Dive summary:

• Chicago has become the ninth U.S. city to require that owners of commercial and residential buildings with 50,000 square feet or more report their energy-usage data to the city as part of a program for benchmarking and for improving efficiency.
• After speaking with officials in cities that already had ordinances, Chicago wrote a provision in its law that requires an architect, engineer or other city-approved professional to check the data every three years as a quality-assurance measure.
• Owners will use free federal software to input data and receive an Energy Star score, and the city can make those scores public a few years after they are compiled.

From the article:

In developing the Chicago Energy Use Benchmarking & Transparency Ordinance, city officials reached out to eight U.S. cities that have enacted similar benchmarking legislation and adopted the best elements of each program. ...