"Energy benchmarking." The City of Columbus does it. The City of Cincinnati is poised to do it. Every major city in Ohio should do it. So what IS "energy benchmarking?" Simply put, it is a way to collect data about the energy that buildings use, so that building owners, operators, tenants, and city officials can make informed decisions about saving money and cleaning up our electrical grids. We have been advocating for benchmarking since at least 2019, when we helped to update Ohio’s building codes. Please join us again, and ask your local officials to explore benchmarking, and get informed!
Here’s a little more about Energy Benchmarking as discussed in the 2018 Green Cincinnati Plan:
Market forces push building owners to prefer more efficient buildings and motivate tenants to choose buildings with lower utility costs. Unfortunately, these market forces are often impeded because prospective building owners and tenants lack access to vital energy information about buildings. Energy Benchmarking helps to address these issues and ensure that building owners and tenants have the information needed to properly value energy-efficient buildings.
Energy Benchmarking allows facilities to compare their energy performance to other facilities of the same type. Through energy benchmarking, facilities are motivated to increase their energy performance and reduce costs. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR(r) Portfolio Manager program provides a free online tool for property owners to quickly and easily benchmark their buildings. The result is an easy-to-interpret (1-100) score that highlights the relative efficiency of a given building compared to others of a similar size, geography, and use. Many cities across the country require some form of Energy Benchmarking.
Similar tools exist for rental properties and to assist residential tenants who are looking for an apartment that keeps energy costs low. These tools make a building’s utility costs, access to alternative modes of transportation, and ability to recycle visible to prospective tenants. The programs allow residents to pick apartments and homes based on sustainable features that appear on the same website where tenants find rental listings. This also puts Landlords in a position to market the sustainable features both in and around their properties.
Increasing energy efficiency on both the commercial and residential sides will provide lower total costs for the owners. Decreasing stress that is put on the grid will provide lower rates, more power when power is needed, and lessen the chance of brownouts and blackouts. Improvements in energy performance make buildings look more attractive to tenants who want to rent and workers who are looking to work for sustainable companies.