Arlington County is at the forefront of an environmental trend that puts energy labels on county buildings. The Department of Environmental Services plans to label each building with energy efficiency information. The labels will be part of the county’s Community Energy Plan which hopes to make Arlington one of the leading counties in the reduction of greenhouse gasses. Arlington may have gotten the idea from the 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act which included suggestions for building labeling, but died in the Senate. The plan will likely be implemented sometime this year but the details about what the label will look like and the information to be displayed are still undetermined.
The goal of this program is to raise awareness about energy use and how to implement conservation. They also hope it will inspire private owners to apply energy labels on their own buildings. The labels may be similar to what the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, or the “Building EQ” label the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers produces. Arlington may also be taking cue from the practices Europe has put into place. Continue reading →