[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: FW: Minneapolis unanimously passes benchmarking and disclosure requirement

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Interesting news regarding commercial building energy efficiency.  --Matt
 
From: Caroline Keicher [mailto:caroline at imt.org]

Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 4:29 PM
To: Caroline Keicher
Subject: Minneapolis unanimously passes benchmarking and disclosure requirement
 
Hi all,

It's been a while since my last update - a lot has happened in the world of building energy performance policy!

This morning, Minneapolis became the seventh U.S. city - and the first in the Midwest -

to require large commercial buildings to benchmark and disclose their annual energy consumption. The new law, which passed City Council unanimously, will apply to all commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet, and includes tracking of both energy
 and water consumption. You can read the bill text 
here.

In other news, Seattle has reached an impressive 
87% compliance rate with its benchmarking law for commercial and multifamily buildings 50,000 sq. ft. or larger, representing about 1,160 individual properties and more than 200 million sq. ft. of building space.
Washington, DC published the long-awaited 
final regulations for its benchmarking and disclosure law, creating an official, enforceable deadline by which DC's largest commercial buildings must report benchmarking information to the city. Check out our
DC policy brief and

press release for more details. And New York became the 
first city in the U.S. to publicly disclose 
energy benchmarking scores for all large private-sector buildings, leading the way for transparency in the building sector.

MIT (not to be confused with IMT) is offering a fantastic opportunity for free technical assistance and energy efficiency analysis. The
MIT CoLab Green Economic Development Initiative (GEDI) is seeking city sustainability offices and regional economic development organizations (EDOs) that are interested in receiving training and
 technical assistance to develop an Energy Efficiency Market Transformation Strategy.
The Strategy will focus on growing markets for energy efficiency services in the commercial building sector. It will identify opportunities to increase demand for efficiency, and develop business and workforce capacity. See below for more information.

We also have some new resources that may be of interest:

Energy Transparency in the Multifamily Housing Sector - IMT's new report assesses the great potential and remaining challenges for boosting energy efficiency
 in apartments and condos
Benchmarking Help Center Guide - Lessons learned from benchmarking help centers in New York City and Seattle, and guide for cities thinking about setting up a help center of their
 own
Lessons Learned from the Implementation of Rating and Disclosure Policies in U.S. Cities - An detailed profile of early implementation best practices and lessons learned
 in New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle

If you'd like more frequent updates on this and other energy efficiency topics, you can sign up for IMT's
newsletter.
If you'd prefer not to receive general benchmarking/rating & disclosure updates from me, please just let me know.

Warm regards,
Caroline Keicher
_______________________________
Announcement: MIT CoLab seeking cities to develop regional commercial building energy efficiency market transformation strategy
The
MIT CoLab Green Economic Development Initiative (GEDI) is seeking city and regional economic development organizations (EDOs) and/or sustainability offices that are interested in receiving training
 and technical assistance to develop an Energy Efficiency Market Transformation Strategy. 
The Strategy will focus on growing markets for energy efficiency services in the commercial building sector.  It will identify opportunities to increase demand for efficiency, and develop business and workforce capacity.
 
The Energy Efficiency Market Transformation Strategy project is informed by GEDI’s recent work with the City of Minneapolis’ Department of Economic Development and Community Planning,
 to develop 
a strategy to grow their operational energy savings sector.  GEDI will guide city EDOs through a similar process, to identify strategies to grow commercial building efficiency markets.  Cities will benefit from shared learning between a cohort of practitioners,
 research provided by MIT staff and students, and a proven process for local market transformation.
 
GEDI’s services will be provided free of charge.  Participating EDOs are asked to commit a staff person one day per week between March 25 and August 2013. 

 
Learn more about this opportunity
here.  GEDI will be accepting

applications until March 11, 2013.   
 
Also, GEDI is hosting two introductory webinars, reviewing this opportunity and their work for the City of Minneapolis.  Two versions of the same webinar will be held:

 ·      
2pm February 13th 2012 (register here)
·        
2pm February 20th 2012 (register here)
 
Please feel free to contact GEDI Program Coordinator
Brendan McEwen with any questions.  

-- 
Caroline Keicher, MSc
Program Manager, Building Energy Performance Policy
Institute for Market Transformation
1707 L Street NW | Suite 1050 | Washington, DC 20036
202.525.2883 x 302 | caroline at imt.org |
www.imt.org