Energy Star Benchmarking

California Commercial Building Owners Must Disclose Energy Usage of the Building During Sale, Lease or Financing after July 1, 2013

Beginning, July 1, 2013, all California commercial buildings with a total gross floor area of more than 50,000 square feet are required to disclose the building's energy usage in advance of any sale, lease, or financing of the entire building. In order to ensure compliance with Assembly Bill 1103, owners of nonresidential buildings should: 

  • Register for an account with "Portfolio Manager," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR program online tool for managing building energy use data; 
  • Create a profile within Portfolio Manager for the nonresidential building; 
  • Use Portfolio Manager to request that utilities serving the building release the last 12 months of energy use data for the building to Portfolio Manager; 
  • After the utility data has been provided, download the Disclosure Data; and 
  • Provide the Disclosure Data as part of the sale, lease, or financing.

Owners should also consider updating purchase agreements, lease forms, and financing documents to include an express acknowledgement by the buyer, tenant, or borrower, as applicable, of receipt of the Disclosure Data. 

Learn more by clicking this link and watching the video: http://www.allenmatkins.com/Publication ... ments.aspx

Question: How does a building owner go about benchmarking?

PG&E Customers:
http://www.pge.com/benchmarking/

SCE Customers:
/www.sce.com/wps/wcm/connect/a80 ... OD=AJPERES

Keep in mind, this is a phased in requirement with the following implementation schedule:

  • July 1, 2013:          50,000 sf and larger
  • January 1, 2014:  10,000 sf and larger
  • July 1, 2014:           5,000 sf and larger

Based on this schedule, in about a year the disclosure will be required of almost all commercial property transactions.

Learn more at the Portfolio Manager Website - The EPA's system for helping you track and improve energy efficiency across your entire portfolio of buildings.

Click Here to Visit the Energy Star  "Portfolio Manager":    /www.energystar.gov/istar/pmpam/