How to Apply for Plant Certification

1. Determine eligibility

Manufacturing plants must satisfy the plant description located within the “instructions” sheet of the applicable industry-specific EPI, score 75 or higher using the appropriate EPI, and satisfy an environmental compliance screen.

a. Does your plant fall into an eligible plant type?

Industrial plant types eligible for ENERGY STAR certification and links to their benchmarking tools are as follows:

* These facility types are eligible for certification in both the U.S. and Canada. For information on how to certify a plant in Canada, visit Natural Resources Canada ENERGY STAR for Industry page or email ENERGYSTAR-Industry@canada.ca for more information.

** ENERGY STAR certification relies on Solomon Associates’ Energy Intensity Index (EII) for benchmarking petroleum refineries. For more information see below.

If your plant does not fall into one of the above plant types eligible for certification, consider earning recognition through the ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry.

If you are interested in certifying a commercial building, visit ENERGY STAR certification for your building.

b. Does your plant score 75 or higher?

If your company operates a plant within an eligible category, evaluate its energy performance to see if it qualifies for EPA’s ENERGY STAR. Download the industry-specific ENERGY STAR EPI above and follow the directions in the EPI to determine the plant's score. If the plant scores a 75 or higher, congratulations! That means it is performing among the top 25 percent of similar plants nationwide!

For petroleum refineries, ENERGY STAR certification recognizes U.S. refineries that achieve top quartile energy performance based on Solomon Associates’ scoring of the Energy Intensity Index (EII) within a refinery size class. To see if your refinery has achieved top quartile energy performance contact Solomon Associates.

c. Does your plant meet environmental compliance criteria?

Plants eligible for the ENERGY STAR certification must meet the following environmental compliance criteria:

  • No unresolved high priority violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA),
  • No CAA Consent Decrees within the last year or noncompliance of an existing CAA Consent Decree, and,
  • No CAA criminal convictions or pleas within the past 5 years or current criminal environmental investigations involving an employee(s) or corporate officer(s)

For clarifications or if you would like us to check whether your plant meets this criteria please send an email to certifiedplants@energystar.gov.

2. Read through full instructions and guidance documents

3. Engage a professional engineer

There is no cost to apply for certification. However, keep in mind that you’ll need to get your application and information used to generate a score verified by a licensed Professional Engineer (PE). The Professional Engineer will need to stamp the Statement of Energy Performance, which is found in the industry-specific EPI (or in the Statement of Energy Performance provided by Solomon Associates in the case of refineries), and complete the Professional Engineer Checklist.

4. Download and complete application forms

5. Submit application

Submit the above application forms, stamped Statement of Energy Performance from the EPI, and the EPI Excel file* to certifiedplants@energystar.gov.

*See full Instructions for Applying for Plant Certification if any information to generate an EPI score is deemed proprietary.