You may have heard that there are laws all over the country requiring commercial buildings to reduce energy use to meet energy performance standards. Lack of compliance means substantial fines in some areas; you need to start work now. To make it more complicated, the law is different in each municipality.

NPC’s energy team can help and will be publishing a brief summary the requirement in each City and State to let you know what’s coming. Reach out if we can help!

Washington DC’s Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) is designed to support DC’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas/energy consumption by 50% by 2032.  The current cycle is from 2021 to 2026 and includes buildings >50,000sf.  Requirements of the BEPS are:

• Hotels must have a minimum ENERGY STAR Score of 54 by December 31, 2026.
• This can be accomplished through a performance-based or action-based (prescriptive) compliance pathway
• Benchmark and submit your building’s ENERGY STAR Score annually, with third-party verification every third year.  

Steep fines and court intervention will be used to enforce compliance:

• The maximum potential penalty is $10/sf or $7.5 million, adjusted according to progress toward the ENERGY STAR target.
• Penalties may also include judicial enforcement for damages, cost recovery, court fees, or an injunction.

The second BEPS cycle will extend to buildings >25,000 ft² in 2027 and a third cycle will include  buildings >10,000 ft² in 2033.  Energy reduction targets for those cycle are to be determined. 

Next Steps:

• Look up your building’s status here: D.C. Energy Benchmarking (buildingperformancedc.org)
• If your ENERGY STAR score is below 54, get an Energy Audit to start the process of figuring out what to do. 
• If you didn’t select a compliance pathway in 2023, check with the Department of Energy and Environment because it has been assigned
• Implement your plan (we can help with an ASHRAE energy audit, Energy Conservation Measure development, retrocommissioning, etc.) and benchmark your building’s performance annually.

You may have heard that there are laws all over the country requiring commercial buildings to reduce energy use to meet energy performance standards. Lack of compliance means substantial fines in some areas; you need to start work now. To make it more complicated, the law is different in each municipality.

NPC’s energy team can help and will be publishing a brief summary the requirement in each City and State to let you know what’s coming. Reach out if we can help!

Requirements of the state of Washington’s Clean Building Performance Standards (CBPS):

• Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 68 kBTU/sf for hotels
• Commercial buildings >220,000 sf must comply by June 2026
• Requirements will extend to all buildings >90,000 sf by June 2027 & >50,000 sf by June 2028
• Fines will be enforced at a rate of up to $5,000 plus $1/sf/year, accruing daily
• An alternative compliance pathway includes an energy audit and plan to implement cost-effective energy conservation measures

It is important to begin planning now in case building upgrades are required to meet requirements.

Next Steps:

• Owners should have received a letter explaining how to create a portal account; if you haven’t contact Clean Buildings Program Customer Support Ticket (smartsheet.com)
• If you haven’t already, benchmark your building using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager: Login
• If your hotel’s EUI is above 68, perform an energy audit to determine what you can do

You may have heard that there are laws all over the country requiring commercial buildings to reduce energy use to meet energy performance standards. Lack of compliance means substantial fines in some areas; you need to start work now. To make it more complicated, the law is different in each municipality.

NPC’s energy team can help and will be publishing a brief summary the requirement in each City and State to let you know what’s coming. Reach out if we can help!

Requirements of Colorado’s Building Performance Program:

• Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 64.3 kBTU/sf in 2026 (for hotels).
• Must maintain that EUI each year through 2029.
• New lower targets start in 2030.
• Alternative pathways are available that allows higher interim EUI targets or by meeting Greenhouse Gas Reduction targets instead of EUI.
• There are fines of up to $5,000 per month for violations.  Note that Colorado will not accept paying fines in lieu of meeting the requirements.  They state that they may seek injunctive relief to force compliance!

It is important to begin planning now in case building upgrades are required to meet requirements.

Next Steps:

• Check your building status here: BEAM Platform (beam-portal.org)
• If your Hotel’s EUI is above 64.3, perform and Energy Audit to determine what you can do.

You may have heard that there are laws all over the country requiring commercial buildings to reduce energy use to meet energy performance standards. Lack of compliance means substantial fines in some areas; you need to start work now. To make it more complicated, the law is different in each municipality.

NPC’s energy team can help and will be publishing a brief summary the requirement in each City and State to let you know what’s coming. Reach out if we can help!

Requirements of the Energize Denver Program:

• Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 62.1 kBTU/sf by 2030 (adjustments available)
• Interim EUI reduction targets in 2024 and 2027.
• Fines for not meeting interim and final EUI targets, which for some buildings can be in the $$millions!

