The City of Philadelphia Friday announced the results of energy and water usage reporting for nearly 2,000 of Philadelphia’s largest buildings, marking the conclusion of the third year of the City’s Energy Benchmarking Program.
Energy benchmarking allows building owners to easily compare their facility’s energy performance to peers locally and nationwide, and understand opportunities for cost-saving and energy efficiency.
“Buildings account for the majority of Philadelphia’s carbon footprint, and energy efficiency is the cheapest and most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “The publication of this data will help building owners make smarter energy decisions and aide the City in better targeting policies to meet our energy and sustainability goals.”
Philadelphia City Council mandated energy benchmarking and reporting for commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet in 2013, and the program is in its third year of implementation. A similar requirement was passed for multifamily buildings earlier this year and will go into effect in 2016, adding an additional 800 buildings to the program.
The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability manages the benchmarking program and is finalizing a report on findings from this year’s reported data.
Some highlights of the report are:
— Philadelphia buildings earning an Energy Star score (a 1-100 measurement of energy efficiency) received a median of 59 in 2014, 9 points higher than the national median of 50. This is down from a score of 63 in 2013, demonstrating the need for energy efficiency investment in many of Philadelphia’s largest buildings.
— More than 700 properties were eligible for an Energy Star score, an increase of nine percent from 2012. Energy Star scores normalize energy data for weather, occupancy rate, and building type, allowing owners and operators to more easily compare their performance to local and national peers.
— Nearly 2,000 buildings encompassing more than 280 million square feet of floor area (roughly 25 percent of all the developed space in Philadelphia) reported as part of Year Three of the program. For the second straight year, compliance exceeded 90 percent.
The energy benchmarking program is part of a broader strategy by the City of Philadelphia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Greenworks comprehensive sustainability plan.
Click Here for a copy of the Energy Benchmarking Report. Click Here for the Benchmarking Mapping Tool.
More information generally about Philadelphia’s sustainability and climate initiatives, visit the Greenworks Philadelphia webpage.
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