The 2014 Massachusetts Green Building Awards

By Grey Lee

We want you! Actually…we want your buildings and your green building innovations!
 
We have streamlined the process as well as the categories of our event; also we hope to see dozens of entries in both the Green Building of the Year award and the Green Innovation Award. The contest will culminate with our Earth Day Gala on April 17th, 2014. We look forward to seeing you there!
 
Since 2008, USGBC Massachusetts has recognized the most innovative green buildings, products, processes and technologies in the Massachusetts real estate community. Past winners have demonstrated ingenuity, replicability, and scored well on the triple bottom line – an important concept in sustainability that considers the building’s overall impact on economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity.
 
This year’s entry deadline is March 15, 2014 and winners will be announced in April 2014.
 
2014 Entry Categories:
 
Why Should I Enter?
  • Local Recognition: submissions will be put on display at the Earth Day Gala as well as at various USGBC MA events. Award entrants will be highlighted on the USGBC MA website and in the media surrounding the Earth Day Gala.
  • Regional Recognition: one existing building will advance to a regional EBie competition held in NYC in June 2014
  • Feedback: the submissions will be judged by a panel of 3-5 judges and a summary of responses will be available to entrants upon request.
  • Inspiration: the awards are designed to highlight Massachusetts’ innovation in green design and operations. They recognize buildings that best live up to their green design potential and help raise the bar for future buildings.
 
What are the Entry Criteria?
Click here for the 2014 Massachusetts Green Building of the Year Award.
Click here for the 2014 Massachusetts Green Innovation Award.
 
If you have any questions after reading the criteria, please contact the Awards Committee.

MPG Ratings for Homes? They're coming!

By Michael Sigmon, Communications Coordinator for the Residential Green Building Committee

This entry written by Michael Sigmon, Communications Coordinator for the Residential Green Building Committee
Alissa Whiteman and Ben Pignatelli from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (Mass. DOER) made a presentation to the Residential Green Building Committee on their pilot program on the Home MPG (Home score card). It was a well-attended meeting with over 20 people arriving to connect on the topic. As soon as the first slide was up, the rowdy bunch was firing off questions and making their own analyses of the project. Alissa and Ben were great, very able to handle the “shark tank” of residential energy efficiency sharpshooters in the room. All in all, it was a great discussion and everyone learned something new. Hopefully the group was able to provide some useful feedback as the DOER looks at expanding the program to other areas of the state.
 
 
The pilot took place in the Springfield, Massachusetts area and surrounding towns. The data collection took place in conjunction with the free MASSAVE energy audit that all rate payers of public utilities can ask for. The pilot was funded by the U.S. DOE and is taking place in 9 geographic locations across the US. Read about the pilots across the country here.
 
 
 
The idea behind the pilot was to create a straightforward way for the average consumer to identify the important components of a home based concept on apples-to-apples comparison. Using a prescriptive method, the DOER identified HVAC systems, domestic hot water systems and envelope insulation values for formulating their scoring system. Their thought was that by using this metric, they could make a fair comparison across dwelling unit types. This also leads to consumer education that is crucial for good decision-making in selecting energy efficiency measures for a home.
 
 
After getting their audit and initial score card, the plan is to render a second score after weatherization and equipment upgrades have been completed. A part of the score card is a projection of a home’s carbon rating, which can inform the occupant even further about the impact of their house's energy performance.
 
 
 
Organizations that cooperated with the pilot are the Center for Eco Technology and the Pioneer Valley Planning Council.
 
The program results are for the Springfield area:
2116 Score cards
799 Retrofits
 
 
Thanks again Alissa and Ben!
 
 
 
The Residential Green Building Committee holds a meeting every month, usually on the second Monday, at the USGBC MA offices in Boston. Each meeting has a presentation on a relevant and timely subject from experts in the field.  Various aspects of committee business are then attended to ideas such as our advocacy work, communications, creating resources for the community at large, and other work that supports the Chapter's mission. Feel free to come check us out – our next meeting is Feb. 10th.

 

 

Welcome New Sponsoring Partner AtSite!

By Grey Lee

 

 
 
Thank you AtSite for becoming a Silver Chapter Sponsoring Partner!  We are thrilled to work with our new partner to help make more buildings go green. Coming to us from their base of operations in Washington DC, AtSite is committed to delivering building management expertise to enable facilities to embrace efficiency and sustainability.
 
 

AtSite guides building owners, occupiers and operators with the design, construction, operation and optimization of buildings and spaces. The company utilizes smart building technologies, energy management tactics, sustainable best practices and integrated buildings strategies; these ideas are aimed to deliver high quality, low cost and environmentally responsible buildings. By combining its talented building experts, open technology platforms and best-in-class global industry partners, AtSite delivers measurable results to building owners across many sectors such as healthcare, commercial, education, and a number of other uses.

 
 
AtSite has some great content on their website regarding building performance management and you can read about more of their work through their blog – take a look here
 
Thank you Davor Kapelina and Lisa West for reaching out!  We are eager to help you all build your presence in New England. There is a lot of opportunity for USGBC MA to support solution provision in the building management space. I believe Steve Black of AtSite will be at the Existing Buildings meeting on Friday – so we'll get cracking!

 
 

City’s Building Energy and Reporting Ordinance (BERDO) Moving Forward

By Grey Lee

I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the City of Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), which was passed on May 8, 2013. BERDO will require all buildings or groups of buildings greater than 35,000 square feet to report on annual energy and water use, along with greenhouse gas emissions through the US EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The requirement will be phased in over 5 years and will first apply to non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet or greater in 2014 and residential buildings with 50 or more units in 2015.  Ultimately, the requirement will apply to non-residential buildings 35,000 square feet or greater and residential buildings with 35 or more units.
 

 
While many organizations have been involved with BERDO’s public process over the past year, Boston-based business organization A Better City (ABC) has taken an active role in ensuring thorough input from the commercial real estate sector.  ABC has worked to educate owners on the ordinance and is soliciting feedback from the business community to help shape the final regulations.  During the course of the summer, ABC assisted building owners throughout the City on how to use Energy Star Portfolio Manager.
 
ABC provided free one-on-one training sessions with owners which involved: 1) determining which owners were already using portfolio manager and 2) sitting down & training owners how to use portfolio manager in order to work through any problems they were having.  
 
ABC has been involved in BERDO since May of 2012. While the ordinance was being written by the City, ABC held focus groups (organized by property types and representing Class A and B buildings) to provide direct feedback from owners and property managers.  These focus groups were attended by city staff and the feedback had a direct influence on the final ordinance.   Most building owners are starting to take steps to comply with the ordinance and are taking advantage of opportunities to learn more about Portfolio Manager.  
 
The timeline for reporting energy and water data is going to be phased in over five years.  The first group that will have to comply will be non-residential buildings equal to or greater than 50,000 gsf or two or more buildings on the same parcel that equal or exceed 100,000 gsf.  The first report for this group will be due May 15, 2014.  Non-residential buildings between 35,000 gsf and 50,000 gsf will not have to report until May 15, 2016. There are roughly 1,900 commercial buildings that will fall under the ordinance (over 35,000 sq ft).   
 
The regulations for Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance were determined after examining several other cities that had successfully implemented a similar ordinance.  These cities include San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Washington DC.
 
This fall there will be a release of the draft regulations, followed by stakeholder meetings and outreach to owners that will report in 2014. The Boston Air Pollution Control Commission (APCC) will then hold a public hearing on these draft regulations.
 
This information was gathered from an interview with Mihir Parikh at A Better City and the City of Boston’s website.  To learn more, go to: http://abettercity.org/environment/index.html    andhttp://www.cityofboston.gov/environmentalandenergy/conservation/berdo.asp

Building Energy Disclosure

By Grey Lee

The US Green Building Council Massachusetts Chapter supports the proposed building energy disclosure ordinance for the City of Boston. We have more information at our website here.
 
 

The Building Energy Reporting & Disclosure Ordinance is a Boston policy that could transform our city and make it possible to reach our climate change mitigation goals. Mayor Menino is calling for 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and the only way we're going to get there is if we can bring down the % of energy that our buildings consume. In Boston, it's a whopping 70% and most building owners don't have a great handle on their building's energy and water usage. The Building Disclosure Ordinance would require owners of buildings over 20,000 sq ft to report their energy usage in a free online EPA tool called Portfolio Manager that all sectors across the country use to manage energy.

Make your voice heard by making a phone call or sending an email to your City Councilor and/or to an at large City Councilor TOMORROW. (You have to have a City of Boston address). The Ordinance is up for vote by the City Council on Wednesday, May 8th.

