Sign of the Times: Energy Performance Labels in Arlington County, VA

Arlington County has just upgraded its public-facing energy efficiency assessments in over half of its buildings. Posting the new labels is one part of the County’s efforts to improve the energy efficiency of its buildings, infrastructure, and fleet vehicles.

Since you can’t tell how much energy a building uses just by looking at it, in 2009 the County disclosed the energy use of its buildings in online Energy Report Cards.  These showed annual data for all Arlington County buildings, including energy consumption, energy intensity, and carbon footprint. The report cards also highlighted work done in every building, with before and after photos of some of the projects.  

These report cards were available online, but failed to inform the thousands of residents and staff that visit the buildings and use energy.  To help consumers understand the energy efficiency of buildings that they use, Arlington have decided to post Energy Performance Labels (EPLs) which act much like a mile per gallon label for buildings. EPLs were posted in 2011 in offices and libraries, and by July 1st, 2012 Arlington County will have labeled 38 offices, libraries, community centers, and fire stations. Arlington hopes that these labels will advance conversations with the public about energy use.   

The County developed its own label as part its ongoing AIRE program and to implement one of the first steps of its recently adopted draft Community Energy Plan, but Arlington looks forward to a standardized regional or national label to help consumers understand utility use across all building types.  

Energy performance labels are not a new idea, but Arlington is one of the first to implement them in the US. It sounds simple, but EPLs are a foundational step to get everyone to think about building energy use below the surface.