A practical guide to ENERGY STAR excellence

ENERGY STAR for commercial buildings is a partnership between the EPA and Department of Energy that helps businesses save by adopting practices that lead to superior energy efficiency. ENERGY STAR’s online measuring and tracking tool, Portfolio Manager, lets building owners benchmark and manage the energy, water, and waste consumption of any property. The online tool can be used to establish the baseline performance of a single building or an entire portfolio of buildings.

Portfolio Manager’s benchmarking and scoring delivers the information and tools that organizations need to put energy-efficient solutions and best practices into place, while an ENERGY STAR certification demonstrates an organization’s leadership and commitment to reducing energy and greenhouse gas emissions. Both new and existing buildings can be tracked and evaluated by Portfolio Manager and are able to apply for ENERGY STAR certifications once their efficiency level is high enough to achieve the required score of 75. Additionally, starting in Fall 2020 the EPA will be providing an ENERGY STAR award category for office tenant spaces.

The EPA is currently working closely with licensed professionals on site visit guidelines with respect to COVID-19 precautions for properties wishing to pursue ENERGY STAR awards.

Wondering if ENERGY STAR is right for you?

Consider this:

• “Commercial and industrial buildings account for nearly half of all energy consumption in the US, and up to 30% of that is wasted through inefficiencies”, the EPA says.
• According to the EPA, commercial buildings that regularly benchmark their energy performance with ESPM cut their energy bills by 7% over three years. For a 500,000 square foot office building, that’s a cumulative cost savings of $120,000 and an increase in asset value of over $1 million.
• On average, ENERGY STAR certified buildings use 35% less energy than typical buildings nationwide.
• ENERGY STAR helped commercial buildings save nearly $10 billion in energy costs in 2016, contributing to cumulative energy cost savings of over $150 billion since 1992.
• More than 5,700 buildings earned ENERGY STAR certifications in 2019, bringing the total to more than 36,000.
• Studies find that ENERGY STAR certified buildings command a premium of up to 16% for sales prices and rental rates.

Interested in reporting to ENERGY STAR? Already reporting, but need to boost your performance?

Whether you're new to the ENERGY STAR game or a seasoned veteran, this practical guide can help. Read along to learn some best practices for optimizing your portfolio's performance and strategies to ensure you're reporting at your best.

Reach for the Stars

Josh Schubert

Over his years here, Josh has had many roles in the company, ranging from consultant to director. Currently, he oversees ENERGY STAR certifications & has a role in technical sales support. He is also part of the EPA's Most Active Licensed Professionals group.

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