From Washington D.C. to Washington state, apartment building owners are suddenly finding themselves thrust into the brave new world of energy scoring.

City officials across the country have been busy rolling out new green regulations that would require owners of multifamily rental properties to closely track their energy usage and report it for the public and prospective tenants to see. But while the proposals may seem harmless, building owners around the country say complying with the new rules can add yet another burden, requiring countless hours collecting detailed utility information from tenants.

In fact, the end result threatens to be anything but a win-win for apartment owners. Too often, local officials are looking to these new scoring systems as a modern version of the old scarlet letter, aiming to shame owners of older and less efficient buildings into undertaking expensive improvements, industry experts say. Worse, some industry officials fear the scoring systems may simply be the first step towards mandates by local officials that would require owners of less energy efficient buildings to make costly improvements.

“City and state governments are not awash in money to give out [tax] incentives,” said Gregory Brown, vice president of government affairs for the National Apartment Association. “They may say ‘do it or I am going to penalize you.’”

After initially rolling out rating systems for commercial buildings, a number of cities are now trying to extend these new scoring systems to residential buildings. Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Austin are among the cities that have been out front pushing for energy scoring.

Added Burden

The idea of energy scoring may seem like a consumer and environmentally friendly slam-dunk. But it is anything but that say trade groups representing rental property owners.

For starters, simply gathering all the energy information on a building can be a painstaking, laborious task for building owners. In the Washington, D.C. area, building owners are faced with prying loose sensitive utility billing information from various apartment renters. Just collecting and collating dozens and sometimes hundreds of utility bills can be an added burden on already busy residential building owners and managers, experts say.

“You need to have the resources and staff to gather this information and put it into the format these jurisdictions are asking you to use,” said Paula Cino, senior director of energy and environmental policy at the National Multi Housing Council. “That can be a very onerous process.”

However, even with all the information in hand, there are also serious questions about whether it is currently possible to devise a fair way of rating and comparing residential buildings on their energy use.

The Environment Protection Agency’s Energy Star system has been in place for commercial buildings for years, but cities like Washington are mistaken if they think it can be easily modified for use in residential buildings, contends Shaun Pharr, senior vice president of government affairs with the Apartment & Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington.

 Apartment building owners may be dealing with dozens, if not hundreds, of tenants, each setting the thermostat to his or her personal preference. One tenant may be energy conscious, but another may be running multiple TVs and computers all at once, Brown said.

“People talk a lot about building envelopes, making tighter envelopes, and that’s fine. So say we make a building that is hyper-efficient and the tenant has three television sets and likes to run them all day. How does an owner control that?” Brown asked.

Building owners fear the new energy scoring systems may wind up being used as a cudgel against them to make expensive improvements.

In an era where all things are green, a low score could act as a “scarlet letter,” forcing a building owner to take on extensive renovations or risk losing potential renters.

It could also scare off investors looking to buy an apartment building, Cino noted.

Scott Van Voorhis can be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com