Reporting to the City & Requests for Disclosure

• Reporting to the City
• Responding to a Request for an Energy Disclosure Report
• Asking for an Energy Disclosure Report

Reporting to the City

Building owners are required to benchmark their properties and authorize the City of Seattle to download annual energy performance data for each building. In April of each year, the City will download and store data for all buildings for which it has been authorized. This data will be a subset of the information about each building as contained in Portfolio Manager, including the following fields:

• Report Date
• Building Name
• Building Address
• Total Gross Floor Area
• Year Built
• Eligible for ENERGYSTAR (yes/no?)
• Rating (where available)
• Normalized Total Annual Energy Consumption
• Non-normalized Total Annual Energy Consumption
• Normalized Energy Use Index (EUI), which is total annual energy consumption per square foot
• Non-normalized EUI (total annual energy consumption per square foot)
• Estimated CO2 Generation
• Total gross floor area for each space use in the building

Information in Portfolio Manager about the operating characteristics of a building, such as weekly operating hours or number of employees, will NOT be reported to the City or made publicly available.  
City of Seattle staff will use the annually reported data to monitor changes in energy use across the entire portfolio of buildings in the city. The data will help identify geographic areas of the city or market sectors with the greatest needs and opportunities for energy upgrades, not individual properties. This information will be used to inform future policies and incentive programs.
 
After benchmarking the building in Portfolio Manager, follow Steps 4 and 5 of the How to Guide for instructions on reporting to the City.

Will the building’s energy data be made public?
Though some other jurisdictions with benchmarking programs will be publicly displaying individual building energy data, the City ordinance dictates that building owners or managers directly share an Energy Disclosure Report (see below) with tenants, buyers or other qualified parties. Furthermore, to protect the private energy use information of tenants, energy data reported to the City is summarized across the entire building. Individual meter readings are NOT included in the data submitted to the City of Seattle.

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Responding to a Request for an Energy Disclosure Report

Upon request, building owners are required to release building energy performance information to any current or prospective tenant, buyer, or lender involved with a real estate transaction, a lease, or an application for financing or refinancing of the building.

After the building is benchmarked in Portfolio Manager a building owner can respond to an energy disclosure request by providing a copy of the Statement of Energy Performance (SEP). The SEP (for uses other than applying for the ENERGY STAR) is one-page summary of energy performance which can be created through Portfolio Manager. For the purposes of disclosure, a SEP showing the building's performance ending in December of the prior year is sufficient. For example, if your building is in compliance with the ordinance as of the April 1, 2013 deadline, a SEP showing the building’s December 2012 performance should be provided.

• Steps to Create a Statement of Energy Performance (PDF)

Disclosure creates an informed market with the ability to compare energy use (and future operating costs) between similar properties, and use this information to guide purchasing, leasing and financing decisions. More energy-efficient buildings cost less to operate, and have higher net operating incomes (NOI), greater asset values, and better tenant retention and acquisition. Read about some proven results in Seattle.

Building owners are required to provide an SEP, upon request, to:

• A current tenant – within seven days of the request;
• A prospective tenant negotiating a lease agreement – within seven days of the request, and at or before the time the owner presents the lease agreement;
• A prospective buyer negotiating a purchase and sale agreement – within seven days of the request, and at or before the time the owner presents a sales contract;
• A prospective lender considering an application for financing or refinancing of the building – within seven days of the request, and at or before the time the owner presents a loan application.

Lending institutions can request a disclosure report while processing any transaction involving the sale or lease of an entire building or of a separately owned portion of a building (e.g. a condominium unit). A disclosure report can also be requested in conjunction with financing of other activities, such as tenant improvements or a major renovation.

The energy disclosure report should be based on data from the twelve consecutive months of the previous calendar year. It must be provided to the requesting party by the building owner or their representative, who can use this opportunity to explain the results in the report, and share any background information that is relevant to the building’s performance. The City of Seattle will not be providing energy disclosure reports.

Failure to respond to an energy disclosure report request is subject to enforcement.

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Asking for an Energy Disclosure Report

Buildings subject to energy disclosure: As of April 1, 2013 owners of commercial and multifamily buildings greater than 20,000 SF must disclose their building's energy performance on request.

The following parties may request an Energy Disclosure Report from owners or their representative of buildings that are subject to disclosure:

• A current lessee;
• A prospective lessee negotiating a lease agreement or letter of intent;
• A prospective buyer negotiating a purchase and sale agreement;
• A prospective lender considering an application for financing or refinancing of the building.

This information is found in the building’s Statement of Energy Performance, which is created from the EPA benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager. This knowledge helps qualified parties take actual energy costs into account when buying or renting property and can be a powerful negotiating tool.

Please review Responding to a Request for and Energy Disclosure Report to understand what the building owner should provide.

Failure to disclose energy information is subject to enforcement. If a request for disclosure from a building owner has not been responsed to, please contact:

Rebecca Baker - Program Manager
206.615.1171
rebecca.baker@seattle.gov

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