Sunday, June 1 2014 marks the first deadline for the City of Chicago’s Benchmarking Ordinance for facilities over 250,000 square feet to report their energy use. The ordinance’s intention is to assist building owners understand their current, annual energy consumption and be able to use information to make more informed management decisions. With the information building owners and managers obtain from their benchmarking data, they can implement energy efficiency measures to save money, attract more tenants, and potentially enhance the value of their property(s).

Graduates from the Building Operator Certification program are recognized by the City of Chicago as being eligible to provide benchmarking services and collect annual building energy use and submit it to the city. In addition, each building’s energy data must be verified by an in-house or third-party architect, an engineer, or other trained professional (BOC graduates included) the first year and every third year after first reporting.

First-time benchmarking, verification, and reporting deadlines will phase-in over three years, based on building size and sector, according to the following timeline:

June 1, 2014:  Municipal and commercial buildings ≥250,000 square feet

June 1, 2015:  Municipal and commercial buildings 50,000 – 250,000 square feet

June 1, 2015:  Residential buildings ≥250,000 square feet

June 1, 2016:  Residential buildings 50,000 – 250,000 square feet

MEEA will be collecting contact information for BOC graduates interested in providing these services in the City of Chicago. For more information on the Chicago Benchmarking Ordinance and how Building Operator Certification graduates can be more involved, contact Jennifer Allen, Programs Manager at (312) 784-7243 or jallen@mwalliance.org.

For more information on Building Operator Certification in the Midwest, visit www.boccentral.org. National program information can be found by visiting: www.theboc.info 

This article was shared courtesy of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and the original publication can be found here.