ENERGY STAR Requirement for Lease Aquisition

On December 19, 2007 the Energy Independence & Security Act (EISA 2007) was signed into law. This law was intended to aggressively reduce our nation’s energy consumption.  In order to effectively tackle the issue of reducing the amount of energy that our nation consumes, the EISA 2007 established Federal energy management goals and requirements in several areas, including:

  1. Energy Reduction Goals for Federal Buildings
  2. Facility Management/Benchmarking
  3. Performance and Standards for New Building and Major Renovations
  4. High Performance Buildings
  5. Energy Savings Performance Contracts
  6. Metering
  7. Energy-Efficient Product Procurement
  8. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Reporting
  9. Reducing Petroleum/Increasing Alternative Fuel Use

Section 435 of the Energy Independence and Security Act mandates that “no Federal agency enter into a leasing contract on or after December 19, 2010, for any building that has not earned the ENERGY STAR label in the most recent year, unless the space requirement is in compliance with specific exceptions provided in the EISA statute.

The four exceptions to the requirement for the ENERGY STAR Label in the EISA statute (as stated and outlined in the U.S. General Services Administration’s September 28, 2010 Memorandum to Regional Commissioners,) are as follows:

  1. No space is offered in a building with an ENERGY STAR label in the delineated area that meets the functional requirements of an agency, including location needs;
  2. The agency will remain in a building they currently occupy
  3. The lease will be in a building of historical, architectural or cultural significance verified by listing or eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places;

Or

4.  The lease is for 10,000 rentable square feet or less.

 

For building’s that have received an ENERGY STAR label, GSA leasing specialists and lease contracting officers must include specific paragraphs (as outlined in attachment two of the GSA Memorandum,) in order to reflect the building’s ENERGY STAR standing and EISA 2007 compliance.

 

If you are a building owner and your building(s) is not ENERGY STAR certified, visit ENERGY STAR’s website  , where you will be able to input your building’s energy consumption information, and then apply for an ENERGY STAR label, if your building qualifies. ENERGY STAR is a scaled rating system that ranges from 0-100, where buildings rating anywhere from 75-100 is granted an ENERGY STAR label (after professionally verified by an energy engineer.) The US Department of Energy uses the ENERGY STAR lable as an indicator of “superior energy performance.” The DOE also claims that “buildings carrying the ENERGY STAR label consistently use, on average, 35% less energy than their peers and emit 35 percent less carbon dioxide.” If your building rates below a 75 and you are interested in making energy efficient adjustments in order to qualify for an ENERGY STAR label, please contact Partner Energy at (888) 826-1216 or visit our website at www.ptrenergy.com.

 

In addition, below is a brief description of “Space Types” that are recognized by the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The following Space Type Definitions were taken from the ENERGY STAR website:

 

Space Type Definitions

The following is a list of definitions and data entry requirements for each space type that is available in Portfolio Manager. Whether a building is comprised of one or more space types, information on distinct operating characteristics of each type of space is needed to accurately assess the energy use of a building.

Retail Store

Retail Store applies to facility space used to conduct the retail sale of consumer product goods. Stores must be at least 5,000 square feet and have an exterior entrance to the public. The total gross floor area should include all supporting functions such as kitchens and break rooms used by staff, storage areas, administrative areas, elevators, stairwells, etc. Retail segments typically included under this definition are: Department Stores, Discount Stores, Supercenters, Warehouse Clubs, Drug Stores, Dollar Stores, Home Center/Hardware Stores, and Apparel/Hard Line Specialty Stores (e.g. books, clothing, office products, toys, home goods, electronics). Retail segments excluded under this definition are: Supermarkets (eligible to be benchmarked as Supermarket space), Convenience Stores, Automobile Dealerships, and Restaurants.

Retail properties are eligible to earn the ENERGY STAR at the store level only. Eligible store configurations include: free standing stores; stores located in open air or strip centers (a collection of attached stores with common areas that are not enclosed); and mall anchors. Retail configurations not eligible to earn the ENERGY STAR include: entire enclosed malls (a collection of attached stores with enclosed common areas); individual stores located within enclosed malls; entire open air or strip centers; and individual stores that are part of a larger non-mall building (i.e. office or hotel). Retail space that is part of a mixed-use property should review the mixed-use benchmarking guidance.

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