Energy benchmarking can play a key role in the market transformation of the built environment, and soon mandatory energy disclosure will also be an important tool.
According to Nat Gosman, the director of energy efficiency policy for B.C.’s ministry of energy and mines, the province is moving forward with potential options for energy benchmarking under the Climate Leadership Plan.
“The province’s objective is to ensure uniform benchmarking requirements across the land,” he said at the 2015 Canada Green Building Council’s Building Lasting Change conference held in Vancouver.
He was one of three speakers at a plenary panel discussion on The Drive Toward a National Energy Benchmarking Strategy in Canada. Michael Brooks, CEO of RealPac, was the moderator of the panel, which also included Ross MacWhinney, policy advisor for NYC’s sustainability department and David Ramslie of Integral Group.
The panel discussion addressed how energy benchmarking policies can play a strategic role in improving the efficiency of existing building stock and the growing interest and support for energy benchmarking policies in Canada – both by the public and private sectors. In B.C., there are existing policy drivers for energy benchmarking according to Gosman which include the Pacific Coast Collaborative Action Plan on Climate & Energy; local government interest and the Climate Leadership Plan (which will be finalized and published in March 2016).
Energy benchmarking will provide owners and managers with “a foundation of energy literacy” so they can understand the business case for making operational and capital improvements, he said. It also provides data for governments to chart new policies and programs to facilitate those improvements.
“Participants in voluntary benchmarking measures typically tend to be the best managed buildings and have the highest building performance,” so to get broader participation regulation is needed, he said, adding a model benchmarking policy framework is under development and it will be put forward to decision makers in each jurisdiction.
Ramslie discussed the work Integral Group is doing on behalf of the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario. Both are currently developing their own energy benchmarking and reporting disclosure policies, he said.
Proposed recommendations made include a phased implementation of energy reporting for commercial buildings starting first with 250,000 sq. ft. buildings in year one, followed by 100,000 sq. ft. in year two and 50,000 sq. ft. buildings in year three. Multi-unit residential buildings would then be next, he said.
A staged or phased approach will be key to help poor building performers without resources to get on board.
As for disclosure of data, “Energy Star Portfolio Manager is the pre-eminent tool that all jurisdications in the U.S. are currently using,” he said. The data would be disclosed to the public on an annual basis.
To ensure the data is a useful tool, Ramslie continued, it must be verified by a licenced professional for the first year of reporting and every five years thereafter. Finally, after the data is disclosed, it needs to be implemented into conservation and demand management plans.
While Canada is exploring energy benchmarking, it’s already a reality in Europe and the U.S. According to MacWhinney, in the U.S. cities have taken the leadership role in energy benchmarking and currently 13 have policies in place. The value of benchmarking programs is the old adage: “you can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he said. It leaves building owners, policy makers and the real estate market at a disadvantage.
Giving the market real transparency means higher valuations and lower vacancy rates, he said, but “for this transparency to be effective, clear communication is critical.”
Energy benchmarking allows policy makers to understand the effectiveness of programs and to be more creative with new programs, while building owners can understand the effectiveness of their retrofits and conservation measures.
“When we keep score, people play the game differently,” sums up Brooks.
Cheryl Mah is managing editor of Construction Business.
