BETTER RENTALS, BETTER CITY

This report by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) advocates for the implementation of Minimum Efficiency Standards for Rentals (MESR) as a strategy for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve residential energy security. Using the 'SmartRegs' program in Boulder, Colorado, as a primary case study, the document provides a seven-step roadmap for other cities to integrate energy efficiency requirements into their rental licensing processes.

• Existing residential properties are significantly less efficient than new constructions, with those built before energy codes were established being approximately 30 percent less efficient on average. Because rental properties comprise about 50 percent of the residential building stock in most large cities and often suffer from a 'split incentive' where owners do not pay utility bills, they are a critical target for energy efficiency interventions.
• The City of Boulder's 'SmartRegs' policy, adopted in 2010, requires long-term licensed rental properties to meet minimum efficiency standards to receive or maintain a rental license. By the end of 2018, the program was expected to impact over 20,000 properties (more than half of Boulder's housing stock), with an average upgrade cost of less than $3,000 per property.
• Boulder's SmartRegs program allows property owners to achieve compliance through two paths: a 'Prescriptive Path' using a city-created checklist (used 98 percent of the time) and a 'Performance Path' using the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score, where units must score 120 or below.
• The projected impact of full compliance in Boulder by the end of 2018 includes annual savings of 4,200,000 kWh and 940,000 therms, resulting in $1,100,000 in energy bill savings and 8,300 metric tons of avoided carbon emissions.
• RMI's high-level analysis of five US cities (Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Boston) suggests that an MESR policy would cost these cities an average of $13 per rental unit or $3 per capita. The analysis indicates that such policies could reduce carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to building all new residential properties to a net-zero energy standard for the next eight years.
• RMI recommends a seven-step roadmap for cities to develop MESR: Fit (determining if the policy is appropriate), Impact (preliminary analysis), Consult (stakeholder engagement), Finance (co-developing incentives), Implement (selecting measurement tools and targets), Compliance (developing the framework), and Disclosure (creating transparency).
• Energy insecurity disproportionately affects renters, with 43 percent of renters reporting examples of energy insecurity compared to 24 percent of homeowners. Improving rental energy efficiency is presented as a way to stabilize utility costs for low to moderate income renters.

APA

Petersen, A., & Lalit, R. (2018). BETTER RENTALS, BETTER CITY. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Better-Rentals-Better-City_Final3.pdf

Chicago

Petersen, Alisa, and Radhika Lalit. BETTER RENTALS, BETTER CITY. RMI, 2018. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Better-Rentals-Better-City_Final3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Petersen |first1=Alisa |last2=Lalit |first2=Radhika |title=BETTER RENTALS, BETTER CITY |publisher=RMI |date=May 2018 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Better-Rentals-Better-City_Final3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{petersen2018better, author = {Petersen, Alisa and Lalit, Radhika}, title = {{BETTER RENTALS, BETTER CITY}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2018}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Better-Rentals-Better-City_Final3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }