BOMA San Francisco Members:
UPDATE - March 27, 2012
April First is No Joke for Commercial Buildings
Do you need help complying with the San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance? April 1st is the deadline to benchmark any building larger than 25,000 square feet. To help you meet the deadline, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is hosting a
Beat the Clock Benchmarking Lab on Thursday, March 29th.
Join them for a short lesson on how to benchmark your building, followed by self-paced laboratory hours to help you complete the benchmark process from start to finish. Experts will be on hand to answer questions and provide individual attention. In the afternoon, PG&E will host a special session of
What's Next After Benchmarking to unleash the value of your energy data.
Click here or see our previous blog post, below, to learn more about the ordinance.
Benchmarking is the best way to both measure and manage your building’s energy usage. In addition to benchmarking your building to comply with the San Francisco benchmark ordinance, you will also be prepared for upcoming changes in California law. Assembly Bill 1103 (AB 1103) will soon require the disclosure of building energy performance benchmark scores prior to the sale, refinance, or lease of certain whole buildings.
Beat the Clock Benchmarking Lab - Sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Learn how to benchmark your building's energy performance with the help of PG&E's Automated Benchmarking Service - a free, easy-to-use service that automatically sends your commercial building's energy use information to the EPA's ENERGY STAR(R) Portfolio Manager every month. You will also learn how to submit your annual benchmark summary report to the San Francisco Department of Environment.
The lab kicks off with a special abbreviated “just the facts,” benchmarking training, then a self-paced hands-on lab session with a cadre of technical experts to help you get your portfolio benchmarked.
Admission is free, but there is one prerequisite: you must come prepared with a completed Data Collection Worksheet (or your preferred way of bringing this key info.) A limited number of loaner laptops will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, so please bring your laptop. You will have time to complete the data entry for multiple buildings during this portion of the class.
Breakfast and beverages will be provided.
Getting your building's benchmarking score is just the beginning. In the afternoon session,
What's Next After Benchmarking, we will explain how to set targets for improvement: estimate the actual amount of energy savings needed to reach a higher score; explore which low-/no-cost or capital upgrades might produce various magnitudes of savings; which utility incentive programs could help identify or finance those improvements; etc. It's not about your building's score today -- it's about what you want that score to be and how to get it there!
Sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company
9:00 AM – Noon*
EEFG Training Center
657 Mission Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94105
Sponsored by Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
12: 30 PM – 4:00 PM
EEFG Training Center
657 Mission Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94105
*If you have previously completed benchmarking training and would like to attend only the laboratory hours for individual help, please plan to arrive at 10:00 AM
About the San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance
Energy is the single, largest controllable operating cost in commercial facilities. The Existing Commercial Building Energy Performance Ordinance is helping San Francisco cut energy costs, which in turn helps the environment, increases building value, and improves the competitiveness of local real estate. The policy reflects the recommendations of real estate professionals, building managers, engineers, and contractors about how to empower decision-makers with the essential information to make smart decisions about energy management.
The ordinance has two requirements. The first is to benchmark the building’s energy use, which shows how it compares to similar buildings and makes it easier to track progress over time. The second is an energy audit, which identifies specific and cost-effective opportunities to save energy.
Building owners are responsible for tracking and reporting energy consumption annually using the free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool (
www.energystar.gov/benchmark). Buildings 50,000 square feet or larger were required to report for the first time by October 2011. In 2012 – and from now on – annual benchmark reports are due by April 1st. Once your building is benchmarked in Portfolio Manager, the electronic report to SF Environment requires only a few mouse clicks, and the Dept. of Environment confirms compliance within 2 business days. (For details:
www.SFEnvironment.org/ecb.)
Why Participate?
- Saving energy saves money;
- Knowledge is power. Benchmarking your building is necessary to ensure you don’t use more energy (and pay more for it) than competitors;
- Get recognized for your leadership in energy management, rather than for failure to comply with the law;
- The policy was written with extensive input from commercial stakeholders;
- It’s important for stakeholders (owners, management, and tenants) to be able to check if their building is compliant;
- The ordinance gives SF Environment the authority to impose fines of up to $100 per day. Recognizing that the law is new and affected owners need time to comply, no fines have been issued yet.
Benchmarking
It’s easy to get started. You can use Portfolio Manager with the help of a free
step-by-step benchmarking workshop Thursday, March 29th, just in time for the April 1st deadline. Additionally, step-by-step benchmarking workshops are held at the Pacific Energy Center on an ongoing basis (
www.pge.com/energyclasses).
