Energy-Saving Competitions

Competitions can be a great way to motivate your team to find new efficiencies, engage occupants in your efforts, and multiply savings across your portfolio – all while helping the environment. 

You can join an existing competition or start your own. See EPA’s list of legislation and campaigns leveraging ENERGY STAR for competitions near you.

Build Your Own Energy or Water Competition with ENERGY STAR Resources

Why are competitions so effective? They help your team:

  • Save energy, water, and money – and reduce waste
  • Identify best practices to leverage across your portfolio
  • Jumpstart savings that last beyond the competition  
  • Work toward your sustainability goals
  • Engage your occupants and local community
  • Earn positive publicity for achievements
  • Build momentum for benchmarking and improving efficiency 

Ready to host your own competition? Use no-cost guides and templates to help plan every step of your competition, from determining the framework to collecting and managing the data to celebrating successes and sharing best practices. 

Get Started

EPA has tools to walk you through each part of the competition process, from planning and data management, to outreach and communications. Check out the resources below, and if you have any questions along the way, submit them at www.energystar.gov/buildingshelp with the subject line "Build Your Own Battle."

Building Competition Guide

Building Competition Guide

The Competition Guide provides an overview of the important considerations for building a competition, and includes step-by-step guidance on how to:

  • Set achievable, measurable goals
  • Define the playing field
  • Find and dedicate resources
  • Recognize participants
  • Keep score and determine winners
  • Plan the launch
  • Spread the word
Data Management Guide

Data Management Guide

The Data Management Guide is based on lessons learned and best practices from seven years of hosting competitions for hundreds of buildings. Use this guide for step-by-step instructions on how to:

  • Design the rules within the constraints of available data
  • Prepare for data collection
  • Review competitor data & identify potential issues
  • Contact competitors about data issues
  • Identify & verify potential winners
  • Prepare public-facing results

Template Competitor Data Tracker

To help you in further managing the data from your competition, use this template Competitor Data Tracker spreadsheet. Based on the template EPA refined through seven years of managing competitions for hundreds of buildings, it includes:

  • Competition Setup tab with instructions, a place to set the Baseline and Final dates, and a dropdown to select specific evaluation metrics
  • Data Request tab to paste Data Request information submitted through Portfolio Manager
  • Alerts and Metrics tab with many of the data-scrubbing formulas, alerts, and checks that EPA developed to assist with data analysis
  • Energy and Water Winners tabs that display top properties in each building-type category
  • All Results tab to create a public-facing list of winners
Activity Kits & Communications Resources

Activity Kits & Communications Resources

Use the Activity Kits and Communications Resources to communicate your competition goals along the way. Each Activity Kit is focused on one energy- or water-saving action, and includes:

  • Posters
  • Social media graphics
  • Print-ready reminders
  • Banners, & more!