If you want to send a letter, NRDC has put together an Action Page that has a pre-drafted (but editable) letter of support for activists to send to all Boston council members (supporters must have a Massachusetts address in order to send). Please feel free to push this link out in any way you can via mailing list, social media, etc:

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3055

Why BERDO is a good idea:
1) Tenants have a right to know. Without BERDO, prospective tenants and buyers can't get comparable information about the utility costs of buildings they're considering moving into. BERDO will help us avoid being stuck in cold, costly apartments. Community groups support BERDO.
 

2) More building owners will be motivated to improve their buildings. We have had years of a voluntary benchmarking program for building owners to know how efficient their buildings are and many owners/managers have benchmarked their buildings. Now we need a mandatory program to make sure that all tenants have the option of living in buildings that are as energy efficient as financially possible. Environmentalists and smart building owners support BERDO.
3) Jobs. When owners want to get their buildings insulated, they need to hire people here. These are jobs that can't be outsourced. Organized labor, including the Greater Boston Labor Council, supports BERDO.

4) Air Quality. Our neighborhoods are already plagued by high asthma rates and other illnesses associated with environmental exposures. More insulation means reduced demand for energy generated from dirty power plants — and that means we'll have cleaner air and improved health. Moms and kids support BERDO.

What BERDO is NOT:

1) No tenants will be forced to share their utility use information.
2) No tenant will be fined.
3) Does not apply to small buildings. Only the 1200 largest buildings in Boston will be required to measure their energy efficiency (25,000 square feet or larger).
4) We do not expect that building owners will have to spend a lot of time to do the energy reporting
5) City buildings are not exempt and will be the first to be measured.

Call Your City Councilor
Here is the breakdown of Councilor contact info and how to identify which district you live in:
Verify your district: http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/districts.asp
Look up your city councilor: http://www.cityofboston.gov/myneighborhood/

Salvatore LaMattina – District 1 (Charlestown, East Boston, North End) 617.635.3200

Bill Linehan – District 2 (South Boston, Chinatown) – 617.635.3203

Frank Baker – District 3 (Dorchester) – 617.635.3455

Charles C. Yancey – District 4 (Dorchester) – 617.635.3131

Robert Consalvo – District 5 (Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roslindale) – 617.635.4210

Matt O'Malley – District 6 (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) – 617.635.4220

Tito Jackson – District 7- (Roxbury, SouthEnd, Fenway) 617.635.3510

Michael P. Ross – District 8 (West End, Mission Hill, Back Bay)- 617.635.4225

Mark Ciommo – District 9 (Allston, Brighton) – 617.635.3113

Felix G. Arroyo – At Large – 617.635.4205

Stephen J. Murphy – At large – 617.635.4376

John R. Connolly- At large – 617.635.3115

Ayanna Pressley – At large – 617.635.4217

Facts About the Proposed Boston Building Energy and Disclosure Ordinance

By Grey Lee

As a component of the City of Boston's Climate Action Plan

Photo credit: wikipedia.org

to meet the Mayor's greenhouse gas reduction goal of 25 percent by 2020, Mayor Thomas M. Menino filed the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance with the Boston City Council. This ordinance would require all large and medium-sized buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the City of Boston.

Here are some facts about the proposed ordinance:
1. All large and medium buildings or groups of buildings would be required to report annual energy use, ENERGY STAR rating (if applicable), water use, and greenhouse gas emissions through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager or an equivalent mechanism.
2. The requirement would be phased in over 5 years and would ultimately apply to non-residential buildings 25,000 square feet or greater and residential buildings with 25 or more units.
3. Buildings with ENERGY STAR ratings below the 75th percentile and do not meet other exemption criteria (to be developed by the city, i.e. high performing buildings that do not qualify for any ENERGY STAR rating or that show continuous improvement) would be required to conduct energy audits or other evaluations every 5 years to identify opportunities for energy efficiency investment. Building owners would not be required to act on the audit.  

Celebrating Earth Day and Innovation in Green Design

By Grey Lee

Stunning! Fabulous! Classy!

 
 
We held a very impressive Earth Day celebration on the night of Wednesday, April 10th. Over 120 guests attended from a wide swath of the green building industry. We had six table sponsors: Vidaris, NStar, The Green Engineer, Robinson & Cole, Bergmeyer and National Grid.
 
