Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance was approved today by the Boston City Council in a 9-4 vote. The ordinance requires large commercial and residential buildings to report and disclose their energy and water usage.

The entire ordinance can be found here.

 The ordinance, which will cover approximately 1,600 buildings in Boston, requires all commercial buildings over 35,000 square feet and all residential buildings over 35 units to annually report whole-building energy and water use. The ordinance is a component of the city’s Climate Action Plan to meet Menino’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.

“In order for Boston to continue to be a sustainability leader, our buildings must aggressively invest in cost effective energy efficiency,” Menino said in a statement. “Bostonians demand buildings with high performance and this ordinance will encourage building owners to meet that demand.”

The new law will force the city to set a model by disclosing energy use in all its buildings beginning with 2012 data to be released in the coming weeks; all large and medium buildings would be required to report annual energy use, including ENERGYSTAR rating, water use and greenhouse gas emissions; and all the data would be available online.

The rules would take effect gradually – applying to non-residential buildings 50,000 square feet or more in 2014; residential buildings with 50 units or more in 2015; non-residential buildings 35,000 square feet or more in 2016; and residential buildings with 35 units or more in 2017.