While many building rating programs exist worldwide, there is not anything in the industry that standardizes the contents of those programs, ensuring users are knowledgeable about what impacts their ratings.

A proposed standard from ASHRAE, currently open for public comment, would serve as the “backbone” of such rating systems.

ASHRAE Standard 214P, Standard for Determining and Expressing Building Energy Performance in a Rating Program, is being written to standardize building energy rating programs by requiring the minimum content of any labels associated with rating programs, establishing minimum requirements for rating program documentation and other essential components in rating programs.

The proposed standard is currently open for public comment until Sept. 28, 2015. To learn more or to comment, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

“There are many entities that are rating buildings utilizing a number of different building rating systems yielding varying results,” Wayne Stoppelmoor, chair of the Standard 214P committee, said. “Feedback from government and regulatory agencies has shown there is an overwhelming need for a standard that provides uniformity in the building energy labeling and disclosure process. We want to provide a non-commercial consensus standard that can be used in international, national and regional legislation, policy making and regulation activities. The goal is to write a standard that provides guidance for establishing rating systems that produce meaningful and consistent results.”

Stoppelmoor said he sees the proposed standard as a way to identify what rating systems should be used to comply with building energy disclosure ordinances and as a guideline for those developing rating systems. It is anticipated that the proposed standard will have minimal impact on existing rating systems.

The standard would establish requirements for:

Disclosure of building energy use via  a rating label and supporting summary documentation

Determining and expressing energy use, with metered data, of buildings and building sites that are in operation

Acceptable credentialing criteria for individuals applying the standard and reporting building energy use

Pre-occupancy (design) and post-occupancy (in operation) conditions

Format and content of the rating disclosure, the label and supporting documentation.

ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is a global society advancing human well-being through sustainable technology for the built environment. The Society and its more than 50,000 members worldwide focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability. Through research, standards writing, publishing, certification and continuing education, ASHRAE shapes tomorrow’s built environment today. More information can be found at www.ashrae.org/news.