Newton’s BERDO team is starting to take shape.

The City Council passed the Building Energy Reductions and Disclosures Ordinance last year, requiring certain buildings to report energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Last week, the city hired Darius Zgripcea Bailey—who formerly worked on Boston’s BERDO—to serve as BERDO administrator, part of the city’s Sustainability Team.

And this week, the Zoning and Planning Committee (ZAP) met on Tuesday night to vote on four of Mayor Fuller’s nominations to the BERDO Advisory Commission:

• Kristen Avila, property manager with Northland Investments
• Peter Barrer of Waban, engineer and member of the Newton Design Review Committee
• Deb Crossley of Upper Falls, architect and former city councilor
• Tom Gloria of Newton Centre, who works as a green energy building consultant

The committee approved all of the appointments unanimously.

The newly established commission will craft regulations for the city’s BERDO and make recommendations for changes or expansions.

The BERDO Advisory Commission will have four members appointed by the mayor, four by the city council and one member appointed by the Newton Energy Commission. City Council President Marc Laredo has selected the four from the council, and the energy commission is set to pick theirs “any day now,” according to ZAP Committee Chair Lisle Baker, and those will be voted on with the others.

“The advisory commission, by ordinance, is established in order to provide input and make recommendations and advise the BERDO administrator with respect to the establishment of regulations,” Sam Nighman, the city’s co-director of climate and sustainability, said.

The appointments are for a term of one year following the adoption of the city’s BERDO regulations this fall.

Nighman said the commission will meet on a regular basis through the fall before establishing BERDO regulations in early 2026. The Sustainability Team will present the commission with various topics to consider in setting those new rules.

“And we’ll try to revise iteratively as we go, to where hopefully we’ll move through things in a speedy way but taking the time we need,” Nighman said. “We think that it probably will make sense to have a couple of those hearings be functionally public hearings, where we can get a little bit broader input.”

The BERDO is already partially in effect. Next month, the first 48 buildings larger than 100,000 square feet will start reporting energy use.

“We’ve been thinking of this as our trial year, where we have 48 buildings and maybe 35 separate building owners,” Nighman said. “So it’s a small, manageable group so we can work out the kinks in the process.”

The remaining buildings—about 340 more—will start reporting energy use next year.