DAVIS, Calif. — Californians who are buying, selling, or refinancing a commercial building have been tasked by state legislators with complying with state benchmarking regulations, beginning Jan. 1, 2013. The California Commissioning Collaborative (CCC) is offering support and assistance for this regulatory effort in the form of a Facilities Operations Assessment (FOA) toolkit.

In an effort to reduce energy consumption of commercial buildings, the state of California passed a law in 2007 (Assembly Bill 1103) that requires building owners to complete building performance benchmarking and disclose a Statement of Energy Performance to the buyer, lessee, or lender whenever a building is sold, leased, or refinanced. The dates by which building owners must comply are tiered (by site square footage), beginning Jan. 1, 2013 and ending Jan. 1, 2014.

Completing a Facilities Operations Assessment using the FOA toolkit will help commercial building owners satisfy the benchmarking requirement. Additionally, the FOA will identify opportunities to make energy-saving operational improvements and assess the feasibility of conducting an existing building commissioning (EBCx) project; the FOA provides recommendations on whether to pursue comprehensive EBCx or specifically targeted improvements. According to the organization, EBCx has been shown to provide 16 percent energy savings on average, with a typical payback of just 1.1 years; for a building owner, EBCx can offer the opportunity of increasing net operating income, asset value, and occupant comfort in a very short span of time.