Participate in Shaping Our Community's Energy Future

Energy benchmarking and disclosure ordinances are critical policy tools that help communities reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, and improve building performance across commercial and residential properties. This public comment form makes it easy for property owners, tenants, business operators, environmental advocates, and concerned citizens to share their perspectives on proposed building performance standards.

What is Energy Benchmarking?

Energy benchmarking requires building owners to track and report their property's energy and water consumption annually. This transparency helps identify inefficient buildings, creates market incentives for energy improvements, and provides valuable data to inform local climate action plans. The proposed ordinance establishes clear performance standards, compliance timelines, and retrofit incentive programs to support property owners in meeting new requirements.

Why Your Comment Matters

Public input is essential to crafting effective, equitable energy policies. Whether you're a building owner concerned about compliance costs, a tenant interested in utility savings, an environmental advocate pushing for stronger standards, or a business owner evaluating economic impacts, your feedback helps policymakers balance environmental goals with practical implementation challenges.

Submit Comments Efficiently with Paperform

This energy benchmarking comment form, built with Paperform, streamlines the public participation process for municipal governments and civic engagement. Instead of requiring citizens to attend in-person hearings or submit lengthy written testimony via email, this form captures structured feedback on specific policy provisions—from building size thresholds and compliance deadlines to financial incentive structures and exemption criteria.

Paperform is the ideal solution for government agencies and civic organizations managing public comment periods because it combines professional design with powerful data collection and workflow automation. The form adapts to different commenter types (property owners, tenants, advocates, businesses) using conditional logic, ensuring everyone can provide relevant input without wading through unnecessary questions.

How This Template Works for Your Community

The form collects essential commenter information, building details (for property owners and managers), and structured feedback on key ordinance provisions including:

• Building size thresholds for coverage (when benchmarking requirements apply)
• Compliance timeline proposals and phase-in periods
• Performance standards and energy use intensity targets
• Financial incentives and technical assistance programs
• Enforcement mechanisms and penalty structures
• Exemptions and hardship provisions

Comments can address support, concerns, suggested modifications, or alternative approaches—giving policymakers nuanced feedback rather than simple yes/no votes.

Automate Public Comment Processing with Stepper

After collection, managing hundreds or thousands of public comments becomes the real challenge. Connect this form to Stepper to automatically categorize comments by stakeholder type, sentiment, and topic area. Route comments to the appropriate policy staff, generate summary reports for public hearings, and ensure every submission receives an acknowledgment and follow-up information about next steps in the regulatory process.

Built for Transparency and Accessibility

Paperform's clean, accessible design ensures all community members can participate in the public comment process regardless of technical skills. Forms can be embedded directly on municipal websites, shared via social media and email campaigns, or accessed via QR codes at community meetings. Mobile-responsive design means citizens can submit thoughtful comments from any device.

With SOC 2 Type II compliance and robust security features, Paperform protects commenter information and ensures the integrity of the public participation process—critical for government agencies managing sensitive civic engagement data.

Trust and Scale for Growing Civic Tech Initiatives

Whether you're managing one ordinance comment period or rolling out comprehensive climate action plan engagement, Paperform scales to support municipalities of all sizes. Track submission trends in real-time, export comments for public record compilation, and integrate with GIS systems or building permit databases to connect feedback with property-level data.

Trusted by government agencies and civic organizations worldwide, Paperform makes it simple to modernize public participation, increase engagement, and build trust through transparent, accessible comment processes. This energy benchmarking template is just one example of how forward-thinking municipalities are using Paperform to streamline regulatory development, zoning processes, and community planning initiatives.

Transform how your community gathers public input—create forms that encourage participation, capture structured feedback, and support data-driven policy decisions.