MISMO Seeks Participants to Standardize Commercial Utility Information

As commercial and multifamily properties deploy more energy- and water-efficient features and lenders seek utility data, MISMO®, the mortgage industry standards organization, seeks participants to help create a Commercial Historical Utility Dataset.

Currently, an income-producing property’s utility data is often not easily available and the data itself–from building certifications to water and energy audits–can come in non-standardized formats. To address this problem, MISMO® is creating a new data standard that will support utility data availability and uniformity for commercial and multifamily buildings across the industry.

Rick Hill, Executive Vice President of MISMO and Mortgage Bankers Association Vice President of Technology, said consumers and investors are increasingly demanding that commercial properties meet “green” building code standards and are willing to pay more for properties that do. “MISMO’s standardized [Commercial Historical Utility] dataset will enable lenders to have access to uniform utility data in order to determine if properties meet certain green criteria,” he said.

MISMO Commercial Historical Utility Dataset development workgroup members will solicit input and feedback from utility and energy consulting industry participants, MBA members, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

Any standards the workgroup creates will be available for public comment prior to being finalized. Workgroup participants do not need to be MISMO® members to join, but only MISMO members will be able to vote on the new standards.

For more information or to join the workgroup, send an email titled, “Join Commercial Historical Utility Dataset Workgroup” to info@mismo.org.

For more information contact Jan Davis at jdavis@mba.org.