The city of Madison on Dec. 1 announced results from its second year of the Building Energy Savings Program, with 330 buildings benchmarking their energy use to help identify areas for energy and monetary savings.
The BESP was adopted unanimously in 2023 and requires large commercial buildings to benchmark their energy use annually and complete building tune-ups every four years.
The program’s phase-in began in 2024 and is on target to be complete by 2027. Commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet are already participating, and next year, the final cohort of commercial buildings — larger than 25,000 square feet — will join the program.
Eighty-five percent of required commercial buildings are reportedly in compliance with the program, which the city noted is in line with peer cities.
Additionally, over 25% of participating buildings reported energy use placing them among top performing peer buildings across the U.S.
City staff estimate that the number of buildings participating in the BESP will roughly double by 2027.
Since buildings are responsible for approximately 65% of Madison’s greenhouse gas emissions, improving the energy efficiency of buildings participating in the BESP by 10-15% could cut climate pollution by an estimated 91,257-136,886 tons per year, according to the city.
