Why you should care about climate and energy benchmarking

As a building owner or manager, you likely have a lot competing for your attention — all of it urgent. But keep reading, because a very modest investment of your time today could save you from multiple unpleasant headaches tomorrow.

Building energy benchmarking is the process of collecting and monitoring energy and greenhouse gas emissions data from a large number of buildings over time. It allows owners, managers, occupants and governments to see how buildings of similar size and type compare on climate pollution and energy use. It also helps them plan retrofit incentive programs, so they direct assistance where it is most needed.

Participating in benchmarking is voluntary at the moment, through Building Benchmark BC, a pilot program led by a dozen local governments from around the province. The pilot taps into the ENERGY STAR portfolio manager platform many owners and operators are already collecting.

But there is every indication that benchmarking will become mandatory soon, with the City of Vancouver the first to launch a regulatory requirement for large commercial buildings to track and report their energy use by early 2023. Early adopters will have more time to understand what new regulation will mean for their companies, so they can plan for upgrades and improvements that will eventually, inevitably, be mandatory.

QuadReal, Concert Properties, Colliers, Anthem Properties, and several others are all participating. They have received a Building Performance Scorecard with directions to look for efficiency improvements and financial support. They can also tap into the Building Benchmark BC Dashboard to see how their buildings compare with others on energy efficiency and carbon. In the program’s successful first year, we registered 550 buildings and are on track for several times that number in this current Year 2, and there’s room for yours in there, too.

Why should I report my energy data now?

As noted above, the City of Vancouver will soon begin its detailed work on designing its mandatory benchmarking program. Next year it will launch programs to assist and support building owners, and in 2023 will begin requiring certain building owners to report their energy and emissions. Finally, four years from now, in 2025, the city will be requiring owners of larger buildings to reduce their carbon emissions.

Metro Vancouver is investigating whether or not it can regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and is exploring benchmarking as a fair and effective way to collect building and performance data to inform targets and program supports in advance and compliance after the fact. The Province of British Columbia has also established a target for the building sector to reduce emissions by as much as 64 per cent below 2007 levels by 2030. Inevitably, it will introduce new climate legislation to get there.

But benchmarking is not all about 'the stick'. It helps building owners and managers, too. Specifically, it helps you:

• Track a given property’s climate and energy performance from one year to the next and identify potential issues for further investigation.
• Understand how well the buildings in your portfolios are doing on energy and GHG emissions relative to similar properties elsewhere.
• Make more targeted and strategic capital investments, for example, in HVAC replacement or envelope upgrades.
• Fine-tune HVAC maintenance regimens.

In short, Building Benchmark BC is helping the commercial real estate sector work out the kinks now, so that the transition to energy efficient, lower carbon buildings will be as smooth as possible for all involved.

OK, I’m sold. How do I get started?

Hop over to Building Benchmark BC and/or reach out via info@buildingbenchmarkbc.ca, and we’ll walk you through it.

Donovan Woollard is the CEO of OPEN Technologies, which builds software tools that promote the market adoption of high performance products and best practices in energy management. OPEN developed the software that runs Building Benchmark BC behind the scenes.