No evidence that mandatory building energy labeling improves efficiency, study says

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB) released a report, “An Economic Perspective on Building Labeling Policies,” that questions the efficacy of mandatory building energy labeling. “Mandatory benchmarking and energy labeling often adds expense to building owners without necessarily improving energy efficiency significantly,” commented BOMA International Chair Joe Markling. The report did find evidence that building labels could boost property values, with properties that receive a “green” score seeing appreciation in their market value and properties receiving a brown score experiencing depreciation.

 (http://www.boma.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Economic%20Perspectives%20On%20Builidng%20Labels-Stavins%203-28-13%20Final.pdf)