By participating in voluntary benchmarking and disclosure, you can ensure your voice is heard in the industry shift towards increased building performance.
By participating in voluntary benchmarking and disclosure, you can ensure your voice is heard in the industry shift towards increased building performance.
Energy benchmarking is the process of tracking and recording a building’s energy performance over time. It is based on the fundamental principle that building energy consumption must be measured before it can be managed. Performance data can help owners and managers to identify opportunities for operational efficiency improvements and retrofit projects.
Disclosure refers to the process of making benchmarking data accessible to a range of stakeholders, including local jurisdictions.
Gain insight into not just your own energy usage, but also how this compares to similar buildings
Attract and retain tenants who value transparency and responsible building management
Receive recognition for your building’s performance or your efforts to increase its performance
Show the industry you are a leader engaged in changing the built landscape
Influence the direction of potential future benchmarking and disclosure regulations
Get help setting up ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) and syncing with utility providers
Creation of a robust dataset of local building performance that can better quantify GHG emissions across the region
Knowing what themes exist in top performers, we can then incentivize impactful changes
Data suggests building owners who have information are more likely to retrofit to optimize
We get program support from OPEN, including an established technology backend, support in program design, and customer support for property owners
Building capacity among our staff to understand and support higher building performance
Working within a cohort of local governments working to achieve energy and emissions reductions in the built sector
Several European, Australian and American states and cities have been requiring building energy benchmarking and disclosure for years, and have had great success in helping property owners and tenants improve their energy efficiency.
A prime example, New York City’s Benchmarking Law mandates benchmarking and disclosure for all privately-owned properties 50,000 ft2 or greater. Between 2010 and 2015, the law helped cut energy use from over 4,200 benchmarked buildings by more than 10% and emissions by almost 14%. This initiative has helped underpin a massive policy shift leading to the City’s transformative Climate Mobilization Act.
In Canada, benchmarking is only now beginning to gain traction. While some provincial and local jurisdictions are starting to explore benchmarking and disclosure regulations, Ontario is the only province to mandate building energy data reporting and disclosure (as of late 2019).