[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:
Information generated by Portfolio Manager, as herein defined,
including descriptive information about the physical building and
its operational characteristics.
The process of measuring a building's energy use, tracking
that use over time, and comparing performance to similar buildings.
The head of the Department.
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 of Public Works.
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.
The numeric rating generated by Portfolio Manager that compares
the energy usage of the building to that of similar buildings.
The kBTUs (1,000 British thermal units) used per square foot
of 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.
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.
An entity that distributes and sells energy to covered municipal
buildings.
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.
