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Arkansas Act 1494 of 2009 requires all state agencies that pay utility bills to submit benchmarking reprots through Energy Star Portfolio Manager. 

On Nov. 6, 2008, the Austin City Council approved the Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure Ordinance (#20081106-047), one of the most aggressive pieces of building energy efficiency legislation in the nation. It requires building energy rating and disclosure for nonresidential facilities and mandatory energy audits for homes and apartment complexes. Some apartment complexes are also required to undergo energy retrofits. The ordinance became effective in June 2009. It supports former Austin Mayor Will Wynn's Climate Protection Plan, launched in 2007, that aims to offset 700 megawatts of peak energy demand by 2020 to reduce Austin's carbon footprint. The ordinance was crafted by the Austin Energy Efficiency Retrofit Task Force with input from local realtors and other parties. The law requires energy audits and upgrades in addition to a commercial building energy rating and disclosure mandate. Effective June 1, 2009, residences with four or fewer units, including all single-family homes, must complete an energy audit prior to the sale of the property and provide a copy of the results of the audit to prospective purchasers. A range of exemptions are available, including for homes built within 10 years of the sale date, all condominiums or voluntary participation in some Austin Energy Utility programs. Audits are valid for 10 years. Apartment buildings older than 10 years must have an energy audit by June 1, 2011, while buildings less than 10 years old are required to perform an audit within 10 years of the completion of construction. The results of the audit must be posted within the building and provided to prospective tenants and buyers. Additionally, "high energy-use" properties consuming more than 150% of the average multifamily energy use per SF in Austin must make energy retrofits within 18 months to bring the property to within 110% of the average.

Federal Act on the obligation to provide an Energy Performance Certificate for the sale and in-stock-transfer of buildings and use objects.

1) Energy Decree of 8 May 2009 (published in the Moniteur Belge / Belgisch Staatsblad of 7 July 2009); 2) Energy Decision of 19 November 2010 (published in the Moniteur Belge / Belgisch Staatsblad of 8 December 2010); 3) Different ministerial decisions, 2006-2010.

Berkeley Energy Savings Ordinance (No. 7397) was adopted into law by unanimous consent on March 10, 2015. The ordinance will require energy assessments at time of sale for medium, small, and single family buildings, and will phase-in all buildings by building size and year, with the exception of single family homes (1 to 4 units). This energy and water efficiency information will provide Berkeley property owners and potential buyers with an efficiency road map tailored for their building and link them to valuable incentives and resources provided through utility rate-payer efficiency funds. The goal of BESO is to accelerate greenhouse gas emissions reductions to help owners meet their Climate Action goals, save money on utility bills, and improve occupant health and comfort. The current ordinances RECO and CECO (Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance, 1987 and Commercial Energy Conservation Ordinance, 1994) will be phased out as BESO takes full effect on December 1, 2015.

In 2010, the Boston Climate Action Leadership Committee, a multi-sector task force, recommended policy action on the buildings sector to Mayor Tom Menino. Shortly thereafter, the mayor launched the Boston Climate Action Plan, an ambitious blueprint for aggressively reducing the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As a corollary to this climate plan, the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance was filed with the Boston City Council on February 22, 2013. The ordinance aimed to publicize the energy and water performance of Boston's buildings, and oblige the poor performers to undertake measures that could help lead to increased efficiency of utility usage. In order to lead by example, the city benchmarked its building stock with Energy Star Portfolio Manager, and publicly disclosed the results in the summer of 2013. The ordinance requires that buildings report energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use to the city using Portfolio Manager (or an equivalent tool, as approved by the Air Pollution Control Commission). Buildings registering poor energy, emissions, and water performance--and not demonstrating improvement--will be required to undertake energy assessments or audits every five years. However, owners are not required to act on the results of an audit.

As the largest country and economy in Latin America, Brazil is emerging as a leader in energy efficiency in the building sector. The country’s massive, quasi-governmental utility company, Elecrobras, created an energy benchmarking tool a decade ago.

Procel Edifica was established in 2003 to promote responsible energy use, using energy modeling to compare the efficiency of commercial and residential buildings. A labeling program for public buildings (Procel EPP) has recently been added to the repertoire.

The program rates energy performance through a simulation of that performance (an asset rating). It evaluates the envelope, lighting, and HVAC system of a new or existing building, and rates it on a 5-point scale from A to E. This practice is currently voluntary, but nationally available in Brazil.

A National Energy Efficiency Plan [in Portuguese] has projected that efficiency labeling of buildings with Procel Edifica will be mandatory in 10-20 years. Still, Brazil’s booming real estate sector is able to take advantage of a sophisticated rating system right now.