PG&E’s free Automated Benchmark Service (
www.pge.com/benchmarking) helps you automatically upload energy data to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager every month. If you prefer to learn online, SF Environment offers webinars about how to comply, and presentations are available upon request. ENERGYSTAR.gov is a wealth of tutorials and free webinars.
Visit the PG&E Website for information about future classes:
www.pge.com/energyclasses.
Audits
The second step, the energy audit, is required once every five years. Buildings will be notified of their audit due date with at least 12 months notice. For details, visit:
www.SFEnvironment.org/ecb.
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Original Post - March 5, 2012
The April 1st deadline for commercial non-residential properties over 25,000 sq. ft. to benchmark their energy use and disclose it to the San Francisco Department of Environment is fast approaching.
Additionally,
as we've mentioned recently, The Department of Environment will post a list of buildings that have complied with the benchmarking requirement on March 15. A list of properties that city records indicate were required to benchmark by October 1, 2011 – and have not complied – will also be posted*. The Department of Environment records indicate that nearly all major real estate firms have compliant properties, as well as noncompliant properties.
If this deadline applies to you, or you are just interested in learning more about benchmarking, The Department of Environment and PG&E invite you to an upcoming workshop. These are the last workshops before the deadline, so reserve your seat now!
Benchmarking and the San Francisco Ordinance
Webinar
March 8th
2:00 p.m to 3:30 p.m.
This fast-paced 90-minute webinar will detail how to meet, and benefit from, the new requirements:
- Overview of the SF ordinance – Requirements, covered buildings, timelines;
- Step-by-step instructions on how to benchmark a building with Portfolio Manager, including how to create an account;
- How to setup PG&E’s Automated Benchmarking Services (ABS) to automatically update energy use data;
- Preparing an Annual Energy Benchmark Summary;
- Highlights of the audit requirement;
- Incentives and resources to put energy efficiency ideas into action.
Participants will receive free follow-up technical support with benchmarking, sponsored by PG&E.
Benchmarking Energy Use in Commercial Buildings
PG&E’s Pacific Energy Center – 851 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103
March 14th
8:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.
California law (AB 1103) will soon require the disclosure of an energy performance benchmarking score prior to selling, refinancing or leasing certain whole buildings. Learn how to benchmark your building's energy performance with the help of PG&E's Automated Benchmarking Service - a free, easy-to-use service that automatically sends your commercial building's energy use information to the EPA's ENERGY STAR(R) Portfolio Manager every month. This class will include a hands-on benchmarking exercise using portable Wi-Fi hotspots so that attendees can evaluate an actual building from start to finish and see the ENERGY STAR score.
You’ve Benchmarked Your Building: What’s Next?
PG&E’s Pacific Energy Center – 851 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103
March 14th
1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Getting your building's benchmarking score is just the beginning. This course explores how to set targets for improvement: estimating the actual amount of energy savings needed to reach a higher score; which low-/no-cost or capital upgrades might produce various magnitudes of savings; which utility incentive programs could help identify or finance those improvements; etc. It's not about what your building's score is today -- it's about what you want that score to be and how to get it there!
Questions? Contact us at
info@eefg.com or 415-814-3744.
*To ensure that facilities in your organization’s portfolio are recognized for leadership in energy management, please provide The Department of Environment with a current list of non-residential properties associated with your firm (ownership, management, primary tenant, or other). The Department of Environment will be glad to check it against the list of properties that have complied, as well as the list of properties subject to the ordinance, and report back to you promptly. Please send a basic spreadsheet listing the properties in your portfolio to:
benchmark@sfenvironment.org.
Property lists should include:
- Property address and name (if different from address)
- Parcel number (if readily available)
- If the property was bought during or after the reporting period - calendar year 2010 - then note the month of the transaction. (Such transactions may leave the current owner unable to obtain energy use data).
Property lists received by March 9 will be checked by department staff prior to publication of the map, but participating earlier will provide more time to correct omissions. The map will focus solely on compliance at this time; all Annual Energy Benchmark Reports due in 2011, including the actual amount of energy used by a building, will remain confidential.
On April 1, 2012, Annual Energy Benchmark Summary Reports are due for properties 25,000 sq. ft. and larger. For properties 50,000 sq. ft. and larger, this date will mark the second year these facilities are benchmarked, and the reported information will be available to the public this summer.
