Efforts to increase buildings’ energy efficiency have moved beyond the “low-hanging fruit” stage, said industry leaders who convened at the 2013 Building Energy Summit held on March 26, 2013, in Washington, D.C. While progress has been made on many fronts, advocates still face challenges in convincing building owners and developers to invest in sustainability.

Leslie Braunstein’s article published in the March-April issue of Urban Land magazine describes how three U.S. cities along with the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance are working to improve building energy use measurement and benchmarking, and encourage use of such measurements to reduce the carbon footprint of existing buildings.