In December 2018, the Fort Collins City Council adopted ordinance number 44, authorizing the Building Energy and Water Scoring Program. The BEWS Program requires benchmarking and data transparency for public, commercial, and multifamily buildings greater than or equal to 5,000 gross square feet.

On February 20, 2018, the Gaithersburg City Council and Mayor passed ordinance O-2-18, which will amend the City Code to apply the requirements set out in Montgomery County’s Benchmarking policy to the city of Gaithersburg. The ordinance is to become effective on December 31, 2018. Similar to Rockville, MD, the program will be administered by Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection. Montgomery County’s benchmarking program requires owners of certain types of non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet and greater, or a group of buildings that share a parcel (have the same Tax ID) that are collectively 50,000 square feet or greater, to benchmark energy use in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager; have data verified by a Recognized Data Verifier the first year and every three years thereafter; and report data to the County annually for public disclosure.

The state of California passed Assembly Bill 802 in September 2015. The law requires the California Energy Commission to adopt regulations providing for public transparency of benchmarking energy use data for commercial and multifamily buildings.  The law also require that utilities by January 1, 2017 provide whole-building aggregated energy use data to owners of commercial buildings with three or more active utility accounts and to owners of multifamily buildings with five or more accounts.

In 2008 the state of California passed AB 758 calling for the development of a statewide effort to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings, including a California-specific building performance rating and labeling program. The state-wide program compliments an annual benchmarking policy for commercial buildings in San Francisco.

Building on a strong legacy of sustainability, Mayor Rahm Emanuel kicked off the Sustainable Chicago 2015 Action Agenda in September of 2012. Of the seven themes and 100 individual actions, energy efficiency stands out as a key component for emissions reductions and economic development. Policy measures like Retrofit Chicago highlight the importance of the building sector. Moreover, the city has long had a residential building energy disclosure policy on the books. Prospective buyers and tenants of residential properties are entitled to a utility use disclosure. In keeping with the spirit of such programs, and to promote the city as a locus of green jobs and sustainability innovation, Mayor Emanuel introduced the Chicago Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance (No. SO2013-1645) to City Council on June 26, 2013. On September 11, 2013, the Council voted 32-7 to approve the ordinance. The ordinance requires all commercial, residential, and government buildings over 50,000 square feet to annually evaluate energy performance using Energy Star Portfolio Manager. In total, the law covers over 900 million square feet of real estate--the second largest total of all American cities with comparable laws. Energy consumption and performance scores will be posted annually to a municipal website. In the first years, data will be aggregated at the city-level, but starting in the second year of reporting, individual buildings will be identified. Data can be submitted to the city thorugh the Portfolio Manager tool. In the first year, and every third year, the data must be verified by a licensed professional (architect, engineer, or other, as allowed).

On December 13, 2016 the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed the Council File 14-1478, the Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency Program. The policy includes an energy and water benchmarking and transparency requirement as well as a requirement to conduct an energy and water audit and retrocommissioning once every five years. 

In 2015, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed Executive Order D 2015-013, the "Greening of State Government." The Executive Order directs the Greening Government Leadership Council to work with all executive state agencies and departments to reduce weather normalized energy consumption per square foot by at least 2 percent annually and at least 12 percent by 2020 from a FY 2015 baseline. They must also reduce potable water use by 1 percent per year annually and 7 percent by 2020 from a FY 2015 baseline. 

To acheive these goals, all executive state agencies and departments must track their energy and water use using EnergyCAP and report their monthly and annual usage to the state energy office.

On January 16, 2015 Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker issued an Executive Order requiring Salt Lake City Departments to create energy management plans for their facilities. The requirements include energy benchmarking, energy audits, retrocommissioning, building operator training, occupant engagement, and identification of renewable opportunities. 

1) Regulations for the Energy Certification of Buildings (RAA164/2009); 2) Ministerial Order regarding the Certificate for the energy performance of buildings; 3) Ministerial Order regulating the methodology for the calculation of the energy performance of buildings (RAA414/2009); 4) Ministerial Order regulating the methodology for the calculation of the energy performance of buildings (RAA567/2007); 5) Regulations for the Exam Syllabus and the Exam fees (RAA260/2009); 6) Notification of the Inspectors for the monitoring of the implementation of the Laws governing the energy performance of buildings (RAA411/2009); 7) Law amending the Law regulating Roads and Buildings (Building Permit) (L101/2006): includes provisions for the energy performance certificate to be submitted for the building permit to be issued by the Buildings Authorities; 8) Law concerning the issuance of energy performance certificate for residential buildings (L30 (I)/2009); 9) Laws of 2006 and 2009 concerning the issuance of energy performance certificate for non-residents.