The program started with a bit of networking. One of the great things about the USGBC is it connects people from all parts of the real estate industry – from architects & engineers to facility managers and product manufacturers. Energy modelers, sustainability consultants, and even lawyers! It's always a great mix and you never know who you might run into!
 
 
 

 
Special thanks to Rachel Zsembery and the Special Events Committee for putting it all together. Much applause to Rachel (below, with Carlos Alonso-Neimeyer) and the entire Committee! GE sponsored our table settings, providing a mix between spring flowers and LED lightbulbs that guests could take home!  More photos are available through our media sponsor, New England Real Estate Journal NEREJ's facebook page.
 
 
 
 
We were very thankful to our venue sponsor, the Chiofaro Companies, for letting us hold the event on the main floor of Two International Place in downtown Boston. We heard from owner Don Chiofaro, Jr. and from Bob Andrews of AHA Consulting Engineers, which is one of our Chapter Sponsoring Partners that discussed how the building had recently achieved LEED EB O&M Silver – a real achievement for a building that was designed and constructed in the go-go 80's.
 
 
 
 
 
A few of the members of the Chapter spoke, including myself, to give an overview of where we are as an organization.  People were in a good mood and I got the crowd to shout out “GREEN BUILDINGS!” whenever they heard something good from the stage. 
 
 
 
I'm happy to report we did indeed attain the goal of our membership drive: to bring in 100 new members by Earth Day. We have 108 new members since the beginning of the year. GREEN BUILDINGS!
 
I also announced that we have hired a new staffer: Stephen Muzzy will start on May 6th as our Green Schools Program Manager to faciliate the green building project creation and completion at campuses across Massachusetts. GREEN BUILDINGS!
 
 
 
Dinner was a really good time – here we have the Green Engineer table (above) and the NStar table (below). Though many people found themselves not at the tables they were assigned to! 
 
 
During the dessert, we convened the Awards Committee to present our Massachusetts Green Building of the Year award and our Innovation in Green Design awards. National Grid served as the Award Sponsor with Mark Stafford presiding. The awards were organized by Paul Brown, Carrie Havey, and Chris Liston (not pictured below). The judges were Holly Wasilowski Samuelson of Harvard GSD, Mark Webster of SGH and Susan Buchanan of VFA. Jess Halvorson of Bank of America served as an alternate.
 
 
 
And the winners included: Homeowners Rehab, Inc. for the Massachusetts Green Building of the Year: their 95-97 Pine Street, Cambridge, LEED Platinum project. The judges saw this as an important model for other affordable housing projects.
 
 
Bergmeyer Associates also won for an Innovation in Green Design Award in the Building Category for their work on the Hosteling International Building on Stuart St. in Boston.
 
 
 

Other winners inlcuded:

Special Recognition:

Sherman Fairchild Laboratory Renovation for Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University

Submitted by Payette. Notes: This project is an example of stellar energy performance in a lab.

Special Recognition:

One Boston Place

Submitted by CBRE.  Notes: The judges praised this project for its enthusiastic spirit of the approach to recertification under EB O&M.

Award Winning Entries – Innovation in Green Design

Winner – Product, System or Technology Category

Shady Hill School in Cambridge, MA

Submitted by Richard Burck Associates, Inc. Notes: This project skillfully handled water absorption and discharge to the aquifer.

 
It was a fun evening full of GREEN BUILDINGS!
 
-Grey Lee
 
 
 

Energy Disclosure Laws Gaining National Popularity

By Grey Lee

by Chris Liston
 
As the debate continues over Boston’s proposed energy disclosure ordinance, it has understandably shifted attention to those cities and states that have already enacted similar legislation.
 
To date, energy disclosure laws have been approved by lawmakers in Austin, California, the District of Columbia, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.  Lawmakers in Boston, Boulder, Cambridge, Chicago and Portland have expressed interest in energy disclosure legislation, but have not yet formalized their programs.
 
Three commonalities in these laws are 1) the use of ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager as a benchmarking tool 2) a focus on large buildings and 3) mandatory reporting with fines and/or penalties for those buildings that fail to disclose their data.  The definition of a “large” building differs by jurisdiction, but generally speaking the laws are focused on buildings with a minimum size of 10,000 SF to 50,000 SF.
 
