ASHRAE to Introduce New Building Energy Label in June 2009

In case you missed it, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers — ASHRAE — is scheduled to release its own building energy label this year.

As reported by FMLink (Feb. 25), the “new consumer label [will] grade all commercial buildings according to their energy efficiency. The label [will] measure both the design efficiency and operational performance of buildings, similar to the government’s Energy Star program.”

In fact, the measurements will likely come from Energy Star.

In a much longer article, CoStar Group points out (Feb. 18) ASHRAE says it will “eventually expand the label to include property types not covered by Energy Star, and if that effort is successful, it indicated it would push for an international expansion. Separately, it is ramping up efforts to train U.S. energy assessors to verify compliance with the label.”

Of particular interest to property owners, facility managers, etc., may be this part:

Though much of the label’s success is being staked on its ties to Energy Star, ASHRAE is also positioning the label to expand beyond Energy Star’s current capabilities or requirements.

In the most dramatic example, ASHRAE said it would extend its label to properties that cannot currently receive an Energy Star rating, which is only available for about 60 percent of U.S. commercial buildings. But to do that, ASHRAE must navigate a tricky and complex path.

For more details see the CoStar article — and also, of course, ASHRAE’s 32-page pdf “ASHRAE Building Energy Label Program: Promoting the Value of Energy Efficiency in the Real Estate Market” (June 2008), which explains the label in detail and states ASHRAE’s official motivations:

The objective of ASHRAE’s building labeling effort is to provide motivation for reducing energy use in commercial buildings by expressing the energy performance of buildings in a tangible way. . . . Within the U.S., ASHRAE is viewed as a respected leader with strong credentials and credibility in the area of building energy efficiency. Within the global community, ASHRAE has many partners who are leaders in their own right in this field. By establishing a building energy labeling program, and by collaborating with its many partners, both domestic and abroad, ASHRAE can help to move the worldwide marketplace to a point where energy efficiency is a necessary requirement for real estate transactions and where building energy efficiency is truly a valued commodity. On the current worldwide stage, ever-spiraling energy costs make it clear that the time is right to initiate a program such as this.