Executive Order 18 requires all state executive branch agencies, departments, and offices shall reduce their energy consumption from FY 2008 levels 30% by the end of fiscal year 2015.  The policy directs state agencies, departments, and offices to develop a method to benchmark, monitor, and track the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of all state-owned and state-leased facilities.

The benchmarking system shall:

Require all State executive branch agencies, departments and offices that own or operate facilities to enter energy and utility usage and cost data into a tool or system provided by OMB and DNREC;

Require historic energy usage and cost data for the last two fiscal years to be compiled for all state-owned and state-leased facilities. The information will be used to rank each facility's energy usage and enable benchmarking against facilities of a similar age, size, construction and function;

Target facilities with the highest energy use and identify no or low-cost operational changes that can reduce consumption without capital investment;

Be used to prioritize energy efficiency and distributed renewable energy projects based on energy savings, cost savings and environmental benefit;

Quantify, on a facility-by-facility basis, the estimated cost and work necessary to reduce energy consumption by 10%, 20% and 30%; and

Evaluate the feasibility of installing on-site wind, photovoltaic, co-generation or other cleaner energy systems that can be implemented using a simple payback period not to exceed 20 years.

Executive Order No. 123 was signed by Mayor Michael Hancock on March 11, 2013. The order created the Denver Office of Sustainability as well as setting several sustainability policies for the City of Denver. Chapter 2 of the order, "High Performing Green Buildings" requires all new City buildings and major renovations to be LEED Gold Certified and to achieve ENERGY STAR certification after one year of operation if they are ENERGY STAR eligible. Existing City buildings must benchmark their energy use and must certify if they are ENERGY STAR eligible and meet the certification requirements.

On December 19, 2016 the Denver City Council voted unanimously to approve Bill 16-1231 to enact the Energize Denver Ordinance, requiring annual benchmarking and transparency for commercial and multifamily buildings with a gross floor area of 25,000 square feet or larger.

Energy Performance Certificate

Law (487/2007) and Act (765/2007) concerning energy performance certificates

Energy Saving Ordinance - “Energieeinsparverordnung” (EnEV 2009)

House Bill 1464 requires each state department with responsibilities for the design and construction of public buildings and facilities to benchmark every existing public building that is either larger than five thousand square feet or uses more than eight thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity or energy per year and shall use the benchmark as a basis for determining the State's investment in improving the efficiency of its own building stock.  Benchmarking shall be conducted using the ENERGY STAR portfolio management or equivalent tool.  The energy resources coordinator shall provide training to affected departments on the ENERGY STAR portfolio management or equivalent tool.

Additionally, public buildings must be retro-commissioned no less often than every five years.

Int. No. 1632 was passed by the New York City Council on December 19, 2017. The law requires buildings covered by Local Law 84, New York City's benchmarking and transparency law, to post an A-F letter grade based on their ENERGY STAR score at the entrance of their buildings. In addition to the letter grade, each building must post its ENERGY STAR score. 

The grade scale is below:

• A: 90 or above
• B: 50 - 89
• C: 20 - 49
• D: 0 - 19
• F: buildings that don’t submit required benchmarking information
• N: buildings exempted from benchmarking or not covered by the Energy Star program

1) Legislative decree No. 192/2005 and subsequent amendments (Legislative decree No. 311/2006). 2) Decree of 26 June 2009 of the Ministry of Economic Development “National guidelines for energy certification of buildings”: sets the standard layout of the energy performance certificate. This legal requirement also sets a national standard for certification trying to uniform the differences between the different Regions and Provinces.

"1) Law on the Energy Performance of Buildings (13/03/2008); 2) Cabinet regulations regarding Energy Certification of Buildings (Nо 40 of 13 January 2009, re-casted Nо 504 of 8 June 2010); 3) Cabinet regulations regarding calculation of energy performance of buildings (No 39 of 13 January 2009); 4) Requirements to produce temporary energy performance certificates are included in Regulations regarding Accepting Structures for Service (Regulation No 299 adopted on 13 April 2004, amendment Regulation No 350 adopted on 28 April 2009); 5) Regulations regarding Energy Auditors (No 26 of 13 January 2009)."

"1) Regulation modified on 30/11/2007 concerning the energy performance of residential buildings 2) Regulation modified on 31/08/2010 concerning the energy performance of functional buildings

Executive Directive No. 2005-4 directed the Michigan Department of Management and Budget to establish an energy efficiency savings target for all state buildings managed by the Department or another department or agency within the Executive Branch of state government.  Buildings were required to attain a 10% reduction in energy use by December 31, 2008 and a 20% reduction in grid-based energy purchases by December 31, 2015, when compared to energy use and energy purchases for the state fiscal year ending September 30, 2002.

