Proposal to rate the energy efficiency of Kansas City buildings prompts backlash

Kansas City is considering a plan to require large buildings to publicly report their energy consumption, much like gas mileage disclosures on cars.

Kansas City would follow 13 other cities nationally that require this reporting, and advocates say it has the potential to lead to major energy improvements.

“It will encourage energy efficiency,” said Councilman Scott Taylor, who is sponsoring the ordinance with Mayor Sly James. “I think the majority of taxpayers and citizens will support this for sure. This is where every city is going in the country.”

But representatives of some of Kansas City’s largest buildings object, arguing it will be just another expensive mandate that will put them at a competitive disadvantage with cities that don’t have this requirement.

“You are labeling a building, and you are creating winners and losers,” said Sam Alpert, governmental affairs officer for the Building Owners and Managers Association of Metropolitan Kansas City, which represents commercial buildings.

Alpert said the city has been discussing energy efficiency strategies since mid-2013 and the association supports voluntary benchmarking, which sets scores to compare buildings, but it opposes making that mandatory. The City Council has also received letters of opposition from Newmark Grubb Zimmer, Price Brothers, Luke Draily Construction and others involved with large commercial buildings.

The council’s finance committee is expected to debate the measure Wednesday. It calls for using an Environmental Protection Agency-approved method to track and assess energy and water use and for phasing in the reporting of those scores.

The first year of the program, through May 1, 2016, would affect just city government buildings over 10,000 square feet. Their data would be made publicly available by Sept. 1, 2016.

By May 1, 2017, and annually thereafter, any multifamily, commercial, industrial or institutional building in the city over 100,000 square feet would have to gather data from the previous year. That benchmarking information would be made publicly available later. By May 1, 2018, the benchmarking requirement would extend to buildings over 50,000 square feet.

Dennis Murphey, Kansas City’s chief environmental officer, said the measure affects just 3 percent of the buildings in the city, but they are believed to be the biggest energy consumers.

Thirteen other cities, including New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., have required or will require some type of benchmarking and reporting. Murphey said some cities have also required energy efficiency improvements, but Kansas City is not doing that.

Murphey said cities that have a benchmarking track record have achieved significant energy savings, while the voluntary programs don’t have enough participation. He also said the benchmarking process is not expensive or time-consuming.

Advocates say the data will allow the city to target its energy efficiency programs, technical assistance and other incentives to the buildings that will make the most impact.

But Alpert and others believe Kansas City is very different from the large, dense cities that have mandatory benchmarking and reporting.

“A large portion of our economic recovery is in older building stock,” Alpert said. “And they’re not very energy efficient. They’ll be impacted. The value of those buildings will be immediately decreased where this exists.”

Councilman Ed Ford, chairman of the council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee, said it’s beneficial to know how energy efficient a building is. But he’s concerned the public reports could make it even harder for the office buildings in the Northland and throughout Kansas City that already are half empty and struggle to attract new tenants.

This story was originally published April 24, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Proposal to rate the energy efficiency of Kansas City buildings prompts backlash."