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The City of Toronto is looking at implementing an Energy Disclosure Requirement for Large Buildings in 2015.

Based on the research findings, and subsequent stakeholder engagement process, a proposed by-law and implementation plan will be presented to City Council for consideration in 2015 – City of Toronto Staff Report, July 2014

At Coolearth, to help building owners, managers, and users understand how this Energy Disclosure By-Law will impact them we prepared a research paper.  The paper surveys energy disclosure and benchmarking laws from cities around the United States, Europe and Australia with the aim of demonstrating how stakeholders, as well as the environment can benefit from these by-laws.

The heating, cooling, and servicing of buildings accounts for over 50% of the overall greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto and represents 30% of a typical US office building operating costs, according to the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (1).

At first it may seem paradoxical that these by-laws can benefit owners, but by making energy use apparent and by plotting energy consumption trends owners can actually reduce utility costs without capital expenses: by changing the behaviour of occupants and encouraging sustainable practices.  These by-laws further allow owners to better allocate capital for upgrades and improvements in order to find more value for their dollars.  And perhaps most importantly, in cities where these by-laws have been implemented there has been found a market demand for “sustainable buildings” which makes them more valuable then their “non-sustainable” peers.

To learn more please visit the research paper or call us at 416-868-9774 for more information.