A new city law requires buildings to report their energy
usage. The original deadline for buildings to file reports was yesterday, but
it has been extended to Nov. 25 because the online reporting tool went down
during the government shutdown. Will most businesses report on time?
So far, about 19 percent, or 400, of Philly’s more than
2,000 large buildings have reported their energy usage and water consumption to
the city, complying with a new
law the city implemented this July.
The law requires buildings with more than 50,000 square
feet of indoor floor space to report their annual energy usage in hopes of
using transparency to make businesses think more critically about their
consumption. It’s part of the Nutter administration’s goal to make Philadelphia the
“greenest” city in America.
The original deadline for buildings to file reports was
yesterday, but it has been extended to Nov. 25 because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) free
online tool that businesses were meant to use to report their usage went down
during the government shutdown.
Report
your usage here. The city is also holding sessions to walk
business owners through the process.
Find more details here.
If businesses don’t file by Nov. 25, they’ll be fined $300
for the first 30 days and $100 per day after that. Though, it should be noted
that, actually getting businesses to pay the fines is another process altogether.
When businesses report their usage, the EPA gives them a
score from one to 100, rating their energy consumption. If businesses get a
very low score, it’s on them to improve it — the city won’t take action, a
spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability said.
The city will collect all the data and share a report after
Nov. 25, said Alex Dews
of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. Next year, it’ll share raw data, Dews
said, adding that the idea is that business owners get a chance to adjust their
usage before they’re “outed” as heavy energy consumers.
Source: Technically
/ Philly
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