(a) Requirement. The Department must develop and implement building energy performance standards for covered buildings. The standards must:
(1) increase the energy efficiency of existing covered buildings and expedite the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector;
(2) use normalized net site EUI as a performance metric wherever feasible or net site EUI if the Director determines that normalization is not practical as performance metric;
(3) account for the renewable energy allowance in the performance metric;
(4) use the benchmarking tool to report building energy performance to the County; and
(5) utilize available data sources and best practices to establish interim and final performance standards.
(b) Building types.
(1) No later than December 31, 2023, the County Executive must issue Method (2) regulations establishing building types for every covered building.
(2) Covered buildings within each building type must have shared characteristics that facilitate the implementation and enforcement of this Article. The Department may define one or more building types to be identical to ENERGY STAR property type categories.
(3) All covered buildings within the same building type category must be subject to the same final performance standards that facilitate the implementation and enforcement of this Article.
(c) Performance baseline. The performance baseline for each covered building must be calculated as follows:
(1) County-owned covered buildings whose gross floor area equals or exceeds 50,000 square feet, Group 1 covered buildings, and Group 2 covered buildings: Average of the 2 complete years with the highest normalized net site EUI between calendar year 2018 and calendar year 2022.
(2) County-owned covered buildings whose gross floor area is at least 25,000 square feet but not greater than 50,000 square feet, Group 3, and Group 4 covered buildings: Average of the 2 complete years with the highest normalized net site EUI between calendar year 2022 and calendar year 2024.
(3) Group 5 covered buildings: Average of the 2 complete years with the highest normalized net site EUI between calendar year 2023 and calendar year 2025.
(4) Newly constructed covered buildings: Average of the 2 complete years with the highest normalized net site EUI over the first 3 years of benchmarking reporting.
(d) Interim and final performance standards.
(1) No later than December 31, 2023, the County Executive must issue Method (2) regulations establishing final performance standards for each building type using the normalized site EUI performance metric wherever feasible or site EUI if the Director determines that normalization is not practical.
(2) The Department must calculate interim performance standards for each covered building with the starting point set at the covered building’s performance baseline and continuing to the final performance standard.
(3) Each covered building must demonstrate progress towards the final performance standard by complying with interim performance standards every 5 years after the performance baseline year as follows:
(A) County-owned covered buildings whose gross floor area equals or exceeds 50,000 square feet, Group 1, and Group 2 covered buildings:
(i) Interim performance standard: December 31, 2028, and evaluated with June 1, 2029, benchmarking.
(ii) Final performance standard: December 31, 2033, and evaluated with June 1, 2034, benchmarking.
(B) County-owned covered buildings whose gross floor area is at least 25,000 square feet but not greater than 50,000 square feet, Group 3, and Group 4 covered buildings:
(i) Interim performance standard: December 31, 2030, evaluated with June 1, 2031.
(ii) Final performance standard: December 31, 2035, evaluated with June 1, 2036.
(C) Group 5 covered buildings:
(i) Interim performance standard: December 31, 2031, evaluated with June 1, 2032, benchmarking.
(ii) Final performance standard: December 31, 2036, evaluated with June 1, 2037.
(D) Newly constructed buildings will be added to a coverage group (Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, or Group 5) based on gross floor area and building type:
(i) Interim performance standards: Evaluated with the interim standard of the building’s coverage group following creation of the performance baseline.
(ii) Final performance standard: Evaluated with the final performance standard of the building’s coverage group, if the performance baseline is created before the final performance standard.
(4) Covered buildings must maintain the final performance standards established by regulation.
(5) Covered buildings must demonstrate compliance with the interim and final performance standards by reporting building energy benchmarking data to the Department using the benchmarking tool. The Department must determine compliance by comparing the performance metric against the interim or final performance standards for the applicable building type. (2022 L.M.C., ch. 13, §1.)