ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a free, online tool for benchmarking and tracking energy and water use in buildings. It has been used since 1999 to assess whole building performance, apply for ENERGY STAR certification, and compare buildings. Nearly 16,500 buildings have received ENERGY STAR certification through benchmarking with Portfolio Manager. Benchmarking guides investment in energy efficiency, as surveys found that most facility managers who benchmark take energy management actions and plan efficiency improvements. Utility-led benchmarking programs have yielded substantial energy savings according to a report for the California Public Utility Commission.

1. Benchmarking, Data
and Utilities
Cliff Majersik
Institute for Market Transformation (IMT)
EEB Hub Regional Data Management
Working Group
October 25, 2012

2. • Free, Online Tool
ENERGY STAR • Track Record since 1999
Portfolio Manager • Management Tool
– Assess whole building energy
and water consumption
– Track change in energy,
water, carbon emissions, &
cost over time
– Apply for ENERGY STAR
certification
– Apples-to-apples comparison
with similar buildings
www.energystar.gov/benchmark

3. Through 2011, nearly
16,500 ENERGY STAR
Certified buildings

4. • Metrics
ENERGY STAR – Energy consumption (source,
site, weather normalized)
Portfolio Manager – Water consumption
– Greenhouse gas emissions
– ENERGY STAR 1-to-100 score
• For 15 building types
• 75+ for Energy Star label
• Required data
– Square feet by space type
– Space Use Attributes
– Zip Code
– 12 months of Utility Data

5. Industry
Standard
27 billion sq. ft.
of commercial &
institutional office space
Nearly 40%
of commercial market

6. Benchmarking Guides Investment
Survey of hundreds of facility managers .
Audin, Lindsay. “Finding Your Best Energy Opportunity.”
Building Operating Management. December 2011.

7. Of those who benchmarked:
• 62% took energy
Report for the management actions
California Public
Utility Commission: • 84% planned or
implemented energy
Utility-led efficiency improvements
benchmarking
programs yielding • 81% link improvements to
substantial energy utility efficiency programs
savings
April 2012
• 82% said utility training
had been sufficient to
benchmark buildings on
their own

8. • BOMA, RER, IMT, USGBC form DATA Alliance to work
with utilities and regulators to secure better access to
utility data
• July 2011: NARUC approves resolution calling on
regulators to provide better data access to commercial
owners
• USGBC Existing Authorities memo identifies data access
as key EE barrier and calls for increased federal
involvement
• Collaboration with administration on expanding Green
Button initiative to include commercial data access

9. U.S. Policy Landscape

10. BUILDING AREA (IN SQUARE FEET) COVERED ANNUALLY
Seattle San Francisco
281 million SF 205 million SF
Washington State
247 million SF
Philadelphia
244.5 million SF
Austin
113 million SF
California
347 million SF
Washington, DC NYC
420 million SF 2.5 billion SF
NUMBER OF BUILDINGS COVERED ANNUALLY
San Francisco
Philadelphia 2,700 bldgs
1,400 bldgs
Seattle
9,000 bldgs NYC
12,000 bldgs
Washington State Washington, DC
4,600 bldgs 1,900 bldgs
Austin
2,800 bldgs
California
13,600 bldgs

11. U.S. Policy Overview
11

12. Cliff Majersik
Executive Director
Institute for Market Transformation
cliff@imt.org
Twitter: @IMTCliff
www.imt.org
www.buildingrating.org