Benchmark Building Energy Performance with ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager™

How does your facility compare when it comes to energy use, operating costs and environmental impact? Building energy benchmarking is one of the best ways to answer that question.

By measuring and comparing your facility’s energy performance, you can establish a baseline, identify opportunities for improvement and track progress over time. ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager™, a no-cost online tool from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, helps organizations measure and track energy use, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across commercial buildings.

What Is ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager™?

ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager is an energy measurement and tracking tool for commercial buildings. It compares your building’s energy performance to similar facilities nationwide and normalizes results based on factors such as weather and operating characteristics.

Based on this comparison, your facility receives an ENERGY STAR® score from 1 to 100. This score helps you understand whether your building is performing above or below similar properties and where energy efficiency improvements may be needed.

Why Building Energy Benchmarking Matters

Benchmarking gives facility managers, energy teams and sustainability leaders a clearer view of how a building uses energy. With the right data, organizations can make better decisions about energy-saving upgrades, maintenance priorities and long-term sustainability goals.

Building energy benchmarking can help you:

• Measure energy performance across one facility or an entire portfolio
• Track energy and water consumption over time
• Monitor greenhouse gas emissions
• Compare buildings against similar facilities
• Identify cost-saving opportunities
• Support sustainability reporting and energy management planning

Simplify ENERGY STAR® Reporting with Our Energy Dashboard

Our energy management dashboard helps make ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager reporting easier by connecting customer energy data with Portfolio Manager. This service includes data transfer between the dashboard and Portfolio Manager, helping reduce manual data entry and keeping building performance information easier to maintain.

The dashboard also supports ENERGY STAR® management by allowing scores and metrics contained in Portfolio Manager to be viewed and exported directly within the platform. This gives energy managers, facility teams, accounting professionals and sustainability stakeholders a centralized place to access key energy performance data.

Energy Dashboard Benefits for Commercial Buildings

Our dashboard is a web-based platform that streamlines access to standardized energy data. It provides intuitive reporting structures for both detailed and aggregated views, helping organizations better understand usage, cost, demand and emissions.

With the dashboard, you can access:

• Invoice data
• Energy usage data
• Cost and demand information
• Emissions reporting
• Available interval data
• Meter- and account-level details
• Historical and year-over-year trend reporting
• Exportable reports for analysis and stakeholder updates

By combining Portfolio Manager benchmarking with dashboard reporting, organizations can reduce manual effort, improve visibility and make more informed energy management decisions.

How to Get Your ENERGY STAR Score

Getting started with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is straightforward. Use these steps to begin benchmarking your facility’s energy performance.

1. Create Your ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Account

Go to Portfolio Manager and create an account. Enter basic information about yourself and your organization, and select your primary business or service.

2. Add Your Commercial Property

Enter basic property information, including gross floor area, operating hours and number of workers. These details help Portfolio Manager compare your building against similar facilities.

3. Enter Energy and Water Usage Data

Enter your property’s energy and water usage sources, as well as the number of meters. Include billing units, such as kWh or ccf, and the date each meter became active. If you are not entering actual metered data, use the estimation tab.

4. Review Your ENERGY STAR Score and Reports

Go to the MyPortfolio tab to view your ENERGY STAR score and usage details. You can also generate graphs and reports for a building or portfolio and create visual displays of how your property is performing.

What Your ENERGY STAR Score Means

Your ENERGY STAR score helps you understand your building’s relative energy performance.

• A score of 50 represents median performance.
• A score above 50 means your building performs better than average.
• A score below 50 may indicate energy efficiency opportunities.
• A score of 75 or higher may make your building eligible for ENERGY STAR building certification.

ENERGY STAR certification can help publicize your organization’s energy-saving progress and demonstrate a commitment to sustainability.

Turn Benchmarking Data into Energy-Saving Action

Your ENERGY STAR score provides a baseline, but the next step is identifying how to improve performance. A facility energy audit can help uncover targeted energy-saving opportunities, from low-cost conservation measures to larger system upgrades. Qualifying customers can apply our Greenback Rebate dollars towards a facility energy audit.

Energy audits may include:

• Utility bill reviews
• Onsite facility inspections
• Building energy benchmarking
• Diagnostic testing
• End-use energy analysis
• Cost and savings analysis
• Customized energy efficiency recommendations

For smaller facilities, a walk-through audit may be enough to identify low-cost savings opportunities. Larger or more complex facilities may benefit from a more detailed audit that includes deeper analysis, diagnostic testing and financial evaluation.

Improve Building Energy Efficiency with System Tune-Ups

In addition to benchmarking and audits, ongoing building maintenance can help improve energy performance. Preventive maintenance supports energy savings, occupant comfort, equipment reliability and longer equipment life.

Practical energy-saving measures include:

• Inspecting and cleaning HVAC systems at least once per year
• Replacing air filters regularly
• Adjusting building controls based on occupancy schedules
• Recalibrating sensors and controls
• Cleaning heat-transfer coils
• Checking dampers, valves, gauges and instrumentation
• Sealing leaky ducts
• Weatherizing windows and exterior doors
• Installing occupancy or vacancy sensors
• Using lighting controls to reduce unnecessary energy use

These operational improvements can help reduce energy waste while supporting long-term building performance goals.

Track Energy Performance and Sustainability Progress

Benchmarking is most effective when it becomes part of an ongoing energy management plan. Our energy dashboard helps organizations track energy use, cost trends and emissions data over time, making it easier to evaluate progress and prioritize future improvements.

With dashboard insights, your team can:

• Compare performance across facilities
• Track usage and cost trends over time
• Monitor emissions data for sustainability reporting
• Review performance at the account, meter or portfolio level
• Export reports for internal analysis
• Support energy, finance and sustainability stakeholders

This centralized view helps teams move from data collection to action.

Ready to Benchmark Smarter?

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager helps you benchmark building energy performance, while our energy dashboard helps simplify reporting, reduce manual data entry and provide a clearer view of your facility’s energy data.

Contact your energy sales executive or reach out to us below to learn how the dashboard can support ENERGY STAR reporting, commercial energy benchmarking, sustainability reporting and long-term energy management goals.