Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability
US cities are beginning to experiment with a regulatory approach to address information failures in the real estate market by mandating the energy benchmarking of commercial buildings. Understanding how a commercial building uses energy has many benefits; for example, it helps building owners and te...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2013-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035018 |
| _version_ | 1797748167357235200 |
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| author | Matt Cox Marilyn A Brown Xiaojing Sun |
| author_facet | Matt Cox Marilyn A Brown Xiaojing Sun |
| author_sort | Matt Cox |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | US cities are beginning to experiment with a regulatory approach to address information failures in the real estate market by mandating the energy benchmarking of commercial buildings. Understanding how a commercial building uses energy has many benefits; for example, it helps building owners and tenants identify poor-performing buildings and subsystems and it enables high-performing buildings to achieve greater occupancy rates, rents, and property values. This paper estimates the possible impacts of a national energy benchmarking mandate through analysis chiefly utilizing the Georgia Tech version of the National Energy Modeling System (GT-NEMS). Correcting input discount rates results in a 4.0% reduction in projected energy consumption for seven major classes of equipment relative to the reference case forecast in 2020, rising to 8.7% in 2035. Thus, the official US energy forecasts appear to overestimate future energy consumption by underestimating investments in energy-efficient equipment. Further discount rate reductions spurred by benchmarking policies yield another 1.3–1.4% in energy savings in 2020, increasing to 2.2–2.4% in 2035. Benchmarking would increase the purchase of energy-efficient equipment, reducing energy bills, CO _2 emissions, and conventional air pollution. Achieving comparable CO _2 savings would require more than tripling existing US solar capacity. Our analysis suggests that nearly 90% of the energy saved by a national benchmarking policy would benefit metropolitan areas, and the policy’s benefits would outweigh its costs, both to the private sector and society broadly. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:01:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d98db8dd6405468a99813c840fad63c0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:01:02Z |
| publishDate | 2013-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-d98db8dd6405468a99813c840fad63c02023-08-09T14:38:43ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262013-01-018303501810.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035018Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainabilityMatt Cox0Marilyn A Brown1Xiaojing Sun2School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology , D M Smith Building, 685 Cherry Street, Room 312, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345, USASchool of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology , D M Smith Building, 685 Cherry Street, Room 312, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345, USASchool of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology , D M Smith Building, 685 Cherry Street, Room 312, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345, USAUS cities are beginning to experiment with a regulatory approach to address information failures in the real estate market by mandating the energy benchmarking of commercial buildings. Understanding how a commercial building uses energy has many benefits; for example, it helps building owners and tenants identify poor-performing buildings and subsystems and it enables high-performing buildings to achieve greater occupancy rates, rents, and property values. This paper estimates the possible impacts of a national energy benchmarking mandate through analysis chiefly utilizing the Georgia Tech version of the National Energy Modeling System (GT-NEMS). Correcting input discount rates results in a 4.0% reduction in projected energy consumption for seven major classes of equipment relative to the reference case forecast in 2020, rising to 8.7% in 2035. Thus, the official US energy forecasts appear to overestimate future energy consumption by underestimating investments in energy-efficient equipment. Further discount rate reductions spurred by benchmarking policies yield another 1.3–1.4% in energy savings in 2020, increasing to 2.2–2.4% in 2035. Benchmarking would increase the purchase of energy-efficient equipment, reducing energy bills, CO _2 emissions, and conventional air pollution. Achieving comparable CO _2 savings would require more than tripling existing US solar capacity. Our analysis suggests that nearly 90% of the energy saved by a national benchmarking policy would benefit metropolitan areas, and the policy’s benefits would outweigh its costs, both to the private sector and society broadly.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035018benchmarkingurban sustainabilityenergy efficiencycommercial buildingsinformation failures |
| spellingShingle | Matt Cox Marilyn A Brown Xiaojing Sun Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability Environmental Research Letters benchmarking urban sustainability energy efficiency commercial buildings information failures |
| title | Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability |
| title_full | Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability |
| title_fullStr | Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability |
| title_short | Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability |
| title_sort | energy benchmarking of commercial buildings a low cost pathway toward urban sustainability |
| topic | benchmarking urban sustainability energy efficiency commercial buildings information failures |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035018 |
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