In order to meet the ambitious goals to phase out natural gas usage from existing buildings, there is a call for more energy efficient buildings, but to stay on track the Building Energy Benchmarking Ordinance will need to be enforceable to ensure compliance. The ordinance requires commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet and multifamily and mixed-use buildings greater than 50,000 square feet and with more than 17 residential accounts to submit energy data to the City of San Diego. The purpose of the benchmarking ordinance is to increase building use transparency to the community and the City, with the goal of motivating improvement in building energy performance. Updating the benchmarking program would allow for more compliance and minimize errors in reporting data.
The recommendation to Council will be based on evaluation of current compliance, identification of gaps, and outcomes of the Building Performance Standard (BPS) development process.