Like the proposed Boston ordinance, most local energy disclosure laws have been phased in over a period of time.  The District of Columbia’s program was introduced in 2008; but per the District’s timeline, the only buildings to have their data disclosed have thus far been District-owned buildings.  New York City’s program was introduced in 2009 and energy data for NYC-owned buildings was first published in 2011, while energy data for privately-owned NYC buildings was first published in 2012.  Philadelphia’s law was just passed in 2012 and no energy data has yet been submitted or published.
 
The 2011 New York City Benchmarking Report, published in August 2012, was a groundbreaking study of private sector energy use spanning 1.7 billion square feet of space. The report found that energy use varies widely within the same category of building type.  For example, the least efficient NYC hotels use 3.2x as much energy as the most efficient NYC hotels.  Meanwhile, the least efficient NYC office buildings use 4.5x as much energy as the most efficient NYC office buildings and the least efficient NYC retail buildings use 7.9x as much energy as the most efficient NYC retail buildings.  In addition to the PDF report, NYC also released an Excel spreadsheet containing the name, address, energy utilization index, carbon emissions and ENERGY STAR rating for more than 4,000 privately-owned buildings.
 
You can download the 2011 New York City Benchmarking Report athttp://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/downloads/pdf/nyc_ll84_benchmarking_report_2012.pdf.
 
You can download CBRE’s US guide to energy efficiency disclosure requirements at 
 

Energy Disclosure is Coming to Boston

By Grey Lee

The USGBC MA Chapter is happy to promote, support, and advocate for public disclosure of energy use in Boston. According to the recent proposal, different types and sizes of buildings will report their energy use score (using EPA's Energy Star Portfolio Manager) into a public database over the next four years.  The city will rate all the buildings it owns starting in 2013. The information will be used to help the city's Energy and Environment Office, led by former USGBC MA Board VP Brian Swett, to craft incentives and programs to help owners embrace energy efficiency measures. It will not be used to force anyone to do anything, just to report their building's energy use. One of our members Chris Liston, Director of Energy and Sustainability at CBRE New England, noted that for his clients in New York, reporting for the entire year can be done in about 30 minutes. 
 
I went to City Hall on Thursday, March 28 to submit supportive testimony to the City Council, which will be voting on the ordinance in the near future. We believe the ordinance will lead to better building values, better tenant experiences, better building operating practices, reduced waste of energy, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions among other things. Some organizations, including Boston's Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), came out against the ordinance.  Industry leaders like Partners Healthcare and Boston Properties spoke in support of the ordinance. It seemed like a lot of the opposition just didn't understand the program. It was too bad, but the USGBC MA Chapter is here to help people learn more and get more support behind the measure.
 
The ordinance is somewhat like telling people to go weigh themselves when you care about their health. If someone knows their weight, they might decide to start exercising or eating better. But some people just don't even want to know things and this ordinance isn't even like telling anyone you have to go to the gym – just to get weighed!
 

 
Our testimony is on this page, in the news and announcement section of our website. You can also see me, near the beginning, in this video. The city has a lot of info on the ordinance at the Energy and Environmental Services Office.
 
Below is the famous Boston City Hall—the civic building that everyone loves to deride. It is a bit dingy, but it serves the purpose. A lot of important work goes on there and the needs of the city are met by the Mayor, the City Council, and the many municipal employees working for Boston.
 
 
 

Below is the City Council Chamber. The table in the foreground was for panelists to submit testimony.  There on the right side of the table is Darien Crimmin, member of the Chapter and VP for Sustainability and Energy at Winn Development, testifying on behalf of energy disclosure. His firm measures and scores their buildings with the Energy Star Portfolio Manager in order to make better management decisions about where to invest in physical plant improvements and energy efficiency projects.

One of the criticisms of the proposal came from a study, funded by BOMA, by Harvard researcher Robert Stavins. His conclusion was that no city where an ordinance exists has been able to show a measurable decrease in energy use. One response to this is that these laws have only just been implemented and it's reasonable to have not seen appreciable savings yet. Advocates point to the fact that industry leaders are already using disclosure and energy scoring to save money and make investments in energy efficiency. BOMA Boston suggests that the market is the best encouragement for this rather than a city-mandated policy.
 

 
We were disappointed at so much negative reaction from the conventional real estate world. One advocacy entity had revved up the reactionaries in the condominium association world. Many small condo association representatives came to complain about potential cost burdens on their residents. 
 
I am afraid the term “assessment,” i.e. “energy assessment” was confused with the red-letter financial “assessment” concept that poorly managed condominium associations occasionally levy on their members to handle unplanned-for capital improvements. 
 
