IMT in the District of Columbia 

LEGISLATION

DC Green Building Act of 2006

In response to requests from DC City Council committees, IMT provided technical assistance in helping to craft the Green Building Act. IMT served on the Green Building Task Force, advising on policies pertaining to green buildings and energy efficiency.

The 2006 Green Building Act, among other things, extended the city's LEED requirement for new buildings beyond government structures to include all private buildings by 2012.

DC Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 (CAEA)

A lead advisor to DC Councilmember Mary Cheh, the bill's lead sponsor, IMT provided technical assistance in helping to craft the Clean and Affordable Energy Act in 2008. The CAEA, which launched the District on a trajectory to the forefront of sustainability and efficiency standards nationwide, was passed unanimously by the DC Council on July 15, 2008, and signed into law by District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty on Aug. 4, 2008.

Among other energy conservation and efficiency initiatives, the bill required for the first time in any U.S. jurisdiction that the energy performance of commercial buildings be annually rated and disclosed to the marketplace (see background information). IMT assisted the DC City Council in amending the Green Building Act to include this rating and disclosure mandate for commercial properties (see the rating and disclosure provision) which requires large commercial buildings to rate their energy performance with EneryStar and publicly disclose their scores. (For details, see the Benchmarking, Rating & Disclosure section, below).

The Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 also included a concept that IMT helped develop: the creation of a privately-contracted, publicly-funded sustainable energy program provider. The new entity, the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU), is based on the country's most successful models for energy efficiency utilities (see Efficiency Vermont; Energy Trust of Oregon).

BUILDING CODES

Greening the District's Building Codes 

DC adopted as amendments to the International Energy Conservation Code 2006 (IECC 2006), the 30% Solution and ASHRAE 90.1 2007. The 2008 District of Columbia Construction Code, which IMT helped write, was published December 26, 2008.  DC's new building codes mandate greener practices in several key areas, including water efficiency, energy conservation, and cool roofs.

...Read more about DC building energy codes on our DC Codes page.

Meeting Codes & Standards

A federal tax deduction is available through 2013 for commercial buildings that save 50% of heating and cooling energy of a building meeting ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2001.  Federal tax incentives are also available for residential retrofits meeting set codes and standards.  Information about tax incentives can be found at www.effienctbuildings.org and  www.energystar.gov.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requires that each governor certify progress in adopting and enforcing energy codes as strong or stronger than IECC 2009 in order for states to receive certain funding, further encouraging the adoption of strong building codes.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY UTILITY (SEU)

The SEU is a variety of efficiency utility that was created under the Clean & Affordable Energy Act (2008). Efficiency utilities like the SEU administer green, renewable, and efficiency programs independent of ESCO's or utility copmanies. The scope of its measures will span the residential, commercial, multi-family, and mixed-use sectors, and its performance goals include reducing city-wide energy consumption, creating green jobs, promoting renewable sources, and other ambitious aims. The SEU is funded by a surcharge on utility ratepayers in the District of Columbia, but will be administered by a private entity. In April 2011, the contract to run the SEU was oficially awarded to IMT's team, the Sustainable Energy Partnership, led by the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, in conjunction with an array of local partners and national experts. For more information about the new SEU, visit www.dcseu.com.

DC's SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

7/27/2011 Mayor Gray “announced that the city is undertaking an ambitious initiative to create a comprehensive Sustainability Strategy for the District,” which will be “led by the D.C. Office of Planning (OP) in partnership with the District Department of the Environment (DDOE).”

Slideshow on DC's Sustainability Strategy.  Highlights:
DC leads in green building but lags in "energy efficiency of homes and businesses" (slide 3)
"Updated building codes for 30% efficiency" (slide 4)
DC to "become the most sustainable city in the US" (slide 8)
Sustainable DC: Start in September (slide 11)
GREEN RIBBON COMMITTEE (members suggested by staff, plus Mayoral designees) (slide 13)

DC GREEN JOBS RESEARCH

IMT helped design the District's "Green Collar Jobs Demand Analysis Final Report" (as prepared by Louis Berger) while under contract to the Washington DC Economic Partnership (a quasi-public agency). The report estimated that existing DC policies (principally the Green Building and Energy Acts) along with proposed initiatives "could produce over 169,000 job opportunities between 2009 and 2018." Many of those jobs would be driven by market transformation resulting from the Energy Act's requirement that buildings benchmark and disclose their energy ratings.

BENCHMARKING, RATING & DISCLOSURE

Energy Star rating

The 2008 Clean and Affordable Energy Act (CAEA) legislation requires the energy performance of private nonresidential buildings to be rated using ENERGY STAR software and disclosed annually. Buildings of 200,000 SF or more must be rated beginning in 2010. Each subsequent year, the size threshold decreases by 50,000 SF until reaching a floor of 50,000 SF in 2013. Annual disclosure will occur via an online database open to the public and administered by the District of Columbia. Disclosure begins in 2012 and requires the posting of an ENERGY STAR Statement of Performance. Public buildings of at least 10,000 SF must also be rated beginning in 2010 and disclosed thereafter via the database.

Additionally, the energy performance of large construction or substantial renovation projects must be estimated using ENERGY STAR software and disclosed if they are at least 50,000 SF. The District Department of the Environment is currently engaged in rule-making.

•  See the rating and disclosure provision in the CAEA 2008.
• See the online database for the energy performance of DC's public bulidings
• View a presentation on rating and disclosure and DC's progress to date

Energy-Saving Actions Yield High Returns--and Attract Tenants!

IMT recently submitted an article to the District of Columbia Building Industry Association regarding the two new DC energy laws that are driving the city to improve the bottom line of businesses. The article focuses on the benchmarking and submetering provisions of the Energy Act, and the modifications to DC’s building code which resulted from the Green Building Act of 2006.

...Read more about energy rating and disclosure on our DC Rating page