Background
In November
2019, Ann Arbor's City Council unanimously adopted a Climate Emergency
Declaration committing to charting a path for how the entire Ann Arbor
community could achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2030. In June
2020, City Council unanimously adopted the A2ZERO Carbon
Neutrality Plan, a document created with input from thousands of Ann
Arborites to lay out seven strategies for our community to achieve
carbon neutrality. The A2ZERO Plan ensures that buildings
in Ann Arbor - which account for 68% of community-wide greenhouse gas
emissions - are as energy and water efficient as possible with one of
its seven core strategies.
Benchmarking is an easy way
for buildings to measure and manage their energy and water use. The
ordinance will help improve the energy efficiency of large buildings
across Ann Arbor. Building owners will be able to look across their
portfolio to identify opportunities for energy and financial savings,
and understand how their buildings are performing relative to buildings
of similar characteristics.
The ordinance creates information
that will enable better decision-making around building energy use. By
providing reliable data to building owners and tenants and consistent
information to the market, benchmarking and transparency leads to
average energy savings of 2 - 3 percent each year.
Learn more about how benchmarking benefits our community and what the process entails in this overview:
Commercial and Multifamily Benchmarking Process
Ordinance Development Process
The
Office of Sustainability and Innovations worked with multiple City
units and community stakeholders to develop policy recommendations
during 2020 - 2021. Part of this process will include a public comment
period. Meeting agendas and slides decks are included below.
Meeting 1: Setting the Context and Framing the Opportunity
November 19, 2020
Slide Deck: 
Commercial Benchmarking Meeting 1 Slide Deck.pdf
Meeting 2: Benchmarking 101 and Policy Direction
December 4, 2020
Slide Deck: Commercial Benchmarking Meeting 2 Slide Deck.pdf
Meeting 3: Policy Direction
December 17, 2020
Slide Deck: Commercial Benchmarking Meeting 3 Slide Deck.pdf
Meeting 4: Policy Direction
January 8, 2021
Slide Deck: Commercial Benchmarking Meeting 4 Slide Deck.pdf
Deliverable: Commercial and Multifamily Benchmarking Summary Policy Recommendations (PDF, 5 pages)
Commercial and Multifamily Benchmarking Open House
February 4, 2021 from 6 - 8 PM
The Office of
Sustainability and Innovations hosted an Open House to introduce and
review policy recommendations, hear from guest speakers, and facilitate
feedback. A recording of the Open House is available below.
