Rafael Reyes on Saturday, 05 March 2011 21:35

SF ordinance addresses existing buildings

Recent years have seen the majority of Bay Area local governments adopt green building standards which address new construction.  A small percentage of those include requirements for large remodels of existing buildings.  However, the bulk of the need for energy efficiency is in existing buildings.  San Francisco's new energy efficiency ordinance moves to address that need.

The ordinance will require owners of existing non-residential buildings to determine how much energy each building consumes, and to annually disclose that information to the public. The new city code will also require commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet to conduct energy efficiency audits every five years in order to help the building owners and managers optimize building efficiency and utility savings.