If you need more time, there is an option to submit an Alternative Compliance Pathway plan that can push the interim targets and reduce the associated fines and penalty rates. 

Application deadlines and fines are shown below:

Here’s an example of the fine calculation for a 200,000sf building:

• 2024 EUI = 80 kBTU/sf
• Target EUI = 62.1 kBTU/sf
• Fine for not meeting target:
• 80-62.1 = 17.9 kBTU/sf not achieved
• 17.9 kBTU/sf * $0.50/kBTU * 200,000sf = $1,790,000

There is still time to prepare a plan by the 12/31/24 deadline. Next Steps:

• Perform a ASHRAE Level II Energy Audit.
• Apply for goal target adjustment.
• Select Alternative Compliance Pathway and prepare plan with supporting documentation.
• Prepare the Alternative Compliance Pathway plan, which includes an electrification study and options to achieve targets.
• Submit the plan to the City for acceptance.
• Implement the plan

You may have heard that there are laws all over the country requiring commercial buildings to reduce energy use to meet energy performance standards. Lack of compliance means substantial fines in some areas; you need to start work now. To make it more complicated, the law is different in each municipality.

NPC’s energy team can help and will be publishing a brief summary the requirement in each City and State to let you know what’s coming. Reach out if we can help!

Requirements of The Boston Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure (BERDO) Program:

• Carbon Emissions reduction targets in 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, and 2045
• Commercial buildings to have zero Carbon Emissions by 2050
• Fines (“alternative compliance payments”) for not meeting interim targets
• For some buildings, fines can be in the hundreds of thousands to millions.
• These fines and requirements go into effect in 2026, but the measurement of these emissions starts January 1, 2025!
• You need to start now to figure out how to keep your 2025 emissions and fines as low as possible.

Interim targets for each building use type are shown below:

Next Steps:

• Figure out your projected emissions for 2025
• Figure out what your fine will be
• Figure out how to reduce emissions, utility spend, fines, and if upgrades are cost-justified
• Implement the plan

NPC would like to congratulate employees Hyrum and Vince, who recently passed their Registered Roof Observer (RRO) exams. RRO candidates must meet the experience, ethics, training, and roof systems knowledge requirements of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC). 

NPC believes continuing education and licensure are badges of professionalism in our industry, and we take pride in prioritizing our employees’ advancement. Our clients can be confident we are sending the right person out to their site, for services ranging from design surveys to roof condition assessments to quality assurance observation during construction .

It’s a bit late to change the company name to INTERnational Property Consulting Group, but National Property Consulting Group (NPC) would like our potential clients to know we’re definitely willing to travel. For example, this past month, Ken Winship and Andy Mansuetti (pictured on camelback) were in Egypt. They performed four energy audits at resorts around the country that are pursuing net zero certification.

And in their free time, of course they had to visit the pyramids and take in one of the world’s all time greatest feats of building engineering.

National Property Consulting Group (NPC) is hitting the road this year to connect with potential clients and collaborators across the country. Our first big trade show was the National Facilities Management & Technology Conference in Baltimore from March 12 to 14.

Pictured above is Senior Energy Engineer Ed Gillett, who was dropped off at the convention center with our brand-new booth materials, and managed to figure out and set up the booth by the time his colleagues got the car parked. Ed has lots of other skills, too, such as brewing beer and retro-commissioning building automation systems.

NFMT was a great trade show for meeting not only current and potential clients, but also for connecting with other companies that might want to partner on complex projects. Our next road trip will be to Pittsburgh for Energy Exchange on March 26-28.

National Property Consulting Group (NPC) is celebrating 20 years! Thanks to great clients who have trusted us over the years, we have been able to recruit expert engineers, architects, and project managers. NPC has a staff of 18 and maintains 8 office locations across the US. So far, we’ve performed:

• ADA Assessments of over 4 million square feet (including 8145 hotel rooms)
• Capital Needs Assessments (CNAs) of over 10 million square feet (including 11,819 affordable housing units)
• Document and/or Draw Reviews of over 13 million square feet of industrial and housing spaces (including authorization of $468 million in construction funding)
• Energy Audits of over 39 million square feet (leading to $23 million in recommended energy savings, an average of 22%)
• Property Condition Assessments (PCAs) of over 285 million square feet (including 193 million in the industrial/warehouse sector and 65 million in the hospitality sector)
• Roof Consulting on over 4 million square feet (including Quality Assurance Observation during construction and pre-construction Design Surveys)

In 2023 alone, the NPC team traveled to 205 cities and accomplished over 250 projects. And we have no intention of slowing down! Click the blue button at the top of the page to request a proposal for your property, or the red button to learn more about joining our team!