The Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability and Innovations (OSI) has reported that over 500 rental properties have met the requirements of the Green Rental Housing Ordinance, which enforces more energy-efficient rental spaces in Ann Arbor.
Buildings in Ann Arbor account for close to two-thirds of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. As part of Ann Arbor’s A2ZERO plan, an initiative working to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, Ann Arbor City Council passed the Green Rental Housing Ordinance in June 2025. It took effect in January 2026. Through this program, all rental properties in Ann Arbor are required to meet an energy efficiency baseline at the time of their rental inspections. Properties are graded based on either the Green Rental Housing Checklist or a score from the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) assessment. These changes improve the comfort, health, cost, and efficiency of rental properties in Ann Arbor.
“About 55% of our housing stock is rentals,” says Joe Lange, OSI senior energy analyst. “So it was really important that not only did we focus in the sense that these buildings are part of those emissions, but this is a dominant portion of where people live in Ann Arbor. So it’s something that we really wanted to make sure that we were focusing on.”…