Many Seattle landlords and other building owners will soon need to begin reporting on the energy efficiency of their buildings. As reported in DWT’s Northwest Real Estate Blog last year, a Seattle ordinance passed in connection with the state’s Efficiency First! Act requires many Seattle building owners to provide “energy benchmarking reports” to the Director of the Department of Planning & Development using the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager or a similar system.

The first reports for many nonresidential buildings exceeding 50,000 square feet are due on Oct. 3, 2011 (the ordinance had set an initial reporting deadline of April 1, 2011, but DPD granted a six-month grace period). Owners of certain multifamily and mixed-use buildings (including five or more dwelling units) with initial occupancy prior to Jan. 1, 2011 must file their initial benchmarking reports by April 1, 2012.