Philly considers requiring apartment buildings to report energy use

Apartment buildings in Philadelphia may soon join commercial buildings in having to report their energy use.

The owners of large commercial buildings in Philadelphia have to report their energy usage, but are not forced to do anything about it, said Catherine Gajewski, director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability.

“It helps them to pay greater attention to what their energy use and what their energy spending is and to start focusing on opportunities to save,” she explained.

The “energy benchmarking” gives prospective tenants an ability to comparison shop for energy efficient digs, said Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.

“This becomes an added factor for consideration when looking to make decisions about movement,” she said.

If the bill approved by a City Council committee becomes law, 800 large, multi-family buildings will join the 2,000 commercial buildings already reporting energy use.