Six years ago, St. Louis became the first city in the Midwest—and just the fourth in the nation—to mandate that all big buildings within its limits hit standards designed to reduce energy use. The city’s 2020 ordinance applied to all buildings larger than 50,000 square feet and came with a deadline of May 2025 for most of them (houses of worship and affordable housing got another two years). Building owners who failed to meet the city’s standards could face fines of up to $500 per day.
When the city kicked off its first cycle in 2021, 65 percent of buildings were not in compliance. Katarina Michalova, the program manager for the city’s Office of Building Performance, says that number has since decreased to 50 percent. “It is a huge improvement,” Michalova says.
In addition to the buildings that are out of compliance, however, some haven’t even submitted their energy use data. Currently, a little over 85 percent are reporting their usage and 65 percent of those have submitted the required third-party verification. That leaves numerous buildings that have to start reporting, verifying, or get compliant—some, potentially must do all three…