By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor<\/i><\/p>\n
Last week, Congress passed S.535, the \u201cEnergy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015,\u201d which authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy to jointly create a voluntary program that will provide national branding recognition to landlord and tenant teams that design, construct and operate highly energy efficient leased spaces in commercial buildings.<\/p>\n
Known to many as the \u201cTenant Star\u201d bill, the program is expected to become a market-driven approach to aligning the interests of commercial building owners and their tenants to reduce energy consumption, save money and spur job growth.<\/p>\n
Tenant Star was modeled after the ENERGY STAR program for whole buildings and will be the first government-endorsed label in the U.S. to recognize leased spaces within commercial buildings for sustainable design and operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBroad adoption will save businesses billions of dollars on energy costs in the coming years and generate new American jobs in the energy efficiency field that cannot be exported,\u201d Anthony Malkin, Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.\u2019s chairman, president, CEO & chairman of The Roundtable\u2019s Sustainability Policy Advisory Committee, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Now, instead of putting all of the burden\u2014or giving all of the credit\u2014to building owners for energy efficiency efforts, the measure encourages tenants, who, in some buildings, consume more than half of the power used by the building, to take measures to save energy.<\/p>\n
S.535 passed on a voice vote in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate, something rarely seen these days.<\/p>\n
Among those praising the new law was the National Association of Realtors, who joined a coalition letter with other industry groups urging its passing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congress has passed an act expected to benefit the interests of commercial building owners and their tenants in energy savings and job growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":952,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742,21786],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004118620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest","category-sustainability"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n