Tool To Comply With CA Building Performance Law

Beginning January 1, 2013, those buying, selling, or refinancing a commercial building in California will be tasked with complying with state benchmarking regulations. The California Commissioning Collaborative (CCC) is offering support for this regulatory effort in the form of a Facilities Operations Assessment (FOA) toolkit.

The toolkit, which can be downloaded for free from the CCC website, is a resource for building professionals who need to satisfy the State of California law (AB Bill 1103), which requires them to disclose building performance during transactions.

For those beyond California’s borders, the CCC states its FOA toolkit will also be a help. Whatever their location in the U.S., facility managers, commissioning authority program managers, real estate agents, and property assessment firms looking to sell or purchase commercial real estate can use the toolkit.

In an effort to reduce energy consumption of commercial buildings, the State of California passed the law in 2007 that requires building owners to complete building performance benchmarking and disclose a Statement of Energy Performance to the buyer, lessee, or lender whenever a building is sold, leased, or refinanced. The dates by which building owners must comply are tiered (by site square footage), beginning January 1, 2013 and ending January 1, 2014.

Completing a Facilities Operations Assessment using the FOA toolkit helps commercial building owners satisfy the CA benchmarking requirement. Additionally, the FOA identifies opportunities to make energy saving operational improvements and assess the feasibility of conducting an existing building commissioning (EBCx) project; the FOA provides recommendations on whether to pursue comprehensive EBCx or specifically targeted improvements.

Included in the FOA toolkit: A Process Manual which describes each step of the FOA process; a Checklist and Field Guide, which guide the site walkthrough and offer system-by-system guidance for data collection; a Cost-Effectiveness Tool which estimates potential energy savings based on the walkthrough data; and Reporting Templates which provide a framework for the final report, including descriptions of data sources and other supplementary information.