Commercial Energy Conservation Ordinance (CECO)

The Commercial Energy Conservation Ordinance (CECO) BMC 19.72 was passed in 1993 to increase the energy and water efficiency in Berkeley commercial buildings. It required commercial buildings to meet minimum energy efficiency measures when a building was sold or underwent major renovations. 

As of December 1, 2015, CECO has been replaced by the Building Energy Saving Ordinance (BESO). With BESO, the CECO requirements of installing energy and water efficiency improvement measures, is no longer required. Instead, BESO requires Berkeley building owners to complete energy assessments and publicly report the building’s energy efficiency information with the goal of helping building owners save energy and motivating them to participate in whole-building energy efficiency programs.

To learn more about BESO and see if a building is BESO compliant, see www.cityofberkeley.info/BESO.