Analyze Benchmarking Results

Once you’ve successfully benchmarked your building in Portfolio Manager, you’ll have access to more than 100 different metrics to track and assess your performance. Find out what your results mean and what steps to take next.

What your 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR score means

The ENERGY STAR score provides a comprehensive snapshot of your building’s energy performance, taking into account the building’s physical assets, operations, and occupant behavior. It is expressed on an easy-to-understand 1 to 100 scale, where the higher the score, the better the energy performance of the building. It’ll help you identify which buildings in your portfolio to target for improvement or recognition.

A score of 50 is the median. Lower is worse than average; higher is better.

What is the 1-100 ENERGY STAR score and certification for buildings?

What the 1-100 ENERGY STAR score does (and doesn’t) tell you

EPA, in conjunction with stakeholders, developed the 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR score as a screening tool; it does not by itself explain why a building performs a certain way, or how to change the building’s performance. It does, however, help you assess how your building is performing and identify which buildings offer the best opportunities for improvement or recognition.

The Score DoesThe Score Does Not
  • Evaluate actual billed energy data
  • Normalize for business activity (hours, workers, climate)
  • Compare buildings to the national population
  • Indicate the level of energy performance
  • Sum the energy use of each piece of equipment
  • Credit specific technologies
  • Compare buildings with others in Portfolio Manager
  • Explain why a building performs well or poorly

Target low-scoring buildings for cost-effective improvements

As long as your building systems are running, it might seem wasteful to repair or replace working systems. But if your building received a low ENERGY STAR score, it means it’s using a lot more energy than similar buildings — and wasting energy and money in the process. Start with any low-scoring buildings in your portfolio, which have the greatest potential to improve efficiency and lower operating costs.

Save Energy

Earn recognition for efficient buildings

If your building received an ENERGY STAR score of 75 or higher, it may be eligible for ENERGY STAR certification.

Ways to benchmark using EUI (no score)

The 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR score is just one way to benchmark the performance of your building. Benchmarking — or comparing your performance to something similar — can help give context to your results. No matter your building type, you can use Portfolio Manager to compare your performance against:

Let’s take a closer look at each of these benchmarks below.

Similar buildings in your portfolio

Illustrative comparison of energy use among 10 fire stations

Portfolio Manager enables you to select from 18 broad categories and 80 different functions to describe your building. This makes it easy for you to identify and compare similar buildings within your portfolio (or a shared portfolio, if you’re participating in one).

Group buildings by function, size, location, metering scenario…whatever makes the most sense to you. Then compare them by weather-normalized energy use intensity, costs, water use, emissions, or another performance indicator of your choice.

Past performance

You can also compare your current performance to your past performance, to see if energy use has been creeping up over time — or jumped unexpectedly due to an undiagnosed problem. Compare any two 12-month periods to track changes over time.

Target performance

You can also set different targets: a target 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR score, a target percentage better than median, or a target percentage improvement relative to your baseline energy use. Then track how your building is performing against your goal as you implement your energy efficiency initiatives.

Sustainable Buildings Checklist

The Federal Guiding Principles for High Performance Sustainable Buildings are required by law for implementation across U.S. Federal government buildings. But anyone can use the Sustainable Buildings Checklist that’s built into Portfolio Manager to compare performance against these guiding principles and get a sense of the “greenness” of their building.

The checklist explains each guiding principle to let you track your sustainability in five areas:

  • Design
  • Energy
  • Water
  • Environmental quality
  • Materials