Chicago passes Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance
Lexology, October 25, 2013The City of Chicago recently passed the Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance of the City of Chicago (the “Ordinance”).
Subject to certain exceptions, the Ordinance generally requires owners of buildings of 50,000 gross square feet and larger to track and report energy consumption.
The reporting requirements are phased in over the next three years, with the first phase requiring buildings of 250,000 gross square feet or greater to report in June 2014. The second phase requires buildings between 50,000-250,000 gross square feet to report in June 2015. Residential buildings (i.e., a building with 10 percent or more residential occupancy) within each of these two phases will have an additional year to comply with the Ordinance.