From the Editor
How serious would you be about energy conservation if you were required to post your facilities' energy-performance data on a website, making it available to potential tenants, your peers, and a general public with a growing interest in environmental responsibility?

This level of transparency is a reality for building owners and managers in the five cities and two states that require commercial buildings to disclose their energy-use data. Large cities, such as Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., have enacted these laws, and more than 16,000 large buildings in New York City had to disclose data earlier this week to avoid fines — a $500 quarterly slap on the wrist.

More than the fine, the data's impact on the way potential tenants and investors view commercial buildings seems likely to force managers to make energy-efficiency improvements. Industry experts compare these disclosures to nutritional labels on food and Energy Star labels on appliances.

Seattle, which aims to reduce energy use 20 percent by 2020, turned to mandatory reporting, because "voluntary programs weren't getting us there fast enough," Jayson Antonoff, an energy adviser for the city, said in a USA Today article.

While some of the nation's largest real estate markets have led the way in this effort, the initiative is likely to expand to other cities and states. In late July, the Institute for Market Transformation released the first national review of building energy rating and disclosure policies in the United States. The report looks at the policies in New York City, San Francisco, Austin, Texas, Washington D.C., Seattle, California, and Washington state to identify challenges cities and states face in enacting such laws, as well as best practices to overcome those challenges.

For managers who already have measured and disclosed energy-performance data in the past, these laws will not cause great concern. But for managers who don’t see energy efficiency as a top priority — or a high enough priority to avoid embarrassment in disclosing the data — these laws might help jump-start initiatives that had been on the backburner.

If you manage a facility in one of the cities or states that has passed these laws, I am interested in hearing your thoughts. If you’re in a location where these laws might be on the horizon, what are you doing to prepare? As always, I appreciate your feedback.

— Chris Matt, Editor

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