By Claus Wawrzinek

Commercial and residential buildings in Kansas City contributed about 30% and 20% of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) respectively city-wide in the year 2005. A large percentage of those emissions stem from heating and cooling buildings.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a “Benchmarking tool” available that other cities have used to successfully reduce GHG. This tool is called the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The tool allows building owners to track and assess the energy and water use of properties relative to similar other properties. The ordinance is also called “Energy Empowerment Ordinance”.

The Sierra Club was one of the groups that moved the City of Kansas City, MO towards adopting an ordinance to require large commercial and multi-family residential building owners to submit an annual report. The resulting benchmark reports can then be used by potential buyers or renters to analyze and compare properties for their energy efficiency. This ordinance was adopted in June 2015.

Owners of buildings larger than 100,000 square feet will have to start reporting on May 2016 for the previous year and buildings larger than 50,000 square feet will have to start reporting in May 2017 for the previous year.

There is no requirement to make any changes to the buildings, only to report the findings. Likely the real estate market will help push property owners to do the right thing and improve their properties so they are more energy efficient.

If you are one of the Sierra Club members who wrote or called your city council person to make this possible, we would like to thank you! This ordinance will help us reduce our GHG and make Kansas City a more livable city.