut emissions and keep temperature rise below the 2 degrees Celsius threshold which scientists call the upper limit to prevent catastrophic climate change, energy security will be the least of our problems.

San Francisco has clearly received this message. There, building efficiency advocates have managed to push forward a building energy performance ordinance that would insure that commercial building owners conduct yearly energy audits and “benchmark” energy use in their buildings.

Benchmarking is the process whereby building owners compare their building’s energy use, and energy efficiency, to other buildings of the same size, configuration and age. In San Francisco, these annual energy reports would begin in October of 2011, with commercial properties bigger than 50,000 square feet, and gradually encompass all commercial buildings within the city stand 10,000 square feet and larger.

The reports would then be made available to buyers, lenders, city officials and even renters. This, Cliff Majersik (executive director of the Institute for Market Transformation, or IMT, which works to promote energy efficiency via market transformation initiatives) notes, would allow market forces to be the impetus behind investments in energy efficiency. And those investments, Majersik adds, would negate the need for even more costly investments, in power plants and new transmission, which nobody wants.

“New York and San Francisco are at the leading edge of a wave of cities and states looking to make their markets function better, address these market failures, and tap this gold mine of potential energy savings.” Majersik said in a recent interview.

Majersik bases his remark on the fact that consumers have no way to compare the potential energy use and costs of buildings they plan to buy or rent, and so end up paying more for energy than they should. In addition, studies indicate that energy-efficient buildings rent for more, sell for more, and have lower vacancy rates than less efficient ones.

Unfortunately, as Green Business Program Manager Anthony Tsai of San Francisco-based Urban Solutions (a small business advocacy group) points out, most owners don’t know how efficiently their buildings use energy, or even how to go about making improvements. Thus they end up wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars a month in energy costs.

Urban Solutions, which got its own “green” (energy, water, waste, supply chain) certification from the city, represents about 300 small businesses in underserved markets.

“Where businesses are too small to have dedicated environmental managers, we at Urban Solutions act as their “green” staff, pointing out where they can save the most dollars with retrofits. It’s very simple, and it doesn’t take long to reach goals.”

Then, when business owners see how easily they can make a tangible impact on their bottom line, the effect snowballs, and they begin to see more and more areas where they can make improvements, according to Tsai – a remark that reinforces Majersik’s theory of energy efficiency as a market force.

Mandates similar to the one moving its way through the City of San Francisco’s governing process are occurring nationwide, in such places as New York City, Washington, DC, California, Austin, TX, Seattle (and Washington State) and at the federal level. In addition, on November 1 of 2010, building officials from all across the U.S. agreed to support improved mandates proposed in the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code, which informs on and regulates building energy efficiency measures.

As of Jan. 24, according to IMT staff, the City of San Francisco’s Land Use Committee recommended the "Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance" to the Board of Supervisors.

The first reading by the full board will take place next Tuesday, February 1. If all goes as planned, the bill could receive full board approval the following week.