It was a real shame.  Brian Swett reported that the proposed ordinance only affects multi-family properties and/or condo associations with more than 25 units, of which there are only about 250 in the city, not the thousands that association reps were claiming. The ordinance does not affect single-family homes. One confused broker mentioned that having an energy score on a unit or house would be a major hassle for sellers—they already have to disclose lead and radon; adding energy efficiency to the mix could provide prospective buyers with more information than they could handle. The pro- side of the ordinance gave a round of applause on that one. 

 

One opposition heavyweight (below) that came to testify the Commercial Real Estate Development Association of Boston near the end was David Begelfer, CEO of NAIOP.  He argued that Boston should stay out of the real estate markets and let best practices reward the right players.

Brian Koop, VP at Boston Properties, came up with a good analogy. He noted that his kids love to play basketball. They play ball in the driveway with other kids in the neighborhood. When he comes home driving down the street, he can instantly tell whether the kids are keeping score or just playing around. When you keep track of the score, he said, you play differently. You play better batter when keeping track of the score. He talked about how his firm is serious about energy efficiency and uses Portfolio Manager to keep track of the performance of their properties, all of which guides important, asset-improving investments. He urged the city to help other firms get serious about improving their operations using energy disclosure as well.
 

One important note that came through was that owners and traditional real estate folks felt like they had not been involved in the process enough and they wanted the ordinance to be less punitive. They wanted to be at the table. I'm not sure exactly how the industry was involved in the drafting of the ordinance in Boston, but I can see how a more inclusionary process might have worked better and muted much of the resistance.  So much of it was irrelevant rants from misinformed activists, but that's democracy for you!

 
USGBC's national advocacy lead Jeremy Sigmon wrote to me: “Property owners in many cities, including San Francisco, Seattle and New York City, worked hand-in-hand with city officials to develop recommendations on benchmarking and disclosure ordinances. Local ordinances have been supported by the Real Estate Board of New York and BOMA San Francisco. From BOMA San Francisco: “Our property owners initially thought, 'Oh, this is going to be horrible' … but there's been no blowback, if you will, from property owners,” said Ken Cleaveland, a vice president with BOMA San Francisco. “It's just been a non-issue, quite frankly.”

I was glad to represent the Chapter at City Hall. It was a valuable learning experience for me and I met a lot of good people working on this disclosure ordinance. Thank you to the Chapter's Advocacy Interest Group for pulling together our testimony—Norm Lamonde and Greg Sampson principally. Thank you to Brian Swett for arranging me to be on one of the support panels. I look forward to working with the coalition to make energy disclosure a reality here, in Boston and beyond.
 

 

As I left, I noticed a lot of media coverage of the event. I knew it was contentious, but I didn't realize energy disclosure was such a hot-button issue!

(Well, actually, it did happen to be the same afternoon Mayor Menino announced his retirement…)

Boston's Mayor Menino

By Grey Lee

 

Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino has announced an Energy Disclosure Ordinance. 
The establishment of this requirement will “provide information to owners, residents, and prospective buyers and tenants, and, through education and the operations of the market, create incentives to participate in energy efficiency programs.” 
Energy efficiency in existing buildings is the single most important component of the City's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020. 
New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities have enacted energy reporting and
disclosure requirements in their jurisdictions.
 
 
 
Leading by example, Boston would annually disclose its energy and water use in all of its facilities starting with the 2012 building data. In the following years, the ordinance would apply to non-residential buildings greater than 25,000 square feet and residential buildings 25 units or more. The proposed roll out schedule for reporting requirements is as follows:
  • Non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet or more in 2014
  • Residential buildings with 50 units or more in 2015
  • Non-residential buildings 25,000 square feet or more in 2016
  • Residential buildings with 25 units or more in 2017
In addition to reporting energy and water use, buildings may be required to conduct energy audits or other evaluations every five years to identify opportunities for energy efficiency investments.  Buildings in the top tier of energy performance or already taking significant efficiency actions will be exempted from this requirement.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through investments in energy efficiency is the largest component of the Mayor’s Climate Action Plan. Mayor Menino has established Boston as a national leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a clean energy economy through initiatives such as Renew Boston and the first in the nation's green building standards for private developments. To further inspire action, Mayor Menino has launched Greenovate Boston, a new sustainability movement to ensure a greener, healthier and more prosperous future for the City.