Brisbane Building Efficiency Program Goes Beyond

Brisbane’s Building Efficiency Program, a City initiative launched in 2019, addresses energy and water use in existing buildings to help make them more efficient, thereby saving owners money, improving the safety and comfort of our building stock, and reducing emissions that are driving climate change. Since 2021, BBEP has required most non-residential buildings to submit a benchmarking report on their energy and water use by May 15 annually.

This year, BBEP is phasing in “Beyond requirements”, which aim to help inefficient buildings improve their energy and water usage and reward high-performing ones. As the first step of the program’s implementation, commercial properties were required to demonstrate they are high performance or undergo an audit by June 15, 2023, whereas Multi-family and Industrial buildings will have to comply with the Beyond phase in spring 2024.

As of August 25, 87 out of 100 buildings are in compliance with Annual Benchmarking requirements, and 9 out of 21 Commercial buildings meet the new Beyond requirements. Staff are working with building owners and representatives to meet the requirements, and violations may be assessed for buildings not making progress towards compliance.

The Brisbane Building Efficiency Program map has also been updated with 2022 benchmarking data. The map displays the compliance status as well as energy, water, and natural gas usage of buildings in the program to promote transparency and awareness surrounding consumption. You can view the data from 2021 and 2022 and learn more about program requirements by visiting brisbaneca.org/bbep.