Recently in Energy Benchmarking Category

The number of commercial and industrial organizations joining ENERGY STAR almost tripled in 2008, accounting for more than 2,000,000,000 (2 billion!) new committed square feet. By the end of 2008, there were more than 2,400 organizations that have committed to adopt continuous energy management practices.

Partnerships between EPA and organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the largest industrial trade association in the U.S., have signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) to work together to improve the energy efficiency of their sectors of the U.S. economy.  NAM helps  educate U.S. manufacturers that they CAN and SHOULD  strategically manage energy in their operations.  The savings make this a win-win message and contributes significantly to the total reduction of energy use in the U.S.

If you would like to partner with EPA to improve your energy efficiency, visit: www.energystar.gov/joinbuildings

For the first time, EPA released a list of U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest number of energy efficient buildings in 2008 that have earned EPA's Energy Star. The list is headed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, D.C.,

Additional top achieving  cities include:

• Dallas-Fort Worth
• Chicago
• Denver
• Minneapolis-St Paul
• Atlanta
• Seattle
• Boston
• New York
• Austin
• Detroit
• milwaukee
• San Antonio
• Philadelphia
• Charlotte
• Portland
• Grand Rapids
• Sacramento
• Phoenix
• Miami
• Riverside, CA
• Madison

These top cities are those whose schools, hospitals, office buildings, courthouses, grocery stores, retail centers and auto assembly plants have earned the EPA's ENERGY STAR.

To label your building, go to www.energystar.gov/eslabel.
To label your industrial plant, go to www.energystar.gov/plants.

EPA's online tool Portfolio Manager enables building owners and managers to rate their individual commercial buildings on a scale of 1 to 100 against similar buildings, track energy performance over time, and target investments in energy efficiency.

States and local government agencies, professional associations, and vendors offer training, expertise, and networking opportunities to make benchmarking buildings easier for their constituents, and they are tapping into ENERGY STAR to accomplish this task.

This partnership has resulted in continued growth across the country, reflecting a 50%  increase in rated floor space from over 7.5 billion square feet in 2007 to more than 11.5 billion square feet in 2008.

Regular Assessment Becoming SOP
 
About 60% of this space is being repeatedly rated for its energy use, which indicates that regular assessment is becoming a standard practice for many.

Benchmarking By Building Type

EPA's energy performance rating system is now available for 11 specific building space types that account for around 60% of the carbon emissions resulting from commercial buildings.

• Offices
• K-12 Schools
• Retail Stores
• Hospitals
• Hotels / Motels
• Supermarkets / Grocery Stores
• Banks / Financial Institutions
• Warehouses
• Medical Offices
• Courthouses
• Residence Halls / Dormitories

By building type, offices and schools experienced the largest increases in benchmarking in 2008. Offices close to doubled the number and floor space rated; rated schools increased by almost 80% with floor space almost doubling.