The ENERGY STAR Higher Education Benchmarking Initiative

If you’re looking for more information about the ENERGY STAR Higher Education Benchmarking Initiative (or HEBI), you’re in the right place!

Overview

The HEBI was created in 2020 to spark dialogue and action on efficiency, providing a way for colleges and universities to understand how the energy and water performance of their campus buildings compare to that of peer institutions through free, individualized scorecards. See below for summary information about the first (2020) and second (2022) rounds of the initiative.  

EPA has not yet determined if there will be a third round of the HEBI, but check this space for updates.

The Second Round (2022) 

• In the second round of the HEBI, EPA developed and distributed scorecards that showed peer rankings on energy and water performance of nearly 100 participating campuses representing more than 50 institutions.
• ENERGY STAR also developed the 2022 HEBI Summary Scorecard to highlight overall performance trends of second-round HEBI participants. Institutions that did not participate can use this resource to understand the relative performance of their campuses, while industry associations and other stakeholders can use it to get a handle on broader performance trends. The resource includes a list of institutions that participated in the first and second rounds.
• Related resources:
  • Instructions: How to Participate
  • Launch webinar: EPA hosted a one-hour webinar on July 14, 2022.​ View the recording
  • Review the slides
  • Find answers to frequently asked questions
  • PDF reference copy of HEBI supplemental survey (PDF, 233 KB)
  • HEBI 2022 communications toolkit (PDF, 215 KB)

The First Round (2020)

• In the first round of the HEBI, EPA developed and distributed scorecards that showed peer rankings on campus energy and water performance to the more than 100 institutions with nearly 200 campuses that participated.
• ENERGY STAR also developed a Summary Scorecard (PDF, 2.3 MB) of the first round to highlight overall performance trends of round one HEBI participants. Institutions that did not participate can use this resource to understand the relative performance of their campuses, while industry associations and other stakeholders can use it to get a handle on broader performance trends. The resource includes a list of most institutions that participated.