Synapse: This Week's News for LA’s Best Buildings
100 Percent Carbon Neutral by 2035: Los Angeles City Council Approves Landmark Initiative
The Los Angeles City Council voted last Wednesday to transition to 100% clean energy by 2035, in line with President Biden’s national goals and a decade earlier than the city originally planned.
The LA100 plan would see the city replace its natural gas electricity generation with wind, solar and battery storage, while also improving energy efficiency and transmission. It was approved by the city council in a 12-0 vote.
The goal now puts LADWP, the nation’s largest public utility, on track for an aggressive transition that backers said would present a model for the nation.
ULI Greenprint Report Finds Four Times Reduction in Carbon Emissions from Buildings During Pandemic Year
ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance’s annual report found a 12.4 percent reduction in carbon emissions in 2020 compared with an average 3.5 percent fall in previous years. In addition, the report found that real estate owners took advantage of reduced occupancy during the pandemic to double the implementation of energy efficiency projects.
Efficiency Plans Before Congress Would Save Money, Create Jobs, Protect the Climate
As Congress scrambles to develop a bill to invest trillions of dollars in economic recovery, it seeks to create jobs, slash climate-warming emissions, and help people struggling to pay their bills. Transformative energy efficiency investments would deliver major progress on all three.
In a new analysis, ACEEE looks at almost $350 billion of investments to save energy in every sector of the economy, largely proposals currently before Congress as it develops a “reconciliation” bill. We find that these investments could achieve over the lifetime of the investments and savings:
3.2 million added jobs (job years)
4.5 billion tons of reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, equivalent to total U.S. emissions for 11 months
$282 billion in energy bill savings and other consumer benefits (e.g., manufacturing cost, health, and comfort benefits) above the investment
2021 ENERGY STAR Building Certification Deadline is December 10th
A message from ENERGY STAR:
You have three months to finalize and submit your applications for 2021 ENERGY STAR certification. This year’s deadline for submitting applications for U.S. commercial buildings is Friday, December 10, 2021.
All applications received by that date, and which require no significant follow-up or changes, will be guaranteed to receive 2021 certification if approved.
We strongly urge you to apply as soon as possible to avoid delays, and to ensure you can help your city make EPA’s annual list of the Top Cities for ENERGY STAR Certification (see below for a recap of publicity from this year’s list).
1. Updated use details:
If your property has experienced significant changes in operations due to COVID-19, please update the following use details. Updates should be made using the Update with new information function. Failure to make these updates will result in delays in processing your application, and you may not receive 2021 certification as a result.
Weekly Operating Hours
Number of Workers on Main Shift (or Number of FTE Workers for hospitals)
Weekend Operation (Yes/No) - for K-12 Schools only
2. Flexible Period Ending Dates (PEDs):
All buildings (with a few exceptions for retail stores, hotels, and K-12 schools) may apply for 2021 certification with PEDs of September 30, 2020 or later (regardless of whether or not their operations were impacted by COVID-19). See this FAQ for more details.
3. Additional flexibilities for site visits:
These flexibilities are designed to help you meet site visit requirements as we realize that it may be some time before buildings return to normal operations:
If your building received a 2020 ENERGY STAR certification and a site visit was conducted for that application, you may reuse that site visit for your 2021 application.
If your building is not yet fully re-occupied, as long as any portion of the building has occupants you may conduct the site visit and take measurements in the spaces where occupants are present.
New site visits may be conducted anytime during the application period, or until the 2021 application deadline of 12/10/2021.
4. Until 12/31/2021, we have suspended the rule that requires you to submit verified applications within 120 days after the PED for any applications with a PED of September 30, 2020 or later. Effective 1/1/2022, we anticipate returning to our normal process where submitted applications must have a PED within the last 120 days.
Please visit www.energystar.gov/covidupdates for a summary of ENERGY STAR benchmarking and certification guidance issued previously, as well as FAQs related to operational impacts from COVID-1
Photo by Mario Tama via Getty Images