California’s mandatory commercial building benchmarking law is one of the topics we are contacted about the most and since the law finally went into place on June 1, of this year, the amount of questions we have received have spiked dramatically. Because of the increase in interest (and the fact that many of your buildings must comply with the law) we thought now might be a good time to re-present information on this topic to help our members understand the process and how to comply. It all started ...

With a few exceptions, if you have a building that is 50K s.f. or more you need to benchmark it annually using Energy Star and report numbers to the Energy Commission.  Our industry has worked with policymakers and regulators all along the process to provide input that will hopefully make compliance for a vast majority of our members relatively simple. However, we know some situations may not go smoothly or may present unique questions that require more information.  Below are links that we hope ...

This week the annual California Commercial Real Estate Summit (CCRES) was held in Sacramento and attended by over 80 real estate leaders who converged on California’s Capitol to advocate on behalf of the commercial, retail, and industrial real estate industry.  “Teams” of advocates, made up of leaders from all over the state, met with almost half of the state Legislature. Prior to meeting with legislators, industry leaders got to spend some time with Diana Dooley, then newly appointed advisor ...

We were also pleased to present our 2018 Legislators of the Year award to Senator Steven Glazer (D-Orinda) and Assemblymember Catharine Baker (R-Dublin).  At a packed dinner in Old Sacramento on Tuesday night, we heard how the two legislators with overlapping districts have evolved from rivals running against each other, to a bi-partisan “dynamic duo” that work together on legislation and have done more than a dozen town halls together. Our industry has worked closely with both legislators on ...

The United State Supreme Court handed down a decision in a case we have been closely following and, in California, have helped drive much of the discussion. The South Dakota v. Wayfair decision overturns the outdated Quill decision from 1992 and clears the way for states to collect sales taxes from retailers that do not have a physical presence in their state. This is a massive win for companies that own buildings that provide shopping services to the public and corrects a decades-long loophole that ...

Two bills are making their way through the California State Legislature that would expand requirements for lactation accommodations at the workplace.  We believe that one, if not both, of these bills will make it to the Governor and have a good chance at being signed.  With that in mind our industry is moving to support AB 1976 (Limón-D; Santa Barbara) which is based on current federal/state law while explaining while opposing SB 937 (Wiener; D-San Francisco) as we do not believe it is the best ...

In 2017, Cal/OSHA convened two stakeholder advisory committees to tackle the challenge of reaching consensus among interested parties from industry, labor, management and academia on how to regulate the prevention of heat illness for indoor workers.  To date, Cal/OSHA has provided draft rules for discussion only—no formal rulemaking has begun. These draft rules propose to regulate all indoor workplaces for these purposes. Believe it or not, defining an indoor workplace, as opposed to an outdoor ...

The Primary Election on June 5th holds a lot of intrigue for political junkies and many of us waiting to see how many same-party-on-party battles we will see in the General Election. However, there are several propositions on the ballot too.  The State Legislature changed the way ballot proposition work a few years ago and only those approved by the legislature can be on the June ballot.  That is why you will have to wait until November to vote on most of the controversial items. As a standard ...

The Energy Commission is hosting a webinar aimed at companies who own/manage buildings to help with AB 802 Benchmarking and Reporting Requirements. If you own and/or are responsible for any commercial building over 50,000 s.f. this regulation applies to you and the deadline for completion is technically June 1, 2018.  If you are uncertain how to comply, this webinar is for you.  We have worked extensively with the CEC over the last few years to raise potential implementation issues and expect this ...

For those of you that work in the Coastal Zone this is an interesting article in that it quotes a portion of the ruling where the court questions the whole premise of the Coastal Commission hearing process and invites the legislature to amend the process.  Click here to read the article.  Read More →