The Philadelphia City Council passed legislation in mid 2012 regarding energy benchmarking for non-residential buildings in Philadelphia. The bill established a system of reporting electric, oil, natural gas, steam, and water usage for non-residential buildings greater than 50,000 square feet. Owners are required to score their properties based on the Energy Star ranking system created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The reporting deadline for 2012 usage was November 25, 2013. However, this was only the initial compliance date. For all subsequent years, including 2013 usage, the compliance date will be June 30th. That means that June 30th, 2014 is the deadline for reporting 2013 energy usage for buildings greater than 50,000 square feet.
Failure to comply could result in a fine of $300 the first month the data is late, and a $100/day penalty following the initial 30 days.
The site used to enter your facility’s information is the EPA Portfolio Manager. Click here for access to the “benchmarking starter kit”.
In January of this year, the City of Philadelphia released the results of the non-mandatory 2011 benchmarking data. This data was gathered and entered in the Portfolio Manager system by the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. This included 9,916,800 square feet of floor area. The results indicated that 140,678 megatons of carbon dioxide was emitted by the benchmarked facilities in 2011. With the passage of the mandatory regulation, these reported values should be closer to actual emission and energy usage.
EES can provide assistance to facilities that need to comply with this new benchmarking requirement. To contact us, please click here.