Add a comment On February 10, 2011, ASTM released its Building Energy Performance Assessment (BEPA) Standard – E 2797-11. This standard enables users to measure the energy performance of a commercial building in connection with a real estate transaction. ASTM develops voluntary standards in a variety of fields. The standard was developed in part because of an increasing number of local and state governments which are adopting regulations that require reporting on building energy usage, either at regular intervals or before a property sale. For example, as previously reported in this blog, San Francisco recently passed an ordinance that will require commercial buildings to measure, rate, and report their energy performance. In addition, a New York City law requires all private buildings over 50,000 square feet to periodically measure and report their energy use goes into effect in May 2011.
The standard is designed to offer guidelines to promote consistency when collecting a building’s energy usage data, such as collecting building characteristic data; collecting data regarding a building’s energy use over 1-3 years or since the latest major renovation; analyzing variables to determine what constitutes the average, upper limit, and lower limit of a building’s energy use and cost conditions; determining pro forma building energy use and cost; and communicating a building’s energy use and cost information in a report. The standard includes the following five components: (1) site visit; (2) records collection; (3) review and analysis; (4) interviews; and (5) preparation of a report.
The standard is designed to be used in connection with programs such as LEED and Energy Star, but is not a certification or benchmarking tool. The data collected under the standard offers more detail than a Energy Star rating and, unlike LEED certification, can be used to assess energy use within the time constraints of a real estate transaction.
One of the options available to users of the standard is to identify government-sponsored energy efficiency grants and incentive programs that may be available for any energy efficiency improvements that could be installed at the building, thereby increasing its value and making it more attractive to potential buyers.
