ASHRAE Unveils Building Energy Label

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) announced the launch of its new building energy labeling program with the release of a prototype of the label at its 2009 annual conference in June.

The labeling program, called Building Energy Quotient or “Building EQ,” was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star program and will grade new and existing buildings of all types (except residential) on both design energy use and actual energy performance.

According to ASHRAE representatives, the labeling program was designed to provide building operators with information that will allow them to improve building performance, and to provide building owners as well as potential buyers and tenants with quantifiable evidence of the value and cost of investing in a particular building based on its energy performance. ASHRAE is currently working with real estate developers to implement the label prototype in the fall of 2009, with a widespread launch of the full program in 2010.

For more information, visit http://buildingEQ.com/.For previous EBN coverage, see our Apr. 2009 issue.