WHEREAS: 1. a study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency has shown that energy benchmarking has resulted in an average 7 reduction in energy use of participating buildings over a period of 3 years; 2. on September 24, 2013 Vancouver City Council endorsed: F. THAT as part of a comprehensive strategy on building retrofit to enable reaching Greenest City GHG goals, Council direct City staff to develop recommendations for Council consideration on energy reporting requirements for larger existing buildings in the City of Vancouver, and staff have identified provincial action as important to achieving this goal; 3. energy benchmarking is a low cost practice that enables building owners to identify savings opportunities; 4. nine municipalities in the US require energy benchmarking for larger buildings typically 50,000 square feet or larger; 5. energy benchmarking software called ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is available for free through Natural Resources Canada and is the same platform being used by all nine municipalities in the US that are currently regulating energy benchmarking; 6. energy benchmarking identifies the highest energy consuming buildings to target building energy performance support and inform public policy and program design; and 7. energy benchmarking enables evaluation of the effectiveness of municipal strategies to reduce energy use in existing buildings measure progress over time that are developed in response to the Local Government Act section 8773, An official community plan must include targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the area covered by the plan, and policies and actions of the local government proposed with respect to achieving those targets: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM: A. request provincial amendments to the Vancouver Charter, Local Government Act and the Community Charter in order to empower local governments to require annual reporting of building energy use data to be submitted by building owners or designate, that enables normalized comparison benchmarking between similar buildings area, use, type of equipment, etc.; and B. request additional amendments to grant local governments the authority to enable the public release of non-confidential and non-competitive building energy benchmarking information via a municipal website or that of a delegated organization, two years following the submission of reporting data by building owners to local governments and following an accuracy review by owners.
Ministry of Community, Sport Cultural Development The Province of British Columbia recognizes that energy efficiency is one of the lowest cost ways to reduce energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the five Pacific Coast jurisdictions that make up the Pacific Coast Collaborative, the Province supports benchmarking as an important strategy in increasing the energy efficiency of large buildings and reducing carbon emissions in the region. While legislative amendments are not under consideration at this time, the Province is exploring approaches and policy options in relation to enabling potential benchmarking activities, in particular for commercial and large multi-unit residential buildings in BC.