City to develop strategy to reduce usage of City’s largest users. 

LOS ANGELES, CA –The Los Angeles City Council today backed a measure authored by Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and José Huizar that would develop a strategy to improve the energy and water efficiency of Los Angeles’s largest users.

Preliminary analysis by the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA and the nonprofit City Energy Project shows that half of the City's electricity demand comes from just 4% of its buildings.

Following today’s action, the City will engage with its largest users—whose reductions will be the most impactful—to find ways to cut their overall consumption and identify City steps to drive that process. A package of policies and programs to address energy and water efficiency in existing buildings could include financing support, incentive programs, regular benchmarking and performance tracking, and an expansion of the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge, or development of similar programs.

“By working collaboratively with our city’s largest consumers of water and energy we are creating a force multiplier that will reduce Los Angeles’s overall use while saving businesses and taxpayers money,” said Blumenfield. “I want to thank Councilmember Huizar and Mayor Eric Garcetti for their collaboration on this effort.”

"If we can tailor programs to support conservation at high-electricity use sites, we can achieve significant results and get closer to our goal of meeting 15% of our energy demand through conservation by 2020," said Huizar.

In addition to savings on power and water bills, investments in energy and water efficiency increase property values, improve tenant comfort and productivity, and create green jobs.

Additionally, reductions in consumption will decrease stress on the power and water supply systems, allowing the City to recover more quickly from a natural disaster.

The measure is part of Blumenfield’s ongoing efforts to “green the Valley” and City of Los Angeles. Last week, Blumenfield secured Council support on a series of measures to increase the utilization of innovative energy efficient and water-wise materials and landscaping elements at homes and City parks and facilities.