Additionally, the Directive ordered the Department to implement Energy Conservation Measures and the following best management practices to improve energy efficiency On or before December 31, 2006:

1. Establish a program for an energy analysis of each state building identifying opportunities for reduced energy use, the cost, and associated savings for each, including a completion schedule for the energy analysis program.  Under the program, the Energy Star assessment and rating program shall be extended to all state buildings occupied by state employees.

2. Establish a program to perform regular maintenance on all lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, including, but not limited to, lubricating, balancing, aligning, vacuuming, cleaning, and checking seals, to ensure optimum efficiency.

3. Establish a program to evaluate the feasibility of converting to more energy-efficient lighting systems, including goals for making cost-effective lighting efficiency improvements that reduce electricity costs and maintain illumination quality.

4. Establish policies and procedures to identify and eliminate air infiltration and improve thermal insulation in building exteriors, such as walls, windows, doors, ceilings and floors.

5. Establish policies and procedures to reduce unnecessary use of lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, and to control thermostats to maximize energy savings while also providing occupant comfort.

6. Establish policies and procedures to maintain, monitor, and control systems that use water to reduce waste.

7. Establish policies and procedures to ensure the energy-saving feature in all Energy Star compliant electronic office equipment is activated, unless enabling the feature will hinder the performance or security of the equipment.

The department of administration shall maintain information on energy usage in all public buildings for the purpose of establishing energy efficiency benchmarks and energy conservation goals.  The department shall report preliminary  energy conservation goals to the chairs of the senate telecommunications, energy and utilities committee and the house regulated industries committee by January 15, 2002. 

The department shall develop, in coordination with the department of commerce, a comprehensive plan by January 15, 2003 2004, to maximize electrical and thermal energy efficiency in existing public buildings through conservation measures having a simple payback within ten to 15 years.  The plan must detail the steps necessary to implement the conservation measures and include the projected costs of these measures.  The owner or operator of a public building subject to this section shall provide information to the department of administration necessary to accomplish the purposes of this section.  

1) Decree on Energy Performance of Buildings’ (BEG), December 2006; 2) Regulation on Energy Performance of Buildings’ (REG) , December 2006.

Announced by Mayor Bloomberg on Earth Day 2009, New York City's Greener, Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP) was hailed as one of the nation's most ambitious efforts to reduce energy waste in buildings by city officials, environmental groups and elected officials. The New York City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass the legislation on Dec. 9, 2009. Roughly 80 percent of New York City's carbon footprint comes from buildings' operations, and 85 percent of existing buildings today will still be in use by the year 2030. Thus, the GGBP was a primary focus of the Mayor's PlaNYC initiative to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. According to city estimates, the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan will create more than 10,000 jobs in the building and construction sectors, and save consumers $700 million each year in energy costs. It is projected to trim New York City's emissions by nearly 5 percent, the largest projected reduction from any PlaNYC program. The Greener, Greater Buildings Plan is comprised of four energy efficiency bills requiring the benchmarking and public disclosure of building energy performance and water consumption; periodic energy audits and building "tune-ups" known as retro commissioning; lighting upgrades; the sub metering of large tenant spaces; and improvements to the city’s building energy code. The package also includes new government initiatives on green workforce development and retrofit financing. The rating and disclosure provision of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan requires annual ENERGY STAR benchmarking and public disclosure for city buildings as well as large commercial and multifamily buildings. Benchmarking information will be reported through Energy Star Portfolio Manager in the form of a Compliance Report (pdf below) that is filed with the NYC Department of Finance. The report includes a building's energy use intensity (EUI), ENERGY STAR rating and water use for multiple years. Utilities are encouraged to automatically upload utility bills into ENERGY STAR to assist in the data entry process. In the public disclosure process, all of this information is posted to an online database administered by the city.

In October 2016, the New York City Council passed Int. 1163, which extends benchmarking requirements to commercial and multifamily buildings greater than 25,000 square feet. Mid sized buildings between 25,000 and 50,000 square feet are not required to submit benchmarking reports until their utilities implement automatic upload of energy consumption data to Portfolio Manager, which is expected to occur in 2018.

The Council also passed Int. 1160 which lowers the compliance threshold from 10,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet for commercial tenant spaces that must be submetered in covered buildings. 

Finally Int. 1165 extends the lighting upgrade requirements to common spaces in multifamily buildings like hallways and laundry rooms though dwelling units remain exempt. 

FOR 2009-12-18 nr.1665: Regulation regarding the energy certification of buildings and energy estimation of technical installations