772 
Edmonton is launching the first municipally led program designed to give building owners valuable information about their property's energy performance. The voluntary Large Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure program (LBERD) also strives to entice building owners to take advantage of incentives for heating, cooling, and lighting system upgrades.
Leading by example, 20 City-owned buildings, including City Hall, will participate in the program when it enters force in its first year. The City says the goal of the program is to collect information on large building energy performance and provide it to interested stakeholders, with the hope of improving energy efficiency and achieving significant greenhouse gas reductions. Building owners that sign up to the program will submit whole building utility data and property characteristics to the City. Buildings are then compared to similar buildings to determine relative performance, and then all or some of those results are made public.
"People don't realize that buildings contribute 39 percent of Edmonton's GHG emissions and 42 percent of our energy consumption," said Lisa Dockman, Senior Project Manager for the Energy Transition Strategy. "A 10 percent reduction in energy use of just one large building would be equivalent to taking 22 cars off the road for one year.
The Government of Canada is launching similar — but mandatory — efforts to encourage energy savings in buildings across the country. Its Pan Canadian Framework for Clean Growth and Climate Change indicates that labelling of building energy use will be regulated nationwide as early as 2019. Edmonton's program is partially designed as a stepping stone to help local building owners prepare for the future regulation. Percy Woods, CEO of BOMA Edmonton — who represents the commercial real estate industry on issues of national concern — says that many owners of large buildings already conduct energy reporting and benchmarking as part of the BOMA BEST certification.
More information about the Large Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure program can be found on the City's website.
