ENERGY STAR Score for Warehouses

The ENERGY STAR Score for Warehouses applies to buildings that are used to store goods, manufactured products, merchandise, or raw materials, including non-refrigerated warehouses, refrigerated warehouses, and distribution centers. The objective of the ENERGY STAR score is to provide a fair assessment of the energy performance of a property relative to its peers, taking into account the climate, weather, and business activities at the property. To identify the aspects of building activity that are significant drivers of energy use and then normalize for those factors, a statistical analysis of the peer building population is performed. The result of this analysis is an equation that will predict the energy use of a property, based on its experienced business activities. The energy use prediction for a building is compared to its actual energy use to yield a 1 to 100 percentile ranking of performance, relative to the national population.

• Property Types. The ENERGY STAR score for warehouse applies to non-refrigerated warehouses, refrigerated warehouses, and distribution centers. Self-storage facilities, or facilities that rent individual storage units, are not eligible for a rating using the warehouse model. The score applies to individual buildings only and is not available for campuses.
• Reference Data. The analysis for warehouses is based on data from the Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration’s 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS).
• Adjustments for Weather and Business Activity. The analysis includes adjustments for:
  • Number of Workers
  • Weekly Operating Hours
  • Weather and Climate (using Heating and Cooling Degree Days, retrieved based on Zip code)
  • Percent of the Building that is Heated and Cooled
  • Percent of the Building used for Cold Storage
• Release Date.  The ENERGY STAR score for warehouses is updated periodically as more recent data becomes available:
  • Most Recent Update: August 2018
  • Previous Update: August 2009
  • Original Release: January 2004

This document presents details on the development of the 1 - 100 ENERGY STAR score for warehouse properties. More information on the overall approach to develop ENERGY STAR scores is covered in our Technical Reference for the ENERGY STAR Score, available at www.energystar.gov/ENERGYSTARScore. The subsequent sections of this document offer specific details on the development of the ENERGY STAR score for warehouses.