LA Sets Building Energy Efficiency Goal

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled the Los Angeles Sustainable City Plan, a document that covers diverse environmental topics related to housing, to transportation, to waste & landfills. The document also includes a section on energy-efficient buildings.

Within that section, the plan calls for long-term reductions in energy use per square foot below a 2013 baseline - for all building types - by at least 14 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2035.

The plan also sets a goal to use energy efficiency to deliver 15 percent of all of LA’s projected electricity needs by 2020, including through rebates, incentives, and education.

For near-term outcomes, the plan calls to:

• Avoid cumulative 1250 GWh of energy use between 2014 and 2017 due to efficiency programs;
• 12,500 homes retrofitted with residential PACE financing;
• Expand Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge to 60 million square feet;
• Create a benchmarking policy to monitor and disclose building energy use; and
• Develop a policy package (e.g., audits and retro-commissioning) to address energy consumption in the city’s largest buildings (public and private).