[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Council of the Town of Brighton 10-25-2017 by L.L. No. 3-2017. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known as the "Local Law for Energy Benchmarking for Municipal Buildings of the Town of Brighton."
It is the purpose and intent of this chapter to use building energy benchmarking to promote the public health, safety, and welfare by making available good, actionable information on municipal building energy use to help identify opportunities to cut costs and reduce pollution in the Town of Brighton.
Buildings are the single largest user of energy in the State of New York. The poorest performing buildings typically use several times the energy of the highest performing buildings for the exact same building use. As such, this chapter will use building energy benchmarking to promote the public health, safety, and welfare by making available good, actionable information on municipal building energy use to help identify opportunities to cut costs and reduce pollution in the Town of Brighton. Collecting, reporting, and sharing building energy benchmarking data on a regular basis allows municipal officials and the public to understand the energy performance of municipal buildings relative to similar buildings nationwide. Equipped with this information, the Town of Brighton is able to make smarter, more cost-effective operational and capital investment decisions, reward efficiency, and drive widespread, continuous improvement.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
BENCHMARKING INFORMATION
Information generated by Portfolio Manager, as herein defined, including descriptive information about the physical building and its operational characteristics.
BUILDING ENERGY BENCHMARKING
The process of measuring a building's energy use, tracking that use over time, and comparing performance to similar buildings.
COMMISSIONER
The head of the Department.
COVERED MUNICIPAL BUILDING
A building or facility that is owned or occupied by the Town of Brighton that is 1,000 square feet or larger in size.
DEPARTMENT
Department of Public Works.
ENERGY
Electricity, natural gas, steam, hot or chilled water, fuel oil, or other product for use in a building, or renewable on-site electricity generation, for purposes of providing heating, cooling, lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end uses in the building and related facilities, as reflected in utility bills or other documentation of actual energy use.
ENERGY PERFORMANCE SCORE
The numeric rating generated by Portfolio Manager that compares the energy usage of the building to that of similar buildings.
ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI)
The kBTUs (1,000 British thermal units) used per square foot of gross floor area.
GROSS FLOOR AREA
The total number of enclosed square feet measured between the exterior surfaces of the fixed walls within any structure used or intended for supporting or sheltering any use or occupancy.
PORTFOLIO MANAGER
Energy Star Portfolio Manager, the internet-based tool developed and maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to track and assess the relative energy performance of buildings nationwide, or successor.
UTILITY
An entity that distributes and sells energy to covered municipal buildings.
WEATHER-NORMALIZED SITE EUI
The amount of energy that would have been used by a property under thirty-year average temperatures, accounting for the difference between average temperatures and yearly fluctuations.
A. 
This chapter is applicable to all covered municipal buildings as defined in § 63-4 of this chapter.
B. 
The Commissioner may exempt a particular covered municipal building from the benchmarking requirement if the Commissioner determines that it has characteristics that make benchmarking impractical.
A. 
No later than March 31, 2018, and no later than March 31 every year thereafter, the Commissioner or his or her designee from the Department shall enter into Portfolio Manager the total energy consumed by each covered municipal building, along with all other descriptive information required by Portfolio Manager for the previous calendar year.
B. 
For new covered municipal buildings that have not accumulated 12 months of energy use data by the first applicable date following occupancy for inputting energy use into Portfolio Manager, the Commissioner or his or her designee from the Department shall begin inputting data in the following year.
A. 
The Department shall make available to the public on the internet benchmarking information for the previous calendar year no later than March 31, 2018, and by March 31 of each year thereafter for covered municipal buildings; and
B. 
The Department shall make available to the public on the internet, and update at least annually, the following benchmarking information:
(1) 
Summary statistics on energy consumption for covered municipal buildings derived from aggregation of benchmarking information; and
(2) 
For each covered municipal building individually:
(a) 
The status of compliance with the requirements of this chapter; and
(b) 
The building address, primary use type, and gross floor area; and
(c) 
Annual summary statistics, including site EUI, weather-normalized source EUI, annual GHG emissions and an energy performance score where available; and
(d) 
A comparison of the annual summary statistics (as required by § 63-7B(2)(c) of this chapter) across calendar years for all years since annual reporting under this chapter has been required for said building.
The Department shall maintain records as necessary for carrying out the purposes of this chapter, including but not limited to energy bills and other documents received from tenants and/or utilities. Such records shall be presented by the Department for a period of three years.
A. 
The Commissioner or his or her designee from the Department shall be the Chief Enforcement Officer of this chapter.
B. 
The Chief Enforcement Officer of this chapter may promulgate regulations necessary for the administration of the requirements of this chapter.
C. 
Within 30 days after each anniversary date of the effective date of this chapter, the Chief Enforcement Officer shall submit a report to the Town of Brighton Town Board including but not limited to summary statistics on energy consumption for covered municipal buildings derived from aggregation of benchmarking information, a list of all covered municipal buildings identifying each covered municipal building that the Commissioner determined to be exempt from the benchmarking requirement and the reason for the exemption, and the status of compliance with the requirements of this chapter.
If any clause, sentence, phrase, paragraph or any part of this chapter shall for any reason be adjudicated finally by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder of this chapter, but shall be confined in its operation and effect to the clause, sentence, phrase, paragraph or part thereof directly involved.