Benchmarking

Benchmarking provides the basis for empowering building owners to take steps towards minimizing energy use and maximizing the economic benefits of energy conservation measures. Chapter 3 of Title 28, Article 309 of the administrative code of the city of New York requires benchmarking of all buildings greater than 50,000 square feet. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides a tool to track buildings’ annual energy and water consumption. The output of this tool is the EPA energy performance rating, which indicates how efficiently buildings use energy on a 1 to 100 scale. A rating of 50 indicates average energy performance while a rating of 75 or better indicates top performance.

What are the benefits of benchmarking?

Applied across a portfolio of buildings, benchmarking provides the foundation for superior energy management decisions, ranging from identifying the top performers to prioritizing the best candidates for upgrades.

Monitor changes

Scoring a building over a period of time can help evaluate the effectiveness of changes in equipment or management.

Proactive Energy Management

Having a building’s energy consumption data summarized and documented helps answer questions about energy use from upper management, prospective purchasers, tenants, lenders or investors.

Get Positive Publicity

Documentation of a building’s improved energy efficiency or reduced energy consumption over time provides a basis to communicate an environmentally-friendly image to interested parties.