The city of Brisbane won the 2024 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in the Planning and Environmental Quality category. For more information about the award program, visit helenputnam.org.

A program in Brisbane is expected to reduce roughly a quarter of greenhouse emissions from commercial buildings and over 5% of citywide emissions over the next five years. The goal is to help make buildings more efficient, improve their safety and comfort, save owners money, and reduce climate-warming emissions.

“Buildings are a huge opportunity for climate action in local governments,” said former Brisbane Mayor Terry O’Connell. “In Brisbane, they represent over 40% of local greenhouse gas emissions, so they are key to meeting our goal of climate neutrality in 2040.”

Most buildings use methane gas — also known as natural gas — for heating, drying, and cooking. But methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential more than 80 times greater than carbon dioxide in the near term. The use of methane in Brisbane’s commercial buildings increased by 62% from 2005-2017. Emissions from electricity use plummeted by over 80% during the same period, primarily due to cleaner electricity.

The city’s Building Efficiency Program required commercial, industrial, and multifamily buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the city starting in 2021. After a couple of years, buildings are evaluated to determine if they are already efficient or using renewable energy. Those that are not must undergo audits and make improvements to increase efficiency and reduce their environmental impact. 

The city started the program with the help of a grant from the Bay Area Air District and a consultant team from The Energy Coalition.

“This program demonstrates that Brisbane is a community that cares deeply about climate and the environment, with a history of leadership and innovation,” said City Manager Jeremy Dennis. He gives credit to the council, staff, and former City Manager Clay Holstine.  

Benchmarking in California started with a 2018 reporting requirement for larger commercial buildings that opened the door to local initiatives. As staff looked to create Brisbane’s program, it quickly became apparent that industrial buildings, which are generally excluded from benchmarking programs, needed to be included to make meaningful change.

The rules kick in for buildings that are 10,000 square feet or more. This accounts for 69% of the total building square footage in town and amounts to 100 buildings.

To further drive down energy and water use and related emissions, city staff and consultants looked to San José, which had passed an ordinance in 2018 compelling audits, retro-commissioning, or improvements. Brisbane adopted this model with slight modifications to standards, such as the inclusion of a “Green Lease” option.   

The Green Lease option allows owners to cover the increased capital costs of building efficiency improvements with a higher rent payment. Tenants benefit from overall reduced costs due to reductions in utility bills, which outweigh the increased rent.

“We needed to find a way to incentivize building owners AND their tenants,” explained Economic Development Director Mitch Bull.

The ordinance shares responsibility for compliance: Owners must report to the city and tenants must provide data or access to it to the owners. Both parties are subject to penalties for noncompliance.

After robust outreach efforts throughout 2019 — including public workshops, a study session, and one-on-one discussions with impacted property owners — the city council adopted the ordinance in December 2019. Sustainability staff and the consulting team worked on implementation through 2020, along with a toolkit for other cities.

Over the last three years, staff, interns, and Climate Corps fellows evolved the program through an ordinance amendment in 2023 that clarified timelines and ensured metrics from property owners would be readily available. In 2021, roughly 90% of covered buildings submitted benchmarking reports. With increased outreach and enforcement, all required buildings completed their annual reporting in the three years since.

Staff also created a public dashboard to provide transparency around building compliance and efficiency. A key goal of benchmarking programs like Brisbane’s is to give would-be buyers, lessees, and researchers access to more information about a building’s energy and water use, and the cost to operate a building. Consider it like an MPG rating for cars!

The team estimates the program will slash roughly 3,120 metric tons of carbon dioxide — equivalent to roughly 8 million miles driven in an average gasoline vehicle — from the city in the first five years. However, due to the delays inherent in emissions accounting, it will be some time before the true impact is known.

“We’re excited for the learnings that will result from the Beyond Benchmarking requirements this year,” remarked current Mayor Cliff Lentz. “And we’re confident we’ll be able to harness them to further move the needle in fighting climate change in Brisbane.”

Adrienne Etherton is the sustainability manager for the city of Brisbane. She can be reached at aetherton@brisbaneca.org. Watch an overview of the project on the city’s website at brisbaneca.org/helenputnam.