Step-by-step process to verify applications

First, download The Licensed Professional’s Guide: Understanding the Roles and Requirements for Verifying Commercial Building Applications for ENERGY STAR Certification. This guide is required reading if you’re verifying applications for ENERGY STAR certification. It provides everything you need to know to successfully complete the process, whether it’s your first time or fiftieth time.

Next, you’ll need the “Data Verification Checklist” which is the application generated when a user applies for ENERGY STAR certification in EPA’s Portfolio Manager. Request this document from the applicant (or the person who hired you to complete this verification). Once you have this — and your LP Guidebook — in hand, you can start the verification process:

  1. Conduct a site visit of the building. Your primary responsibility as the Licensed Professional is to verify that the information submitted in the application is correct and that the building meets acceptable indoor environmental quality standards. To do this, you must:

  • Verify all data inputs. Confirm that all of the information reported in the Data Verification Checklist is accurate and complete.

  • Assess indoor environmental quality. Ensure that the building meets industry standards for acceptable indoor air quality, thermal environmental conditions, and illumination.

Note that you can have someone under your direction conduct all or part of the site visit on your behalf, but the Data Verification Checklist must still bear your seal and signature.

  1. If you find any errors or insufficiencies, ask the applicant to fix them. Simple enough, right? If you find any errors or omissions in the Data Verification Checklist, or if the building didn’t meet any of the indoor environmental quality standards, ask the applicant to correct them.

  2. Check to make sure the application was corrected. Once the applicant has made the corrections and generated a new Data Verification Checklist, double check that all of the information in the revised document is accurate and complete. 

  3. Sign and date the Data Verification Checklist. The last step is for you to attest that the application is correct. Do this by signing and dating the Data Verification Checklist Return the document to the applicant.