Montgomery County Releases First County Building Energy Benchmarking Metrics

For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has released the first year of building energy data for County buildings larger than 50,000 square feet. This is the first release of data, required under the County’s Building Energy Benchmarking and Transparency Law. The data, which provides information on 14 County facilities totaling more than 1.9 million square feet, is available at bit.ly/CY15MoCoCountyBuildingData.

 

Benchmarking and transparency laws are established to assist the commercial building market in reducing energy use and enhancing building operations. By comparing one building’s energy use against comparable buildings across the country, facility owners can improve energy performance, identify energy efficiency opportunities, and drive down utility costs over time. Public transparency of energy data rewards market leaders in the building sector, helping owners make important and cost-effective energy investments.

 

“Benchmarking our buildings against similar facilities is one of our most powerful tools to identify energy efficiency opportunities in our portfolio of buildings. Applying data to achieve measurable outcomes is essential to the Department of General Services’ (DGS’) approach to managing energy,” said David Dise, Director of DGS. “Better understanding the energy consumption patterns of our buildings helps the County prioritize investment resulting in energy saving projects with the greatest greenhouse gas emissions reductions and cost savings to our taxpayers.”

 

In April 2014, Montgomery County became the first county in the nation to adopt a building energy benchmarking and disclosure law for public County buildings and certain private commercial buildings. Currently, using benchmarking and other means, the County has identified more than 15 major energy efficiency projects in its buildings, including three facilities covered under the Benchmarking Law.

 

The Benchmarking Law required the County to lead by example and benchmark County facilities that are greater than 50,000 square feet by June 1, 2015 and annually thereafter. This is the second year that the County has benchmarked and reported its data to DEP and the first year data has been released publicly per the Law’s disclosure terms.

 

“Through the Benchmarking Law, we anticipate Montgomery County’s building stock will improve in an efficient and sustainable way,” said Lisa Feldt, director of DEP. “The County has an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by the year 2050, and our government and commercial building community is a key component towards achieving that goal. It is important that Montgomery County government lead by example. We applaud the partnership with DGS to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and address the challenge of climate change.”

 

For more information about the Benchmarking Law in Montgomery County, visit DEP’s Benchmarking Website (bit.ly/depbenchmarking).

 

NOTE: Private commercial building owners with properties in Montgomery County that are 250,000 square feet or larger (described in the law as “Group 1 buildings”) benchmarked calendar year 2015 building energy use and reported the data to DEP for their initial reporting deadline of June 1, 2016. The third and final group of buildings, private commercial buildings that are 50,000 square feet up to 249,999 square feet (or “Group 2 buildings”), must benchmark calendar year 2016 building energy data and report the data to DEP by June 1, 2017. Private building data will also be made public during each Group’s second year of reporting.

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Release ID: 16-439
Media Contact: Judy Stiles 240-777-6507